Our third travel for this year is Thailand. This is our only international travel that is scheduled. We made the arrangements one week before departure. It’s a last minute arrangement, which proved somewhat stressful.

I have not done any research regarding hotel accommodations so I wasn’t sure where to book. Unlike previous experiences where I had the luxury of checking things online, I did no such preparation for the Thailand trip. The only thing I checked was the airfare, which I found expensive. The estimated combined costs led me to conclude that it would be very expensive. That prompted me to go with the promo that Skynet travel was offering. The rate was reasonable, roughly $250 per head, plus extra night, and P1620 Philippine tax.

I called Skynet Friday and asked them to make PAL airline reservations. I decided to go with PAL because of the better time. We were slated to leave around 7:30 p.m. Thursday night, and decided to go back 11:30 p.m. on a Sunday. We would be arriving in Manila around 4 a.m. We had the option to leave 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, but my partner decided against it. I had wanted Wednesday, but the agent said that we were already wait-listed for the Wednesday flight. The agent kept offering Eco hotel or My Hotel.  The first google run didn’t yield good results, so I decided to go for First House Hotel. I’ve been hearing about that hotel way back when my mom was inquiring about a Thailand trip. I didn’t hear back from her on Monday, so I decided to do more follow up. We were able to confirm the arrangements by then. On Tuesday morning, I talked to her around 10:30 a.m., and she told me that we had to deposit the amount to their account by 12 noon, otherwise, we would forfeit our flight. It was a most annoying experience because of the incredibly short notice we were given. We had to scramble to the bank in order to pay the agent for the package. Luckily, we managed to complete it on time. My partner had to drive there later in the day to pick up the receipt, but without the documents. It turns out that we wouldn’t get the travel documents until the following day. I personally went there to pick up the documents. It included our tickets, hotel accommodations, airport transfers, and a free half day city tour for Friday. I thought it was a good deal considering the amount we were paying.

Day 1: We were early at NAIA 2. We were so early that the cab brought us to NAIA 1 terminal, when in fact it should have been NAIA 2. All PAL flights for domestic and international are at NAIA 2. We checked in around 4:00 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. flight and killed time at the lounge. They had some Internet connectivity and computers that can be accessed for free. I logged on, but made sure to log out before the ten minutes was up. By 7:00 p.m., we were boarding the plane. They served dinner first, but the smell of the fish made me nauseous. I managed to eat the fried rice and only portions of the fish. I totally helped myself to the Mango Mousse by Goldilocks. After dinner, I watched the inflight movie 17 again. I tried sleeping, but it wasn’t doing me much good. I was on the window seat, and the flight wasn’t too full. I was cuddled next to my pillow and blanket.

Day 2: We arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport around 12 a.m., which was 1 a.m. Manila time. Bangkok is one hour ahead of Manila. I loved their airport. It was big, it was ritzy, it fit right in with Changi and Lap Chek in terms of size AND class. I panicked a bit because I haven’t wholly confirmed if we needed visas. However, if we needed visas, the agent would have advised us since they would also earn money from facilitating that transaction. We saw a foreign exchange and proceeded to convert some of our money. They were taking pictures of us while they processed our documents upon entry to Thailand. Finally, we were able to go outside. A nice lady assisted me by pointing me to travel and tours section. I swiped a couple of maps that were on display for free. The guy manning the booth checked my papers and told me to go to Gate 6. When we got to Gate 6, someone was already waiting for us. We waited for a while, then he led us outside to our driver. The first thing I noticed was the parking lot in front of the airport. It was Huge and it is similar to the one that they have at LAX. We stepped into the van. The van was a right side drive, and we had it all to ourselves. One thing we noticed was that there were so many lights from the airport that was leading to the city. The streets were wide and well paved, similar to the ones in the US. We got to our hotel, which I figured was right in the middle of the city. It felt like Ermita in Manila with the narrow streets, but much cleaner.

We opened the aircon, and settled right in. We did set the alarm for a 715 wake up call, as we were to be picked up around 845 that morning. My partner and I took turns taking our bath, before heading for the breakfast buffet. There was a good selection of food. There was rice, potato balls, omelette, sunny side up eggs, french toast, salad, plain toast with spread, and then pre-prepared noodles.I made sure I ate a lot (salad, toast, noodles) because of the ensuing tour. Our tour guide was there later than 845, it seems that they got held up by the market outside our hotel. The good thing about waiting is that I was able to book a tour at the hotel lobby for a trip outside the city – Ayutthaya. The cost was 1500 baht per head. It is a World Heritage site for temples that was built around 1300.

