Bangkok

Not much I can tell about Bangkok except that the place is huge. I felt like a 'katak gemuk di bawah tempurung'. You know how some places they put sign 'take only pictures and leaves only footprints'. Well, I followed that to the 't' and left my new Lumix camera there as well. He he he. So much for a picture worth a thousand words.

With a few days there and one of it for diarrhea, I did not have much chance to absorb the place. Only visits to a few touristy places. So here are my takes:

1. Shopping
I would recommend to go to MBK first just to touch base with the prices that Bangkok has to offer. I think the place is much like our Sg. Wang. The famous Chatucak Weekend market is also a good place to visit; even if just for the experience of it. I definitely wouldn't want to go to the Night Bazaar if I had a chance to go there again. The place is much too expensive compare to MBK and the stuff are about the same.

2. Food
Amazing as it was, there was this road called Soi Nana off Sukhumvit that is catered to Arabs. You can see Arabs there in their traditional wear (for lack of better word) and smoking that what the name 'water pipe'. So, halal food is plenty here. And as we moved around the city, we showed the van driver a list of halal restaurants and he would take us there. Plus, we stayed at a hotel with kitchen area so cooking was not a problem.

3. Floating Market
I think this one is a total rip off. It was about 2 hours drive from Bangkok and once there, we had to pay about RM40 per person to be driven in 'sampan' around the klong and not far from the jetty there is this area where traders set up stall on the klong bank and try to sell you the same stuff that you can buy at much cheaper price at MBK or Chatucak. And this place is mostly for tourists and I felt like it was a pure trap.

Overall, I think it was a good trip and would not mind going there again. From the plane, we could feel how small KL really is and once in the city, how blessed we are in terms of traffic.

Bangkok, hopefully

Hopefully, when you see this, I'm somewhere in a boat on Chao Phraya partaking of its fragrance or haggling with some vendors on a 48" Levi's knock off. Patpong, here we come (strictly educational of course!).