Bangkok Day 2 : Ayutthaya & Bang Pa-In Royal Palace

Day 2 started early, we have booked a day tour package from the hotel for 1,200 baht inclusive of pick up from  hotel, lunch and fees in Ayutthaya and Bang Pa In Palace .

Next to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Ayutthaya was part of  my travel bucket list, I wanted to see all Unesco World Heritage sites here in Asia. Lucky me, the day started really well, the weather was hot but it was a good day to see the temples and learn bout Bangkok's culture and history.

I have no DIY tips for Ayutthaya as I find it convenient to join a travel group, I don't need to think about how to get there and how to get to one temple to another, It would be cheaper if we did DIY but it's less hassle for 2 girls who has no sense of direction to get a travel package.

Bangkok Day 1: (PM version)

After roaming around MBK & Siam, we went back to our hotel and freshened up for the Chao Phraya River Cruise.

I think this should be part of every traveler's itinerary in BKK. It was my first time to go on a river cruise and I was in awe with the beautiful temples along the river. We booked the dinner cruise for 1200 baht, they'll pick you up in your hotel and take you to the port.

I'm no food enthusiast but the selection looks really good, the ambiance was superb, like dining in a 5 star hotel and each passenger is pre-assigned with a table. We were seated at the upper deck, where the table for 2 awaits with chips, nuts and drinks.

Surprisingly the entertainers on board were Filipinos! The singer, was really entertaining and she can really sing, from Korean songs to Taiwanese songs, she was the whole package, sing and dance. She even greeted each table according to their nationality and language. Filipinos are truly amazing ;)

for more info about the river cruise, click here

Photo dump below again:

Bangkok Day 1: (AM version)

Our day started early, we left our hotel at 7am, took the free shuttle service to the airport again and rode the BTS to Phaya Thai.

If there was one thing I learned, never ever rely on maps, better to really ask the hotel about the directions and transportation hahah! right after we got off the train station we didn't know what to do, where to go exactly, you see it's very disorienting, people don't speak English, they'll just point you to where you should go, then after that you'll be like, what? where? sorry? should we cross the street? ahaha!



After getting directions, we finally decided to hail a taxi and hand our hotel address to the driver, this was the first part of getting ripped off by a cab driver. See the map above, according to google map, it's a 10 minute walk from the station. Since we had our luggage's we opted to take the taxi. The taxi driver charged us 100 baht! we didn't even argued as we just wanted to get to our hotel, we were following a strict itinerary during that day (Yea right!).

We realized that it was better that we took the taxi to our hotel, but the distance from the train station to the hotel is not worth the 100 baht. The ugly truth slowly came in, we should have taken the tuktuk for 50 baht, a less expensive mistake, my mother was afraid to take the tuktuk, thinking we might get scammed hahah well it was the other way around. Note to self, research more, ask the hotel how to get to your destination.

Finally reached our destination and was able to check in early. I don't have photos of our room but it looks pretty decent.

First order of business was to ask about the travel tours the hotel offers, choose then change currencies and book. After all the shebang, go to the malls, MBK & Siam Paragon. We went out and started to scout what's within the vicinity, by the way the original plan was to walk all the way to Platinum Mall. It was raining, so we hailed another taxi, it was easy! we told the driver to take us to MBK, he said yes, but for 100 baht and we will drop by a shop. I kept on telling the driver we will pay 100 baht, just take us straight to the mall, he kept on insisting that we will just drop by a shop, we can look around and then he will take us to MBK. So the driver won, we gave in to his suggestion.

We went to the biggest jewelry store in Bangkok, my mother a regular in BKK, has seen this shop and even bought earrings for me from her previous trips. Hurriedly left the store empty handed, we were not keen on buying jewelries, the driver ended up with no gas. According to the driver, if we bought jewelries worth 2,000 baht, he'll get 5 liters of gasoline. it's like his referral fee for bringing in customers. He kept his word and brought us to MBK, but didn't exactly dropped us in the mall haha we got off in a train station near MBK, a little walk won't hurt. I think we called it quits, he didn't get his gas and we get to walk to MBK.

Nothing much happened in Day 1. We just went around MBK & Paragon, checked out the fishes in Siam Ocean World.

Photo dump below

Bangkok Day 0

This is a blog post about my adventure in Bangkok, how life is Ironic, how we got scammed by a Taxi (not just once, but twice the same day) and how we managed to get around BKK with no Map haha ;)

We left Manila around 10:30PM, the same time it started raining, the wind was blowing and we were soaking wet when we entered the plane. It didn't help that the tube was under construction, there goes our travel tax, terminal fee. 

The plane left on time and it was a rough take off, the weather was crazy and I was trying to calm my nerves and trying to detach all morbid scenarios that goes into my head (mind over matter I say) well before this trip, I researched and read tons of stuff about anxiety, turbulence and the whole shebang about a fearful flyer. I even blogged about it, to remind myself that the ratio of plane crash is 1:11 Million (hahah research freak!). Life is truly Ironic, so besides mind setting and preparing myself, life has this funny way to test me, why not let's take off while the storm is about to start and shake the plane a bit and make it a bumpy ascent, then let's make the passenger go "woooah, waa" and I try to concentrate by reading the magazine, while I can feel my mother clenching to her seat. I calmly even told her "Ma, stay calm, probability of plane crash is 1;11 Million" the only thing that I can hold on  to, that ratio haha. 

After 3 hours and I can't remember how many minutes, we finally arrived in Bangkok. Since we took the red eye flight, I arranged a hotel near the airport to sleep in and moved to the city in the morning.

In transit to Phaya Thai

We took the BTS (Bangkok Mass Train System) to Phaya Thai, it was the express train, travel time was 45 minutes. Our Bangkok Adventure starts here.

To be continued, next post...