+ Bangkok | More Shopping

Woke up at 6:30am and got ready to attack the shops after breakfast at the hotel.

On Saturday, most shops opened at 10am. Our half-day city tour was at 10:30am, so we whiled our time walking along the streets around the hotel until we were followed around by a pesky "tuk-tuk" driver.

Since we never experienced the ride, we caved in and took the "tuk-tuk" - a modified motorbike that could seat 4 people to bring us around the few blocks. He suggested a few places, but time did not permit as the traffic jams were sure to hold us up.

We decided on Gems Gallery - National Jewellery Centre, run by the Thai government. There, my wife had a great time admiring the many beautiful jewelleries, but could not pass on the Thai silk blouses. She bought two for 2,200 Bhat. The driver got a diesel coupon for bringing tourists there. He was very grateful to us.

Came back a different route, with some navigating help from the driver, we then knew how easy it was to actually move around Bangkok.

First Hotel, where we stayed-in was located on Phetchaburi Road, two bus stops away from Pratunam, a garment wholesale centre in between Baiyoke Suites and Baiyoke Sky Hotel, an impressive 88-storey high tower.

The BTS Sky Train nearest station called Ratchathewi Station, was a ten-minute walk to the right of our hotel. The train could take us to either Chatuchak Park Station where the infamous Chatuchak Market - Thai's largest weekend market is located, or the other direction, National Stadium Station where MBK is located - an uptown shopping centre.

We could also alight at Si Lom Station in Patpong for the night market and the other attraction, famous for the men, the bars and pubs and the infamous Thai Girls. The place started bustling with life at around 8 to 9pm, until 2 to 4am the next morning.

Finally got to meet the Thai tour agent, Kathy. Surprised we were not pooled together with the rest of the tour group who left us the airport. She gave us a tour herself instead of her tour guide in her car instead. On the way, she exhaustively explained the justification of leaving us at the airport under the pressure of group.

She also told us that Singapore agents included complimentary half-day tours to only entry-free sites like temples and markets, never at least to a paid attraction.

The normal options would have been the Thai Elephant Shows, The Crocodile Shows, The Thai Palace and their Water Theme Park or even a Calypso Show - a transvestite cabaret show. We settled for just shopping for wholesale goods. Yes, a bumber for our son, and me?

Pratunam and Chatuchak were Kathy's immediate reply. She took us to Gems Gallery again, and later arranged a free shuttle service the gallery provided to Chatuchak.

Wow! Was our reaction. The market was massive with little 6 to 8-square feet stalls, all clustered together in thousands, leaving a small passageway in between to squeeze through. You can practically find everything sold there. That was the shopping haven definitely for the ladies.

We got many bargains there and off we went to the Sky Train at Chatuchak Station headed for MBK. Had to see what was the fuss about this "Orchard Road" of Thailand.

We had to pass 6 stops with a change on the 5th at Siam Station to another line and alighted at National Stadium Station. It cost 35 Bhat or S$1.45 each to get there.

Nice and modern train, reminiscent of our earlier MRT stations, with its magnetic tickets and slot gates. Even nicer view from the four-storey high tracks. Noticed the station platform was a lot longer than the train, so we could never know where the train would stop along the platform.

At MBK Center, we finally get to sample the halal Thai dish we kept seeing being sold along the roadsides with normal working Thais slurping their meals surruptiously.

The halal Beef & Noodles Stall was on the 6th floor where the large foodcourt was located. We had to change Thai Bhat with coupons to buy food and drinks. The remaining coupons could be refunded back within the same day.

Did some window shopping after lunch. The place reeked of top-of-the-line merchandise, something like Orchard Road in Singapore, with the fancy department stores like Tokyu and all the famous brands you can think of.

We did not spent time shopping there since there was nothing unique about it. We went back to out hotel to rest and perform our daily prayers before we ventured out again.

This time, Pratunam!

