What i learn?

1. If you are taking AirAsia, you might want to check out their Xpress Boarding which give you the privilege to enter the aircraft earlier and you will be able to choose the seat you like. Can check out their fee here.
2. Thailand electricity is 220 volts. The most common plug type is the two flat pronged North American type. So remember to bring the correct adapter when you visit Bangkok. However, if you forgot or don't know before hand (like me :p), you can always buy the adapter when you reach Bangkok. For me, i bought the adapter from one of the shop at MBK and it costs me 39b.
3. It is always useful to learn some simple Thai language especially the greeting and the number. The one word we use most frequent is khawp khoon which means thank you. Click here to learn some more.
4. If you want to go JJ Market. Can take a look on this website. There is map for you to download, shop directories and few more useful informations.
5. You can get a good Bangkok map from this site. Anyway, you can get plenty of free maps from the airport tourist information counter.
6. December is hot season. During our stay, is sunny day everyday.

Bangkok Expenses Summary

Here is the total expenses (exclude shopping items) during our stay at Bangkok:

Return airfare on AirAsia	SGD 477.98	Misc. surcharge = $296 which is more expensive than the air ticket itself
Hotel (3 nights)	3150b	Inclusive breakfast
Airport transfer	700b	Bus = 300b (2 persons) Taxi = 400b
Travel Insurance	SGD 34	NTUC Classic plan
Meals	~1300b	7 meals for 2 person, the meal we had at airport actually cost us 485b
Transport	220b	We only took BTS to 2 locations only
Misc. items	~400b	Drinking water, snacks, shampoo, body foam

The total for 2 persons will be around SGD511.98 + 5770b.

The shopping expenses is around 8000b

Bangkok 15/12/2007

Today is our last day in Bangkok. Our flight schedule is 445pm, so we will have some morning time to explore shopping area near our hotel. Mainly is shop around Pratunam market. We have a early checkout as hotel check out time is 12pm. Our plan is to shop until 130pm, then come back hotel to take the luggage we deposit early on and take a cab to airport, so it give us some 2 hours buffer time to reach airport in case traffic condition is bad.

After having our breakfast at hotel, we head straight to area around Pratunam Market. We start off from Pratunam Complex and walk along Ratchaprarop Road. Surprisingly, there are already many stalls open already, selling mainly clothes, shoes foods and even travel luggage. The price is ok but you need to bargain. We walked all the way until we reach Indra, another shopping center which sell a lot of clothes and shoes. The thing we found out here is they usually give you 2 pricing, wholesale price and normal price where wholesale price is cheaper but require you to buy 3 pieces. Is not that cheap but the price is definitely still reasonable. And of course is still a must here. When we shopped around Indra, i actually received sms saying our flight is delayed to 610pm. A ha, is somehow a good news for us as we have more time to shop. In the end, my friend bought some office skirts, a luggage (750b) and some souvenir (5b key chain)

In the end i believe we don't really step ourselves inside Pratunam market. The thing is there are too many stalls at the road side or in the shopping center which we find it sometimes is too much. So sometimes we have to alter our plan on the fly and just use our instinct.. haha. But we did follow to have our last stop at Big-C where we plan to have our lunch there and also do some shopping at the clothing section at the departmental store. We had our lunch at Tha-Siam Noodles which specialized in pork. We really enjoy the food there and their black jelly (Qing Chao) is very refreshing. Generally all of the Thai food we taste is above average. After lunch, we went to buy some clothes and also some food to bring back as souvenir.

Pork noodle (55b) and black jelly (25b)

We reached hotel around 330pm and we asked our hotel bell boy to help us call a cab. The cab fare actually cost us 400b which we found out later from our cab driver that the bell boy actually will keep 100b. Hmm... So it depends on how you see it, if you feel like they deserve the money and you appreciate the convenient of having cab to come to hotel to pick you, then i believe 400b is ok. Else, you might want to wait at the hotel until some cab driver carry passenger to the hotel or flag at the road side. I believe it should cost you around 300b. Anyway, the traffic to airport is smooth, maybe because is our timing as well as is Saturday.

