Dozen’s Trip – day 2: Historical Places in The Midst of Bangkok Urban Life (part 2)

This is the continuation of previous post.

Grand Palace was super hot and crowded! It drained my strength to the utmost, and I felt hungry. We decided to have our lunch at restaurants around Grand Palace. We were divided into two groups because we barely found seat in every (cheap) restaurant we passed by. I joined the group who chose a kind of chinese-thai restaurant. I was surprise to see beef was more expensive than pork, as expected I supposed from the country with pork as their main ingredients. So I decided to try this Thai menu with pork which I don’t even remember anymore what its name was hahaha. But I was happy to have big lunch at a restaurant with only total 65 baht. :’)

Then after we finished our lunch, we moved to the next destination, Wat Arun. Wat Arun was famous for its enormous size of golden Buddha statue. We should take off our shoes before going inside and put them in the storage provided. Inside the room was pleasant and mild, it somehow felt like entering a shrine. There we walked for a while to see the reclined Buddha statue from head to toe. Unfortunately, there weren’t many things to see there for 250 baht. It was only a building with BUddha statue inside, and a pretty pond with shady trees to take some rest. Maybe because it was too crowded that I didn’t get the tranquil atmosphere. Oh, there’s something about making a wish while putting coins into several lined bowls. They said if we put a pocket of coins into the bowls without counting its number on each bowl and had the coins run out exactly at the last bowl, then the wishes we’ve been whispering while doing so might come true. I did it, but I don’t remember what I wished for that day hahaha. :p

My head is only the size of his nose hehe

My friend Becky. See how huge the reclined Buddha statue behind her.

Make your wish and put the coins

We took some rest while discussing which place to go first after this because our schedule seemed to have changed a lot. Our next destination was Wat Pho. We need to cross the Chao Praya to go to Wat Pho from Wat Arun. This is the look from inside the boat.

the boat especially to cross the river

However, I think we were kind of enough for another wat visiting, so we decided to only took a rest on the park in front of Wat Pho hahaha. It was actually kinda fun because the park was beautiful and we can see the river. There were also pigeons there were we had fun chasing and scaring them haha (sorry!), and it was a really fun activity hahaha. :p

Wat Pho is the one behind

birdieeeeeeee~

I think he really love doing this -.-

We spent pretty long time there before finally moved back to the city. Our next destination was Khaosan Road! The street was closed for traffic, so we could take a stroll with shops, bars and restaurants lined up along the street. However, the road was really crowded it’s hard to walk in peace. We had our dinner there. Most of my friends preferred easy meal so they ate at McDonald’s. I chose to take another adventure with one of my friends, Imam. We tried several street food there, such as Khao Niaow Ma Muang (manggo with sticky rice), fried dumplings, fruits (durian and dragon fruit) and ice cream in coconut shell. I saw a street vendor selling edible cooked insects, but too bad I didn’t take a picture.

We went even further as trying to buy food using the native language hahaha. All I can say is “tao lai?” (how much?), “nun, song, sam, sip” (1, 2, 3, 10 *because mostly the price was around that number), and “kaa~” (thanks *i supposed). I didn’t even know if it’s the right way using that haha, but they smiled so I hope I did right. Oh, another thing I remember was that Indonesian people looks a lot like the local people, so it is not surprising when someone suddenly talks with us in Thai. I was even thrice mistakenly asked in Thai that I had to say “pho thai me dai” (I don’t speak Thai). By the way, I don’t really know the right pronounce because these are basically what I said from what I read regardless how it actually was.

We called it a day and went back to hotel after dinner. All I can say is that day was exhausting and Bangkok was really hot! Even though, traveling with friends made all of it fun. 🙂

Rainbow!

The team (minus Becky who took the picture) in front of Khaosan Road

Khao Niaow Ma Muang :9

The result of using-Thai-shopping hahaha

I don’t understand what’s written here. Is it for adopting?

Please wait for my next post of the third day in Bangkok 😀

 

Dozen’s Trip – day 2: Historical Places in The Midst of Bangkok Urban Life (part 1)

It surely takes a lot of time until I can start writing this continuation of the previous post about my and my friends’ trip to Thailand. I was too lazy and I think I might miss some details on that (I have a bad memory for a long-term event -__-). Anyway, I will try as best as I can retrieve from this goldfish recollection.

