Wednesday, July 20, 2005
a moment of respite
i'm stubbornly refusing to write about bangkok until i get my pictures. this means it's probably going to be a REALLY DELAYED entry going by the number of overdue pictures i need anyway, but no matter.
bangkok was a blast. geok's written something short about it on her blog; now it's up to wendy and yirang to write their versions first. and anyway geok's diary has a nice essay tt i wrote about bangkok. so people lucky enough to gain access to tt diary get to see what it was like from our pov.
nonetheless, in wendy's 'top ten lists' fashion, i'll just list down what was memorable about bangkok. in no particular order (i'll try to make it chronological, but you guys should know tt my mind's a bit of a mess).
1. valuair.
it's 1000x better than malaysian airlines. adequate legroom, good service with a smile, and piping hot good food. we even got a song at the end of our flight. and this is a BUDGET airline. what can i say? s'pore still rocks.
2. the cleanliness.
the airport terminal 2 looks like s'pore's terminal 1. wherever we go, as long as it's cosmopolitan and touristy, it's fucking clean. i.e. suan lam night market.
3. the cosmopolitan effect of globalisation.
it's easier to find an a & w, a baskin robbins, and a dunkin donuts (along with the usual burger king macs and kfc) than it is to find a traditional thai restaurant.
4. cockroaches.
they are an integral part of bangkok's landscape. we see them in the drains on the streets, in our authentic thai restaurant (KNN the food was FUCKING GOOD and we couldn't even eat it properly coz we were so busy shoving food into our mouths to get out of the place ASAP), and even in our hotel room (we had 4 on our first night. 3 in the room, 1 in the bathroom. can anyone say 'gross'?)!
5. 'first hotel' is a misleading name.
it's not even 3 star. it's 2 star going on 1 more like. the room's are falling apart and are cockroach infested. we had to pay 1000 baht more for an upgrade to a cleaner room. basket we've been cheated (esp ince we were originally supposed to stay at the *real* 3 star asia hotel). KNN.
6. walking gets you around faster than driving.
when there is a jam in bangkok, boy oh boy should you just WALK.
7. cabbies and tuk-tuk drivers are mainly out to cheat your money.
once it it hits midnight, cab drivers turn off their meters and demand 200 baht. and then we had this sleazy cab driver who said he would bring us to patpong, only to detour to suan lum, and when we were pissed off, he threw us in some dark alley with a lot of restaurants tt looked like they had waitresses tt did a lot MORE than just waitressing for their mainly RICH MALE clientele.
9. go to patpong at night to see free banana shows.
according to the people soliciting us with interesting menus, "ladies also can see". and if we "don't like it, we can just come down." oh, and you want to know what's on the menu? among other things: 'pussy playing with ping pong ball'; 'pussy peeling banana'; 'pussy blowing balloon'... etc.
and no. pussy does not refer to cat.
10. you can get a pair of jeans for 199 baht, which is approx S$8.30! it's my best buy so far!!! whoopie!
11. you can get lost in chatuchak market. which is what happened to geok and yirang on sunday.
12. oversleeping seems to be a common trend in the team now tt race is over.
yeah, we almost overslept our half-day tour on monday. it was at 7.30am. we woke up at 7.15am.
13. even in bangkok hotel rooms, it is possible to do push-ups and sit-ups.
my record is 120 sit-ups because i suck at tt bloody bean game. my excuse is tt i was fucking tired. i K.Oed the moment my head hit my pillow. in fact, every night we sleep with ALL the lights on coz everyone falls asleep before they can turn it off.
14. air-con is a GOD SEND. so is ice and cold drinks.
15. a 'hong bai lan' is a damn throwface but a bloody good investment.
just ask geok.
places we visited:-
mah boon krong, siam square, central world plaza, chatuchak market, suan lam night market, pathunam market (actually we tried to look for it but we only found the 'ah ma' section), patpong (for a while), chinatown (good food good food), for the halfday tour the floating market, the temple of the dawn and a gem factory, and the mambo cabaret show (aka the agua show).
stuff we ate:-
pad thai, fantastic tom yam soup, papaya salad, hamburgers and 29 baht fried rice, pork ball soup, pineapple rice, vermicelli salad, a & w's waffle with ice-cream, curly fries and the ice-cream float, prawn cakes, omelette with minced pork, crab with tang hoon, pork ribs, prawns with garlic, scallops and brocoli, baskin robbins 7 wonders of the world, dunkin donuts... oh. but we had no money for the sharks fins ad the birds nest.
advice to bangkok travellers:-
you will need: strong legs for walking and walking and walking, a good mind and sharp tongue for bargaining (and dealing with errant taxi-drivers), a strong stomach to tahan the damn hot and sweet thai delicacies, a non-fear of roaches, and A LOT OF CASH (we all busted our budget! for me i was almost broke by day #2!!!)...
and most of all.
the right company. :)
*muakz*
...
...
...
hmm. seems i did write about bangkok anyway. oops.
and it seems my blog is well-travelled. on the valuair flight back some completely stranger type guy in a commando t-shirt tapped me on the shoulder and asked: "excuse me. is your name izzy?"
and i was like: "...yes. why?"
and he was like: "oh hi. my name is so-and-so. I READ YOUR BLOG. or used to, anyway."
oh man. oh well.
anyway today was a restful day. stayed at home the entire day. 'rested'. alone.
OMG i didn't know how HORRIBLE it feels to really really miss someone. it's terrible. it's like you're always distracted and you can't concentrate fully because he'll keep creeping into your mind and you KNOW it's bloody expensive to call or message but you will do it anyway because you really really have to know how he's doing and you just HAVE to hear his voice.
eep. yuck. i feel like a dependent. 4 days and i'm a fucking dependent.
like this 4 months HOW??? ONE FUCKING YEAR HOW???