Generally , the new Bangkok airport is huge, we made a mistake to try to walk along its shopping stretch form one end to another end. So tiring... Anyway, we had our dinner at airport restaurant and it turn out to be my most expensive meal throughout my Bangkok trip. The pineapple rice i order costs 200b. But is at airport, so the premium is definitely there. The last thing i want to say is still the airport bus from our terminal to the airport. Is definitely not a good experience when everyone have to squeeze inside the bus but since is budget, can't complaint much also.

Bangkok 14/12/2007

Today our highlight is definitely JJ Market, one of the largest weekend market in this region i suppose. So the keyword here is weekend which means it actually only open on Saturday and Sunday. However, Friday is suppose their wholesale day and as we understand they actually also will entertain small buyer like us. To go there, the most convenient is by using BTS and alight at Mo Chit station.

The first hiccup i have is i forgot to bring the JJ Market map which i printed out from this website. Without this map means our first task is not to go shopping but to look for their information center for map. First of all, we look for clock tower as we think it should have some information for visitors but turn out is has nothing just few chairs. After that we ask one of the staff at the car park entry booth on where to get the JJ Market map and she also had no idea but she did point us to look for information center which she said near section 19. So we go through section 19 market and lastly we bounce to one stall owner which can really speak some good English and point us to The information center.By the time we arrived at JJ market information center, we already feel very tired. From my description you can see, JJ market is really big and is really not easy to navigate especially without a proper map.

Generally in JJ market, bargaining is the must and typically you should aim for 50% of the offered or listed price. And you should always get few quotes before you settle down to buy the stuff you want since there are so many stalls in the JJ market which sell the same things. Anyway, sometimes you should just get the things you want when you think the price is right, else if not, you might end up getting nothing. We stayed at JJ market for around 6 - 7 hours and we not even finished visiting all the sections we planned to visit. Plus there are many stalls only open on weekend. So one day is definitely not enough for JJ market.

If you fell like you want to shop in the aircond environment which some price premium, you might want to go visit JJ Mall nearby which also offer some items at great price but generally it will be a bit more expensive. We go JJ Mall after JJ market and have our really late lunch there. We shop until JJ Mall close shop (around 8pm) and finally make our way back to our hotel. Is really tiring and we really have no energy more to go to Pratunam night market anymore. We tidy up our purchase and do the calculation on how much we spend today.

Bangkok 13/12/2007

We start off our day by having our hotel breakfast. The breakfast is a mixed of local and western flavor. There has Thai fried rice, fried noodle as well as sausage, bread. The variety is limited but the food still ok.

We were planning to go MBK today and initially we were thinking of taking BTS from Chit Lom to Siam Square. However, after consulting the hotel staff, they actually told us there is this thing call skywalk that link Chit Lom and Siam Square. So we decided to walk. Is actually not as near as you think but also not as far as you think but if i will do it again, i might take BTS from Chit Lom to Stadium station as MBK is really just beside the stadium station.

The thing that draw us to MBK is because there is this sticker and name card printing shop which my friend is interested. Other than that, we actually did not do much shopping on clothes as we heard this place is starting to become tourist place and the price is not as cheap any more. However, when we finally walked into a name card printing shop, the price is way exceed our budget. So end up we just went for the lunch at their food court. We had tom yum gong and mixed beef soup. The mixed beef soup is quite ok but the tom yum gong doesn't really meet myfriend's expectation. But what i can say is their food in the food court is much much better than the Singapore food court.

After lunch we decided to go to talad nad or flea market at Silom Soi 10. Although is flea market, it actually also sell some new stuff. we took BTS to Sala Daeng station as this is the nearest BTS station and from there we have to walk Silom Road to reach the market. This time we finally get the chance to take BTS. Is actually quite a convenient transport if you consider traffic jam happen around the city. There are using those magnetic card, and you have to use their ticket machine to get it and the ticket machine only accept 10b and 5b coins. Don't worry if you don't have enough as you can always exchange from the station control room. There is also a daily pass cost 120b per day. We not getting it because we calculate the trip we going to take today is less than 120b.