There was another couple with us, a Singaporean couple. Our first stop was a temple in the middle of the city. The carvings  outside and inside the temple was gorgeous. I did manage to check virtualtourist before leading, and noted that we had to have pants in order to visit the temple. When we got there, we had to take off our shoes. We spent about 25 minutes in that area, then we were off to Chinatown.

China Town Temple with Golden Buddha

In Chinatown, we visited the temple of the Golden Buddha. The couple ahead of us knelt in front of him for a blessing. We followed suit. He tied a piece of string on my left string, did the same for my partner, and used a brush to sprinkle us with water. After that, it was off to Gems Gallery. We had our welcome drinks and a ten minute video. It turns out that Thailand is home to sapphires and rubies. I can ooh and aah at all the bling bling laid out before me. When we got out, I told our female guide that we wanted a tour of the Grand Palace for Sunday. I paid about 800 baht per head to tour the Grand Palace.

We asked the driver to drop us off to Platinum Mall. The said mall is a few blocks from our hotel, and my husband went to the 5th floor for the food plaza. They had Shrimp Pad Thai (yum) that I proceeded to order. I noticed that you’d have to swap your cash for coupons at the counter and you’d use the coupons to pay for the food. My partner ordered omelette, thai style. Lunch was about P100 baht. After lunch, we went down to check out the clothes. We were able to score wonderful deals for men’s polo shirts – it was 180 baht each. Their well made pants were going for 350 baht. We went to the other floors as my partner wanted to get a leather bag for a laptop. We went up and down the mall. At 3 p.m., we were exhausted, and we stopped by their famous “Starbucks”, Black Island Coffee. We both ordered Green Tea Latte, at about 65 baht each.

We then walked to Cyber World, their high end mall. It was a couple of blocks away, but I managed to be a good trooper. We went up and down their ritzy mall, looking for leather shoes. It’s a lot like Shangri-la. There was even a white orchestra performing at the lowest block.  I found a nice Thai restaurant, and proceeded to order papaya salad with crab. I ordered their black coffee, while my partner had a “liempo” style dinner with iced tea. He found their iced tea too sweet (kinda like a chrysenthanum taste), and wasn’t really happy with the food. Dinner amounted to P200 baht.After dinner, we went back to the hotel like good troopers. We stopped by the 7-11 across the street, and I bought 2 yogurts. One was fruity and one was strawberry, at 14 baht a pop. I loved the exchange rate.

Day 3: It was an early night because our pick up was at 630 a.m. the following morning. We were up by 5 a.m., breakfast buffet by 6 a.m. The guide was prompt enough and was there by 7 a.m. There were many foreigners on the ride to the main station. When we got there, they took us to a big bus, it looked like a double decker one that they have in India. It was a one hour ride to Ayutthaya. During the ride, the guide filled us with details that we needed to know. When you get to the venue, it’s pretty much fast walking and limited time on your own.

Ayutthaya

We first went to their huge temple with a Buddha made of gold, followed by the ruins of the old temple outside. It’s like semi-tomb raider. Lots of steps to climb with no railing. The bus then took us to another temple of the reclining buddha. I walked up the steps to follow my partner up one temple, but my lungs were really not meant for such exertion. I didn’t bother going around the compound and bought myself water. Our last stop was the Bangpa-In Palace. The place was really lovely. My partner didn’t pay for a golf cart, but man, the heat was oppressive, and I had no shades. It was 11 a.m., and we were still walking. Fortunately for us, a French couple offered us a ride in their golf cart so we could go around. The guy had a fantastic camera with this huge lens, and we wound up touring the lake view and the Chinese house in the middle of the compound. It was then off for the 1 p.m. river cruise. Fortunately, the cruise ship is air-conditioned. The second floor had a sumptuous thai buffet. I ate the curry, the shrimp, and their dessert that tastes like our sapin sapin. After eating, we went out to the deck to observe the scenery from the Chao Phraya river. We then went down the lower deck to catch some zz’s. There were tables and soft cushions there were we hastily reclined similar to what the other foreign nationals were doing.

