Thailand Trip in June - Bangkok and Hua Hin

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Day 1 

  I went to Thailand with my mum, two aunties and my cousin last week. It was a short trip but i enjoyed. At least, i did not get to breathe in the air in Singapore when it reach a PSI of 400. Seriously, i really thank my lucky stars.  Many thanx too to my bro and my da sao, Claire for preparing and arranging most of the transport and coordination. I managed to book the tickets from Air Asia early and with the insurance, air tickets cost just 161 per person which i thought is a pretty good deal for travelling during the June holidays for 5 days 4 nights.

  We reached Bangkok Don Mueang Airport at 4.05pm. Bangkok has two airports. As we had 5 people,  my bro had arranged for a van to pick us up, however, the driver got the airports mixed up, and went to the other airport, the reception at the limousine company told me we need to wait 1hour for a new driver, i was like no. I do not want to waste my time, so we ended up waiting at the taxi stand for a big taxi to send us to our hotel opposite MBK. It only took us about 20 to 30 minutes of waiting time for a big taxi. This taxi driver Mr Bill Natthawut is quite nice, and his English is also not bad, he has a informative file of tourist attractions in Thailand, so if you want to look for him to take you around, you can also email him at

B-I-L-L@hotmail.com +66(0)87-1006585

Despite the jam in Bangkok city, where we were stuck for almost an hour, he only charges us at 650baht, guess what, booking the transport from the limousine company is 1300 baht. It is like i saved time and half the amount of money spent! Of course, the limousine company is very sorry for the mistake and they had also refunded the deposit to my bro. So case closed :)

  Upon reaching the hotel, Reno hotel, http://www.renohotel.co.th, we proceeded to check in. The hotel is a very simple hotel but it has a very good location. The hotel lobby is nice and comfortable, the room looks pretty old though, but still ok for just 2 nights stay. Hotel staff is efficient and friendly. I did not bring my adapter and they willingly loan one to me. Oh there were no toothbrush and toothpaste so please bring your own. The shampoo and shower gel does not smell nice too. There was a slight drizzle when we make our way to Asiatique for dinner and sightseeing. The hotel is just next to the National Stadium station and from there we took the train to Saphan Taksin, go to the Sathorn pier to take a free shuttle boat to Asiatique. Asiatique used to be a warehouse area, and now this place of 10 warehouses was changed into a tourist attraction with many shops selling different kinds of things and food.

  We had Thai food at one of the restaurants, which for 7 people, is still relatively cheaper as compared to Singapore. After that, we just walked around and i even had a short meet up with my Korean friend, who is studying currently in Bangkok. Thank you Watre for your banana snacks and your souvenir! :)

Asiatique is pretty much a touristy place and it would not be easy to bargain if you have seen anything you like to buy, however i feel that the place can be quite romantic for couples with the lights and ferris wheel as the background. And there are also quite a number of pretty chilled bars to have drinks in. 

Day 2
  We woke up pretty early at 530am to prepare for the sightseeing trip at 7am. Breakfast at Reno was good, they let you choose out of 5 breakfast sets in a comfy Reno cafe. Claire helped us to sign up with this land tour from K & J international business centre at a cost of 1500 baht per person. They fetched us from the hotel and brought us to the Damnoensaduak floating market.

This floating market is where you see and experience the bargaining power of the aunties. I told them, if you like then you bargain, if not, do not even mention anything about the item, or else our boat would have to stop at every stall. Well, we wanted to buy handmade slippers at one of the stalls. At first, the stall owner charged us 1300 baht. I was like woah!! My auntie straight away go for the kill, 400 baht. At that time, i felt so paiseh, my auntie really 敢敢杀价. And after much bargaining, the final price of the handmade slippers was 500 baht. That makes me recall once about this bargaining issue i used to experience in Hongkong... 