KANINA.
now playing: hotel costes - cafe de flor
bangkok was a blast. geok's written something short about it on her blog; now it's up to wendy and yirang to write their versions first. and anyway geok's diary has a nice essay tt i wrote about bangkok. so people lucky enough to gain access to tt diary get to see what it was like from our pov.
nonetheless, in wendy's 'top ten lists' fashion, i'll just list down what was memorable about bangkok. in no particular order (i'll try to make it chronological, but you guys should know tt my mind's a bit of a mess).
1. valuair.
it's 1000x better than malaysian airlines. adequate legroom, good service with a smile, and piping hot good food. we even got a song at the end of our flight. and this is a BUDGET airline. what can i say? s'pore still rocks.
2. the cleanliness.
the airport terminal 2 looks like s'pore's terminal 1. wherever we go, as long as it's cosmopolitan and touristy, it's fucking clean. i.e. suan lam night market.
3. the cosmopolitan effect of globalisation.
it's easier to find an a & w, a baskin robbins, and a dunkin donuts (along with the usual burger king macs and kfc) than it is to find a traditional thai restaurant.
4. cockroaches.
they are an integral part of bangkok's landscape. we see them in the drains on the streets, in our authentic thai restaurant (KNN the food was FUCKING GOOD and we couldn't even eat it properly coz we were so busy shoving food into our mouths to get out of the place ASAP), and even in our hotel room (we had 4 on our first night. 3 in the room, 1 in the bathroom. can anyone say 'gross'?)!
5. 'first hotel' is a misleading name.
it's not even 3 star. it's 2 star going on 1 more like. the room's are falling apart and are cockroach infested. we had to pay 1000 baht more for an upgrade to a cleaner room. basket we've been cheated (esp ince we were originally supposed to stay at the *real* 3 star asia hotel). KNN.
6. walking gets you around faster than driving.
when there is a jam in bangkok, boy oh boy should you just WALK.
7. cabbies and tuk-tuk drivers are mainly out to cheat your money.
once it it hits midnight, cab drivers turn off their meters and demand 200 baht. and then we had this sleazy cab driver who said he would bring us to patpong, only to detour to suan lum, and when we were pissed off, he threw us in some dark alley with a lot of restaurants tt looked like they had waitresses tt did a lot MORE than just waitressing for their mainly RICH MALE clientele.
9. go to patpong at night to see free banana shows.
according to the people soliciting us with interesting menus, "ladies also can see". and if we "don't like it, we can just come down." oh, and you want to know what's on the menu? among other things: 'pussy playing with ping pong ball'; 'pussy peeling banana'; 'pussy blowing balloon'... etc.
and no. pussy does not refer to cat.
10. you can get a pair of jeans for 199 baht, which is approx S$8.30! it's my best buy so far!!! whoopie!
11. you can get lost in chatuchak market. which is what happened to geok and yirang on sunday.
12. oversleeping seems to be a common trend in the team now tt race is over.
yeah, we almost overslept our half-day tour on monday. it was at 7.30am. we woke up at 7.15am.
13. even in bangkok hotel rooms, it is possible to do push-ups and sit-ups.
my record is 120 sit-ups because i suck at tt bloody bean game. my excuse is tt i was fucking tired. i K.Oed the moment my head hit my pillow. in fact, every night we sleep with ALL the lights on coz everyone falls asleep before they can turn it off.
14. air-con is a GOD SEND. so is ice and cold drinks.
15. a 'hong bai lan' is a damn throwface but a bloody good investment.
just ask geok.
places we visited:-
mah boon krong, siam square, central world plaza, chatuchak market, suan lam night market, pathunam market (actually we tried to look for it but we only found the 'ah ma' section), patpong (for a while), chinatown (good food good food), for the halfday tour the floating market, the temple of the dawn and a gem factory, and the mambo cabaret show (aka the agua show).
stuff we ate:-
pad thai, fantastic tom yam soup, papaya salad, hamburgers and 29 baht fried rice, pork ball soup, pineapple rice, vermicelli salad, a & w's waffle with ice-cream, curly fries and the ice-cream float, prawn cakes, omelette with minced pork, crab with tang hoon, pork ribs, prawns with garlic, scallops and brocoli, baskin robbins 7 wonders of the world, dunkin donuts... oh. but we had no money for the sharks fins ad the birds nest.
advice to bangkok travellers:-
you will need: strong legs for walking and walking and walking, a good mind and sharp tongue for bargaining (and dealing with errant taxi-drivers), a strong stomach to tahan the damn hot and sweet thai delicacies, a non-fear of roaches, and A LOT OF CASH (we all busted our budget! for me i was almost broke by day #2!!!)...
and most of all.
the right company. :)
*muakz*
...
...
...
hmm. seems i did write about bangkok anyway. oops.
and it seems my blog is well-travelled. on the valuair flight back some completely stranger type guy in a commando t-shirt tapped me on the shoulder and asked: "excuse me. is your name izzy?"
and i was like: "...yes. why?"
and he was like: "oh hi. my name is so-and-so. I READ YOUR BLOG. or used to, anyway."
oh man. oh well.
anyway today was a restful day. stayed at home the entire day. 'rested'. alone.
OMG i didn't know how HORRIBLE it feels to really really miss someone. it's terrible. it's like you're always distracted and you can't concentrate fully because he'll keep creeping into your mind and you KNOW it's bloody expensive to call or message but you will do it anyway because you really really have to know how he's doing and you just HAVE to hear his voice.
eep. yuck. i feel like a dependent. 4 days and i'm a fucking dependent.
like this 4 months HOW??? ONE FUCKING YEAR HOW???
KANINA.
# posted by Kitana @ 7/20/2005 11:21:00 PM 