It was July 16th , 2012 when we finally start our real journey of Bangkok. One of my friends Mamah EO, whose name is made by her role as our trip’s planner, woke us at around 5:00 AM to do morning pray (I was remained sleeping on my bed with that warm cushy blanket since I didn’t pray). We took a shower, wore our clothes, and prepare our equipment for today. I prepared my camera along with its bag and my anti-theft sling bag. They said Bangkok is not a really safe city, likely resembling to Jakarta, so I took anticipation before departing there. Unfortunately, it was not a good idea to use sling bag while carrying big camera (DSLR) with. Later on, my shoulder was aching all over. Plus, it was not convenient with busy arms to shoot a good picture with DSLR. Well, back to the story, so we took the breakfast at our savior mart, the Family Mart next to our hotel (the one I had mentioned on the previous post).

As usual, our first transportation was Airport Link City Line from Ramkhamhaeng Station. At the station, I found something interesting. Apparently, most of Bangkok people have slender figures. Maybe it is because they walk far enough everyday, not like me who is too lazy going around driving car hahaha. Another thing, I was aware that not like university students in my country, the students in here wear white shirts and black trousers to their campus. It looked like uniforms for me, and it was uncommon. I thought they were some going-to-be-employees going for interviews.

see that white shirt person in the line? some of them are really tall and good-looking :p

There we took a trip to Phaya Thai Station, which was three points far, so it cost 45 Baht I suppose? Based on my knowledge, it costs 15 Baht/point with City Link. Then from Phaya Thai we took three taxies to take us to The Grand Palace. For whatever reason, I was caught up in a pesky incident. You should pay more attention when you are going to use taxi in Bangkok, and pay the exact amount with the number shown on the taximeters. Why? Because when you pay more and the driver doesn’t give its change, I advice you to just acquiesce it. It happened to me, and when I tried to get my change, I didn’t even understand a single word he said. I got tired and decided to just leave him be. It was really vexing though. Oh, and it fared about 60-70 Baht using taxi.

However, here we were, The Famous Grand Palace. It was hot, people. Way too hot! I felt like burning by the sunrays, and also it was really packed! Can’t blame the crowd though it was Monday, I think it was already the peak season for summer holiday. Oh, and I have another preliminary story. As soon as we arrived, we found this person at the gate. We were still stunned with our first destination when a man came up. He looked like one of the guard there or maybe a tour guide. Then he asked us where we came from.
“Indonesia”, said all of us.
“Oh, Indonesia! Great, great. I love Indonesia, you know, Bali! Beautiful beach!” he spoke with ample pronunciations.
“But we’re sorry to inform you that at the moment the shrine inside Grand Palace is used for ceremony. You know, those Chinese praying, it is too noisy. They are praying all together by themselves at the same time. But you can come back at 11 (AM), they must have finished at that time.” He explained to us.
To be honest, it was a little bit odd because we saw there were a lot of peoples walking back and forth at the gate.
“Why don’t you try some other activities before going there? I can show you a way to floating market, Wat Pho, and else, and then you can go back here after that.” He recommended us.
“Come, come!”
While talking, he took us along to a market, which led us to a crossing harbor. There he spoke to a lady who I guess was a tour advertiser.
“We have this tour you can see (showing us a paper). This tour can guide you to floating market, Wat Pho, Wat …. (I don’t remember the rest places). You can chose which packet would you like. You can take this 1 hour trip, or this 2 hours trip. And our price, as you can see here. Since you are Indonesian, you are the same with us Thai, so I will give you cheaper. For this trip you don’t have to pay 900 Baht (is it actually this number?), we’ll give you 600 Baht.” She tried to persuade us.
It sounded like a good offer, but we didn’t really plan for this, so we refused her offer.
“Come on lah, I’ll give you lower then. 500 Baht. 400 Baht. How much do you want?”
We tried to convince her that we wouldn’t take it, but she kept insisting.
“350 Baht and it’s really cheap! There I give you.”
She seemed upset because we turned down the offering. We walked away from that place anyway and back to Grand Palace. The funny thing was that we found out there was no such Chinese praying or whatsoever that man said inside The Grand Palace. Hahaha, yes, we had been deceived. Maybe he saw us as potential dorky taintless tourists with big number and no guide. Damn. Never trust anyone who says The Grand Palace is closed because it opens everyday.