http://jadebottleparadise.blogspot.sg/2006/05/hongkong-macau-and-shenzhen-trip-9th.html

but just that, this time, we cannot walk out of the shop as and when we like. We must have an idea straight away how much we are willing to pay for the item and if after much bargain, the owner still does not agree, we just leave. We changed to another van and headed for lunch. The new van is filled with westerners who are also going to the tiger temple. Lunch was very simple, with rice, vegetables and meat, more suitable for the Asians. Before we went to the tiger temple, we stopped by this war museum. We did not go in, just took a few photos while the rest shopped around the little town in Kanchanaburi. By the way, we were not allowed to wear bright colours like red, orange or yellow, as we were told the tigers are more sensitive to such colours, in addition, we cannot wear shorts and sleeveless tops, the length of our pants or bermudas must be worn past our knees. 

  We were told to queue in a single file and go in individually. There were many guides there but two guides would be appointed to us. One would lead us to take the photo with the tiger. Another guide would hold our camera to take photos for us. So i used my hp to take photos and passed my camera to my mum. After everything, it was about 4.15pm already. The trip back to Bangkok was 3 hours. And as usual, the jam in Bangkok is really bad, we only managed to alight somewhere near MBK and get our own dinner at 830pm. MBK closes very early at 10pm and by 9plus, most shops were closed already. I did not even get to shop there.

Day 3

  This day, we made our way to Hua Hin. My bro manage to get a van driver to be with us for the 3 days, to send us to Hua Hin and send us back to airport on the 5th day. However, this driver Mr Chai cannot really speak English, so it was with alot of translation and calls with Claire that we manage to get our point across. Claire is really very nice to help with writing down the itinerary to show the driver Chai to cover the places on it for us. The van is very comfortable and it only costs us 1800 baht per day to book him, of course, there was an additional charge to pay him for his stay at night. In addition, we need to settle all the toll fees, car park fees and petrol fees which after much calculation, in total they did not cost more than 7500 baht for 3 days.

  This palace used to be the place where the king stayed to get away from the hot summer. The palace built in a Thai and Victorian style is very cooling and it only costs 60 baht to visit both levels of the palace. As usual, all bottom wear have to be worn past the knee, if not, you have to rent a gray sarong for 20baht. And no sleeveless tops allowed too. It is a very big palace. We were not allowed to take photos on the second floor. What i can say is that, the rooms are decorated simply, and the toilet that the king and queen used is as big as my bedroom! The wooden flooring is very cooling and the whole place gives a tranquil feeling. 

Oh let me divert and share a scary story...while walking around the garden in the palace towards the beach, my auntie received a phone call. She was quite surprised because her line does not offer auto roaming options. And when they read out the number that was calling her, it was my mum's number! I was so shocked, i thought my mum pressed the dial button accidentally so i went to check her phone under phone logs but there were no calls made to the auntie at all! Can someone please explain why!!!??? It feels like there is some unknown force testing the phone or something!!!

  After a simple lunch, we went to Wat Khao Takiab, we walked a few flight of stairs to reach the temple at the top. This area is called the chopstick mountain and there is a decent view of Hua Hin at the top. There are alot of monkeys here. 

MONKEY EXPERIENCE 1: One exciting experience was when my aunties alighted from the van, one monkey jumped into our van and snatched a plastic bag of items. I was behind shouting away because i was about to alight when the monkey dashed in. This smart monkey, knowing that the bag contained only new clothes bought just now, left the bag on the ground and escaped. Naughty monkey!!!

  We went to check in our hotel after that, the hotel i stayed is a simple hotel called Istyle http://www.istylehuahin.com/. I had some issues with the hotel, as we all know, most hotels in other countries do not charge an extra person charge. As i am staying with my mum and auntie, i am willing to squeeze in the same bed with my mum since they do not offer extra bed. So i booked the hotel as two occupiers instead of three. My argument was this, since i did not even ask for extra bedding or breakfast, why must i pay the extra charge. In the end, my argument lost against their policy. Of course, i was pretty unhappy, but i am glad the staff there is really friendly. They offered to give extra towels and shifted the twin beds together, and not only that, as my cousin and i forgot to bring adapters, they went out to borrow for the both of us. The lady at the counter was also very helpful, giving me maps and directing me to the places that i can go around the area. We walked about 15minutes to the Chaam beach nearby. The beach seemed very quiet, i wonder where all the beach activities are situated.