Our son stayed behind in the room. We were out at 6:30pm. Noticed the makeshift pushcarts already started packing for the day alongside the pavement. We missed the buzz.

Pratunam was to the left of our hotel, we walked along Phetchaburi Road and took to the small alley on Soi Phetchaburi 21. Again, many makeshift pushcarts and some shops already called it a day. Most closed at 6pm.

A few fashion jewellery shops that were still open. Thank goodness they were wholesalers too. Got a few contacts for future purchases.

There, we found our first garment shop that had our taste for ladies blouses. Changed more Thai Bhats at Baiyoke Suite money changer across the street, for the blouses.

While choosing the blouses, we noticed new droves of makeshift pushcart vendors filling-up the roadsides and pavements. Setting-up their pushcarts with accurate locality in unmarked spots, leaving a weaving lane for cars to slowly pass through. An exhuberant sight to behold as the vendors rushed to set-up with much zest.

Night came and the whole place that was a dark alley before, now changed to a bright lively and happening night market right before your very eyes! The magic of "Thai Retail Industry", I think.

+ Bangkok | 8~10 Jul 05

Really excited about going to Thailand - the exotic land of smiles, as anyone may have heard from advertisements in magazines and brochures.

Finally got to go - not for leisure, but for our small, start-up "business" with my wife and son for her pushcart or kiosk business. So three of us got on Cathay Pacific Airlines at 1:30pm Terminal 1 Changi Airport, heading for Bangkok. A three hour flight in between, and stayed at a First Hotel - a 3-star hotel along Patunam area.

Reaching there, we had the misfortune of lining-up in a slow-moving line. Never seen such a massive number of arrivals in one airport before. Lines and lines of people queued to go through immigration. A bit strange with so many continuous influx of arrivals, but so few counters opened.

Our line was held-up quite badly as compared to the next. We were stuck there for one and a half hours. The complication can be anything, but a few people in front of us, there were groups of maybe Korean or Japanese who did not fill in the white immigration forms correctly or something to that effect that they had to fill them in again while the rest in the line waited.

What a nightmare, the inching line, babies crying and toddlers getting cranky due to waiting and standing in line, in a crowd of maybe more than a few hundred people.

We were supposed to be greeted by the Thai tour agent VV Victory at the airport, but could not locate him. After 20 minutes searching for the guy in an over-crowded and congested meeting area, we had to call back the Singapore tour agent - Pinnacle, whose Assistant Manager was not as helpful as she was the day we paid for our tickets.

Instead our second call to her, she asked us to call the Thai tour agent directly. After a "good word" from my wife, she helped to"emailed" the agent to pick us up. Never knew if she did anyway. The tour agent did not show up or even call our cell phone number we left with the Singapore agent either.

My wife, as resourceful enough as she is, asked for assistance from airport security, who in turn pointed us to the Ground Assistant. She helped contact the agent who told us to wait for five minutes. After ten minutes, the agent called back to tell us to take the taxi to the hotel ourselves, as they would take one and a half hours to reach the airport to pick us up.

They told us that they had to leave us there, since there were six other people who had waited for half hour before us before they complained they could not wait any longer. The tour agent had waited about an hour for them before they emerge from the immigration.

We did not blame them, we felt the immigration was very bad at handling large crowds that day. They were stuck for an hour there themselves, anyway.

Guess it should be alright for many travelers, but for us being first timers in Thailand, we were nervous as we were told by friend who ever visited Thailand about bad incidences that could happen there.

Unfortunate, but we took the taxi anyway. True to the warnings given that the roads would have traffic jams. It was a forty minutes journey but seemed a long and quiet ride to the hotel.

Now I for some Thai hospitality.

Not being biased, but objectively, it was nothing special. Nothing as described in the brochures, advertisements, or even on some travel programs.

The hotel staff were cold - no smiles, no famous "Sawadeeka" greetings, nothing! Just a check-in formality, paying a security deposit of 1000 Bhat for the room key and off to our room without even telling us which wing of the hotel lift we should take.