Bangkok BTS

The flea market at Silom Soi 10 is actually not as big as we think but still pack with a lot of stalls selling from clothes, shoes to food also. The first stall that caught our attention is a stall selling denim jacket, is only 79b but we believe there are all second hand stuff but i still think is cheap. There are also stalls selling ladies singlet 39b and one stall is selling remote controller cover which cost 10b. Anyway, we not really buying a lot of stuff there as some of the things is not our liking. I think we spend around 1 hour there and we decided to make a move back to Sala Daeng. We walked all the way back to Sala Daeng and rest ourselves at the A&W inside a shpping center. After some discussion, we decided to go back to the hotel to rest and make a trip to Pratunam night market tonight.

Before we came to Bangkok, we already heard of their chicken rice and hence we decided to try tonight. We had it at one of the shop very near to our hotel. And indeed, is yummy and it only cost you 30b per person :). One thing we notice is their soup all very nice but also a bit salty too. And they give you a bowl of cili padi in soy sauce. If you like spicey, you might want to pour all into the rice and mix up. This is what i see the local do it.

Yummy chicken rice

After having our dinner, we make our way to Pratunam night market. Is actually opposite the chicken rice but we didn't dare to jay walk as it seems the traffic is very busy. (As we find out later, jay walk is actually not as hard as you think). So we took a long walk to the overhead bridge and use it to cross the road. The night market selling a lot of clothes, slipper, bag and even there is also a place for you to get massage. The T-shirt generally sell at 80b (listed price) here but actually you can try to bargain to much lower price. I bought one t-shirt 75b and my friend bought slipper which cost 50b. We didn't plan to buy too many things here as we set our sight to the JJ weekend market which we are planning to visit tomorrow. So we call it a day early and went back hotel to rest.

Bangkok 12/12/2007

Passenger get down from airplane and going to board the airport bus.

Touch down at Bangkok airport around 5pm bangkok time. Because we are on budget ariline (AirAsia), we still have to take their airport bus to the airport terminal itself. So luckily there is no raining. The custom clearance is smooth and after we out from the airport, we straight away go to their tourist information counter to get Bangkok maps. The staff is friendly but if you want to ask which airport express to take to bring you to your hotel destination, is better you go to the airport express counter to check out yourself.

The airport express counter is located one level below the arrival hall. Is near exit 8. It shouldn't be a problem finding it as the sign is clear. It costs you 150b per trip and there are 4 service lines. So get your hotel address in hand and ask the staff there on which line to take. They will more than happy to guide you in this. For us, we stay at Bangkok City Inn which is near Pratunam, so we are asked to take AE1. Got to wait for a while for the bus to arrived. IF you travel in more than 2 persons, it might be wiser to take cab. The cab cost should be not more than 400b.

The journey to our hotel take about 30 minutes to 45 minutes. The traffic is still consider smooth for us except a bit of traffic jam when we about to reach Pratunam (the time is around 7pm). the bus driver will actually let us know when it stops at Pratunam. So don't need to worry you will miss the stop. The hotel is actually quite near to the bus stop we alight. however since it is not along the major road side, it might take you a while to locate it. My advice is to ask the local Thai which will be more than happy to guide you. Although they can't really guide you through proper English but their hand sign is always useful. In this case, you know you won't head to the wrong direction.

The hotel is actually like hotel 81 in Singapore. Check in process is straight forward (I book the hotel through sawadee.com and it costs me 1050b per night). The hotel is consider Ok for this price range. The surprise thing is there is a bath tub. The hotel is actually near to some shopping centers. The BTS station (Bangkok SkyTrain) is about 10 minutes walking distance.

View from my hotel windows. Big-C departmental store is just in front of it.

After resting for a while, we head straight to Big C for our dinner and daily necessities (water, shampoo, bath foam). By the time we reach Big-C, is already around 9pm, most of the eating place are closing down so end up we have our dinner at Yum Saap. Turn out is not a bad eating place with nice food. Generally, i find most of the foods in Bangkok are not bad. After dinner we head to Big-C departmental store to buy our necessities. We go back hotel early to rest early as we know there will be a lot of walking start from tomorrow. :)