  Chai brought us to this restaurant Boe Fai Sai Thale to eat seafood, and i can guarantee you, it is really cheap and good! This restaurant is near the airforce area and we can eat seafood by the beach. But while eating, my cousin and i were bitten by mosquitoes though. You have to try the tom yum soup, it is spicy and yet bearable, the prawn cooked in the above sweet sauce is really fantastic and the crabs cooked in curry is delicious. We do not even need to use our hands to shell off the crabs! Everything for just less than 1800 baht for 6 people. We got Chai to join us for all our meals as we feel that he has done a good job in sending us safely to our destinations. And Chai, as he is pretty embarrassed, served us by pouring water and scooping rice for us. 

At night, we went to PleanWan market, this place sells vintage stuff, very retro and give the feeling of the 90s.

Day 4

This day is like a praying day, we went to alot of temples. One was at Khao Tao, where there are buddha statues and shrines. After that, we went to the Hua Hin safari to see elephant shows. At first, they charge us 2000 baht per person for 2 hours, to see elephant and crocodile shows and to take the elephant ride up the mountain and back. To me, i feel that i am not willing to spend near to 100 sing dollars for the ride and smell like an elephant after two hours. ( for your info, elephants do not smell nice, tigers smell nicer, in fact no smell). We ended up paying 650 baht for just the elephant show. I was thinking since we are here, and the elephants also need to eat. Just pay and watch the show la! During the show, although they did not ask us to give money, but every time after an item, the elephants would come right in front of us and some people would give them money. At the end of the show, the elephant had a basket hanged on their trunks to get more money from the audience. 

MONKEY EXPERIENCE 2: Well over at the Hua Hin safari, there was this monkey with very beautiful fur. Mind you, its pervertic! We were all in the toilet, my mum told me this monkey tried to disturb a dog who brushed the monkey away with its paws. The monkey then went to the ladies toilet, walked to one of the cubicles, bend its body down and peeped inside! At that time, my auntie just happened to open the door and it jumped onto the sink, staring at me and my cousin. It took this unwanted bottle of mineral water, opened it drank abit and splashed the water everywhere. It then jumped up to another cubicle and openly looked into the cubicle from the top. Another auntie who was inside kept shouting at it to go away as it seemed to pounce to her anytime! She quickly leave the toilet and we ran to our van.

We went to the floating market and the place was very quiet at noon, however the view is very nice and quiet. We went to Sangthai seafood restaurant, the tom yum soup was extremely spicy for me and the items were relatively more expensive than Boe Fai. The fried rice was tasty though! After that, we went to the Huay Mongkol temple where the largest statue Luang Phor Tuad is situated. After praying, we went for a 2 hour Thai massage at a parlour called Numphet Massage and it only costs 400 baht! The place was very near the railway station. This is my first time trying Thai massage and the masseur was good, she really pressed hard and i heard alot of cracking in my body. It was painful when she was doing my calves though. We went back to Boe Fai for our last seafood dinner and this time round, we sat in the sheltered area away from the beach. At night, cicada market was our last destination. The night market was big and they sell alot of handmade stuff, a very arty place. 

Day 5 (last day)
We met up with my bro and Claire who came over to Istyle too. I am so glad Claire is around to help with translating to Chai. We went to this cafe to have porridge which was delicious. We went to Santorini Park after that. This place is a theme park with very nice background for photo taking. There are a few rides to cater to the kids though not for the "old" folks like us. The admission is just 50 baht per person which was still reasonable.

After Santorini, we make our way back to Bangkok and stopped halfway for lunch. It was a total of 3 hour drive back to Bangkok airport and that marks the end of my short family getaway trip to Thailand. Did i say that, when we reach Singapore, the PSI went down to less than 100? So glad that we brought sunshine back to sunny Singapore :)