When we got off the station, we requested the driver to drop us off at the MBK Center. It is similar to our Greenhills. We did score the laptop bag there. It is made of fine leather, and it turns out Thailand is known for its leather goods. We went to the department store, and were able to get a fine pair of leather shoes at discounted prices. All of the malls are going through an Amazing Thailand  sale, and we found the quality to match the prices at MBK Center. We did quite some shopping here. I was dismayed to discover that  a souvenir that I bought for 70 baht at Platinum is only 30 baht at MBK Center. I did score a great shawl for 150 baht. We went to the 5th floor for dinner, and did the rudimentary swapping of cash for coupons.  There was a wide selection of cuisine, but I was in Thailand to experience Thai food. I helped myself to Tom Yung soup. My partner got some duck. Ahhhh. I loved the explosion of sensation I experienced from the soup. For dessert, we indulged in the thai  version of crepe, with ice cream on top. Yummy.

It was almost 8 p.m. when were trying to leave the mall. The cabs were charging us outrageous prices. One was at 200 baht, another 150 baht. The guide advised us to only go with cabs that are metered, so the third one that we stuck with, we were billed 70 baht, which was reasonable.

Day 4: The following day was the best tour of the temples. Our guide was early, – he found us at the buffet area. He also told us to change to slacks. We were with a French family and some Malaysians. The Grand Palace had so many people, and there was so much gorgeous stuff to see we kept taking pictures. The French trio was missing for about 20 minutes. It turns out that they had to buy some stuff to cover their legs, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to go up the temple. First stop was Wat Phra Kaeo, then the Golden Palace. At Wat Phra Kaeo, there’s a replica of the temple at Angkor Wat!

Wat Phra Kaeo

At the Golden Palace, we bought Mango Juice to support the King’s project. We were thirsty, and my legs were tired from all the walking. After the Golden Palace, we drove out to take a barge to cross to Wat Arun, the temple of Dawn. We stayed and took pictures from outside. There was no way I was going to climb up that temple. I have had all the climbing I could do. We then took a barge back and we were off to Gems Gallery.

From Gems Gallery, the van dropped us off at Chatuchak market. Chatuchak is the largest open air shopping center in the world. There were plenty of furniture, beddings, and books, but I found that staying outdoors at 1 p.m. was just too hot. We walked to JJ Mall, and found a decent Thai restaurant. My partner had a duck meal, I had a pad thai. We proceeded to go around the different floors. Most of the items were cheap, but I’d rather do shopping at Platinum or MBK Center. I ate, again. There was this thai delicacy that looked like a tortilla with white filling and floss on top that sells for 10 baht. Not content with one, I had two.

I was munching my second one while my partner had his coffee. Since it was only 2 p.m., we decided to get dropped off at Platinum Mall. From there, we walked to Center World. We spent quite a lot of time at their bookstore. My partner even bought two hardbound books that easily amounted to 1500 baht. Around 4:30 pm, we walked back to Platinum Mall for dinner. At Platinum, I had Thai noodles, and fried clams.

The van picked us up at 7:45 for the ride back to Suvarnabhumi. I was thinking checking in was going to be a breeze, but longer queues awaited us. We started to fall in line around 830 p.m. to have our baggages checked. Turns out we had to check in our backpacks since one mini bag and 1 plastic bag counted as carry on luggage. It was 1 hour on the line just to have our passports stamped before we could get to the boarding areas. What I noticed was that there are so many different nationalities that visit Thailand. The family beside me were Finnish, while the family behind me was from New Zealand. The one ahead of me had Japanese passports. When we got inside, we were too busy checking out the stores and finding another eating spot.I just bought a snack since I wasn’t too hungry, while my partner had a sandwich. The place is very international in terms of cuisine and ambiance. After our last purchase, I converted my Thai baht to US dollars before heading to the boarding area.

The plane back was smaller than the one we rode a few days ago. I found the seats cramped, and we asked if we could move to the back. I was trying to catch up on sleep. Around midnight, the crew started serving dinner again. I couldn’t ingest the fish or the salad, and settled for the bread and the brownie. I promptly went back to try to get some sleep, although I found the turbulence disturbing. We finally arrived around 4 a.m., but the departure area was clogged with travelers arriving from San Francisco and Singapore. When we got out around 5 a.m., we hired an airport taxi (no regular taxis could service that area) for about P670 on the way home.