We had to take our own luggage up without even a hint of assistance by the two bellhops stood not 2 meters away, and had to ask one of them which lift to use to get to our room. It was on the 12th floor room 1204.

Strange! Where they hell, did all those great propaganda came from?

Everything is so, so over-rated there.

Maybe the Caucasians get to experience the much talked-about Thai hospitality. We did not get any, maybe we were Asians. It would not be a surprise for them to be selective to whom they wish to extend their "hospitality package".

Guess the Caucasians have better spending power because of the money exchange rate and would give better tips than the Asians. I may not be totally right either, as Thais are known to like Japanese tourists too. Evident are the brochures in Thai, English and Japanese.

The room was nice, befitting a 3-star hotel. Though generally run-down with old furnishings - broken lamp shades and a dark-taped hose to the shower head, no qualms here, just glad we are settled.

We headed straight for the shopping lanes without wasting more precious time we have there, than we had spent at the airport. Wow! Were there shopping lanes or what!

Wherever you could find a small space on the footpath, you would find a makeshift pushcart. The pushcarts lined alongside the pavements on both sides. Maybe there was some kind of unspoken "system" they have here. Some vendors would set-up it pushcart on a certain spot at a certain number of hours there. And by the next maybe 6 hours or so, another vendor would take-over the spot selling other stuffs. Like clock-work, they rotated amongst themselves.

At one point, we were at Selom, Patpong, if I spelled correctly; we saw droves and droves of puschart vendors coming out from between "cracks of buildings", crossing the busy streets towards their unmarked spot on the pavement. What an exhilarating site to see them rush for the space with such zest to conquer a good spot!

My wife bought lots of stuffs for the pushcart there. Seen a lot of "scenes" too. Lining on both sides of the street in Patpong were bars with sleazy counter-top dancing girls in bikinis, gyrating to the loud music in colorful flashing lights.

Caucasian men were everywhere, drinking and having a good time. Also got to witness a fight between a Thai and a Thai-speaking Caucasian men. Kicking and punching and swearing words I presumed. My son was shocked at the sight as it happened right in front of us.

Too tired from all that walking and the experiences for me the girls, live-in-person; for my son the brutality he saw that normally you would see on TV, and my wife with the thousands of shopping opportunities, not to mentioned one incident.

We passed a massage shop with the ladies, the messeuses, I presumed, called onto me for a message. I replied "no thanks" and she replied "then you massage me". I did not know how my wife felt at the time. She did not say anything, we just walked on quietly back to our hotel to retire for the night.

+ Sarawak | Kuching City

Finally at the Holiday Inn Hotel in the evening. Checked in and found out that our 4 rooms were separated between floors due to full occupancy.

My family got the one on first floor, my parents on the fourth, my sister on the seventh, and my nieces bunking together were on the eighth.

We had our first introduction to Sarawak unofficially from the bellman himself. Sarawak is made out of 90% Chinese while other races at 10%.

It has five native Dayak Tribes, mostly living in civilisation while a very small fraction of them are still living in the remote jungles where long-houses are still inhibited and most of their traditional way of living still being practised. No, no head hunting allowed by the government between rival tribes anymore. That's good.

There is one famous delicacy here that we were advised to try. It is "midin" - a type of fern shoots that are picked out from the wild and fried with shrimp paste.

It was already passed 10:00pm when we decided to venture our from the hotel after we got enough rest. Night life was still alive near and around the hotel. Starbucks, MacDonald's, Kenny Rogers Restaurant and a few more down the road could still be seen with young folks hanging around, especially in the bistros.

Our highlight of the day was having supper at Kenny Rogers and straight to bed to recover fully from the long, boring waiting we had to endure going there. We had hoped the next day to be better.

It rained following morning!

We took our time having breakfast at the hotel to wait out the rain. It finally did at about 10:00am. We explored the shopping lane called Maze Street, where rows of pre-war shop-houses lined the main street.