Put the pitiful story aside, here are some of the pictures I took inside The Grand Palace. I will let the pictures describe how The Grand Palace looks like. By the way, the entrance fee for adults is 400 Baht, and it was also including the entrance for another areas in the complex. Keep the ticket if you want to use it further.

The gate where we were trapped by that tricky man -_-

This is it! But that plastic bag is really a nuisance.

The blue sky shows how hot it was

Mostly buildings were covered with gold elements

This is our free English guide. We accidentally bumped into a group of tourist and joined in :p

Another dwarf-me perspective shot

Besides gold, I think green, black, red, and white have meanings in Hinduism.

Ravana, a rakshasa who is the opponent of Rama the main character of the tale.

The story of Ramayana. Fortunately, in Indonesia, this tale is quite famed, so we could follow what the guide was telling us.

My friend with a guard. It felt like taking picture with one of those Buckingham Palace guards but different uniforms.

Well I guess this is for day 2 part 1. It ended up a pretty long story for The Grand Palace experience solely. Then I hope I won’t be too lazy to write the next post about this day 2 event hahaha. I need to finish this trip’s posts before another trip come up anyway, teehee. Thank you for reading! 😀

 

Dozen’s Trip – day 1: Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi Airport

July 14th, 2012 was my graduation day. Finally, :’)
Months ago, I and my friends made a plan for another trip together to Thailand, right after the graduation day. We could say that this trip was our motivation to be graduated on July 2012, so we wouldn’t have any burden left during our trip. Thanks God, I and some of us made it 🙂 and the others maybe supposed to postpone it until the next term. Fighting, my friends! 😀 Well anyways, we still on the first plan since we’ve already bought the ticket. Then here’s where the story begins.

It’s July 15th, not even a day after my graduation day. I still felt exhausted because I only got an hour of sleep before the graduation ceremony. The hotel where I stayed was too noisy, and it was my first day period, so it was painful. I planned to troop off at 9 a.m, but due to some business, I could finally made it at 12 p.m. This was a big problem because commonly it takes around 4 hours to get to the Soekarno-Hatta Airport from Bandung, and my flight was at 5 p.m, which meant I had to be there at least at 3 p.m for check in. Thanks to my super Mom, we finally made it there in only 2 hours, wew. My adrenaline was rushing all along the trip, the speed of the car I was riding pointed at 120-140 kms/h. -___- It was a bless we still arrived safely. :p

The plane took off right on time, and it took 4 hours until we got to Suvarnabhumi Airport. It was supposed to be 3.5 hours trip, but due to traffic on the airport, we were stuck on air. We spent our flight with sleeping, playing cards, and learning some Thai like how to say Thank You, Hello, and I Don’t Speak Thai-cause the book told us Indonesian is usually mistaken as Thai. We got our baggages and past through immigration. We had a little problem with the officers’ English that we weren’t clearly understood what they’re trying to say, not to mention the accent of their English. :))

Because we’re going to stay in Thailand for 6 days, we decided to buy sim cards so we could communicate each other (we’re a dozen, so it would be troublesome if we’re separated). We took CityLink train to our hotel, Nasa Vegas, which surprisingly really close to Ramkamhaeng Station. The hotel was a big hotel, but seemed a little bit ancient. The room kinda gloomy and mysterious, but well, we got it pretty cheap B450 for 2 nights. Plus, next to our hotel there was a family mart, our stomaches’ saviour for breakfast/lunch/dinner :’) This family mart really saved our expense.

waiting for Ramkamhaeng station

our savior :’)

So that’s all for our first day. We had to save our energy for the next extremely overheated days in Bangkok, fiuh. See you on the next post about the rest of the days. 😀