There all kinds of soveniors especially the replica of a Dayak's Warrior Shield carved with the Dayak's signature patterns, in hard wood that were dark brown, and some almost black colours.

Before reaching there, we walked along the Sawarak River Front where we could see Fort Margherita, which stood grandly in white at the other side of the river.

It was build in 1879 by Charles Brooke and named it after his wife - Ranee Margaret. It had since been converted to a police station.

Further up, was the Astana or palace.

Built in 1870 by Charles Brooke also, as a wedding gift for his wife. Now an official residence of the Governor of Sarawak. Unfortunately both were under renovation, so we could not take the river boat over to visit these places.

+ Sarawak | Funny Thing

Should rightfully arrive at 3:00pm in the afternoon, but landed at 8:00pm in the evening instead. We lost our free time to explore Sawarak.

A funny thing happened while in flight which took a mere one and a half hours from Singapore.

Due to bad weather, the plane seatbelt sign was on for almost an hour after take off. When it finally did turn off, there was barely enough time for dinner. The cabin crew rushed to serve, but I have to admit, they still did it with poise.

While everyone was still eating, the captain announced that we were reaching Sarawak. Noticed the crew hurried back and forth collecting the trays and keeping everything locked in place. All these while the plane made its maneuver to land.

When it did touch the ground, so did trays or whatever were in the kitchen too with loud falling noises in the kitchen at the back of the plane.

Tough day for us and a tougher day for the crew too, but they were more than patient and courteous the whole journey, and apologetic at the end to everyone for the rush. Job well done, I think.

+ Sarawak | Flight Delayed!

We reached Changi Airport at 10:30am and met with the rest of the family members at Burger King. Spirit high and everybody was jovial.

Noticed that the flight was "re-timed" from 1:25pm to 2:30pm. Did not mind since it was only an hour's lost being in Sarawak. Checked-in at 11:30am as planned and headed into the departure holding area. We were given lunch for the delay at the cafeteria.

Have to admit, without biasness, Changi Airport is indeed beautiful and most lively with its countless duty-free shops and modern yet comfortable layout. We started our trip with some shopping there.

Headed to gate F32 for MAS flight MH638, gone through security checks and waited for boarding. Oddly enough, out the window, there was a fire truck with the firemen in their silver fire-protection suits checking our plane's right side engine with the airport technical crew . There were policemen too and a cleaning crew waiting at the steps to service the plane.

Never saw such sight before and felt quiet uncomfortable with whatever is happening out there just before take-off. Saw a pilot came down from the plane to to meet the policemen and before we knew it, it was announced that the flight was further delayed till 4:30pm.

Already bored being kept in the holding area for so long , saw my mom's wheelchair being unloaded out of the plane first followed by everyone's luggage. Oh man!

As expected, another flight delay announcement to 6:30pm. And yes, the plane could not take off at all. So all of us were ushered out to another gate F30.

Another round of security checks and some waiting, but silently relieved somewhat, that we did have to take that plane. And yes, got to board the plane at last and took off smoothly finally.

Off to Sarawak!

+ Sarawak | 10~13 Jun 05

The June school holidays have always been a great time for our family trips.

My wife and I had talked about where to go this time. On and off we talked months prior to June. We narrowed down to either New Zealand, Thailand or Malaysia.

After must deliberation, well, considered that my parents were coming along - my mom is in a wheelchair, and my sister wanted to join us as well, so we decided to tour Sarawak, east of Malaysia.

This part of the world has always intrigued me and my wife too. She had dreamt to go there since forever. This was the best choice. It is near to Singapore yet so exotic and not your normal weekend trips to Malysia either.

Wow! We were going to Borneo, the land of the Dayaks - the head hunters. Came to mind scenes only shown on Discovery Channel - with the native women half-naked and their signature long earlobes in their jungle realm.

So, there we were, nine of us - my family and my sister's family - three of us each, both of my parents and my niece. That was very different from our normal touristy trips before. Our journey of new discoveries began.