The stories of baggy eyed and stiff shouldered lawsh: Bangkok : Fast, furious and spicy

Warning : VERY long post ahead.

2 weeks just before Raya, I was informed that I will be given the opportunity to go to Bangkok to attend a conference by a vendor. The conference will gather customers, distributers and collaborative vendors from Asia to showcase their products and offerings. That's the good news. The bad news is that the travel date falls on Raya week and I will be going with 2 Malay colleagues and eating logistics was ... sigh have to find halal where possible. Oh well, a free trip is a free so I won't give too much crap.

Thinking ahead, I planned to extend my stay because the conference was on Thursday and Friday so I might as well stay until Sunday. I made my hotel bookings searching for the one of the cheapest hotel and on Google Map looks quite close to the shopping malls. I have heard a lot from my friends that Bangkok is a shopping haven and I do like a little shopping.

I flew in on the 31st and as expected the rest of the participants were non-Muslims. The vendor who was accompanying us have a presence in Bangkok and therefore their counterpart arranged the transport to the hotel. The first thing you will notice in Bangkok is the way MOST people drive. It gives a whole new meaning to fast and furious, the van that was bringing me to the hotel was going 130kmph almost all the way to the hotel slowed down only by the tolls and traffic lights. Other Toyotas were zipping us by like were not over 100kmph =_=|||

The first evening was like a registration cum cocktail reception and most people were in a relaxed state and your's truly went to the registration counter wearing bermudas and slippers :p All's well because they did not specify the attire anyways and we grabbed some finger food and ate quite lightly because we were told that we will be going out to try the local food and of course to check out the highlights of the city.

Initially we were told that we would be going to have dinner on a boat but we were all gathered, our host informed us that the restaurant have already closed and it was only 9pm local time (Thai time is 1 hour behind Malaysia time). It was quite disappointing and since my colleague have been harping to go visit Patpong since the day he was told that he would be going and that was where we went >_< After another super fast taxi ride, we made a pass into Patpong all the way to the end and to me it felt like Petaling Street but the shops are all about pole dancing bars and pubs. We had our so called dinner nearby before heading back to check out the notorious second floor and its shows.

However from my research before going there, Patpong is not a place where you want to go and see those kind of shows because they are littered with scams. My host fell for it and although the shows were an eye opener to all, the bill was a complete shocker to my host. Vendors being vendors especially those who are good at negotiating managed to bring the bill down to a more manageable figure but still it did set them back quite a bit and to make it worst, the owner of that place refused to give them a receipt meaning to say they cannot claim!

On the second day after the conference ie the last night for many guests, we did get our dinner on a river cruise. The food was so so but the view is actually quite good although it did drizzle a little but avid photographers, myself included did not let the rain bother us from taking the pictures of lighted structures on the riverbank. After dinner, we were suggested to visit a disco which was supposed to be famous but to me it was quite a sorry place to spend the night. The supposed shows features girls and guys who would strip down to their underwear but the girls were wearing skin colored under underwears =_=

On the third day, my colleagues went off earlier to do their shopping of which this would be their last chance. I stayed on at the conference hoping to win lucky draws again :p Unfortunately, the Ipad2s were won by other participants but the last draw was totally unfair because I was still in one of the sessions and they did not wait for us ... 2 vendors and another participant extended our stay and we went on our own adventure after bidding farewell to the others.

We went to Khao San road after reading much about it telling us that there were a lot of things sold there and the expectation was quite high BUT it was a major letdown. Nothing worth buying nor spend too much time on. We had our dinner and an extremely nice coconut water each before heading to another recommended club. This place I like, the idea of the place is superb and if I have the opportunity, I would extrapolate on this concept in KL. This place was MUCH better and there were many many Thai girls to "wash eye" :p

On the fourth day, I was alone because I booked my hotel myself and it was quite a distance away from the rest. It did not matter because the place I wanted to go they were not so interested in. I woke up quite early had my breakfast and immediately set out to Muang Boran aka Ancient City located in the outskirts of Bangkok about 35km away.

The signs leading to the place was not fanciful and most people would pass it by without much thought BUT I can vouch that they really made a bad decision not to visit this place. I have read the warnings before deciding to go there when I was researching and I was somewhat prepared but it was still not enough by the end of my visit there. I had with me just 2 bottles of water ie 1 liter and a shirt for change when I leave the place. Good idea on the shirt but bad idea on the water, my advice is to carry as much water as you can carry because you will need it! I spent 5 hours there and drank 2 liters but I was totally dehydrated just visiting over 60% of all the exhibits. I carried on as much as I could until my camera's went flat and that broke me but I still went on but with much lesser enthusiasm because taking pictures with my phone was downright poor quality. Make sure your camera battery is at 100% or have a spare batteries, bring as much water as you can, bring a shirt for change and the most important is to apply loads of sunblock!

I was glowing red by the time I reached the exit and only buying some food to bring back. The taxi ride back was a killer, it cost the same as the entrace fee of 400B ... whereas my trip there only took set me back 300B. I went to the shopping district to meet up with my hosts and also to collect my colleague's custom made suit. The shopping malls did not differ much from the malls in KL and the prices are higher so I totally lost interest at wanting to shop there. I went to a mall which supposedly does wholesale and the prices there were more acceptable but some of the items are still quite highly priced.

After meeting up with my hosts, we had dinner by the roadside after a sudden thunderstorm and a light flashflood. The 2 of them ordered quite a number of dishes and in the end we all ate until we were full. Tomyam, shabu shabu (Thai style), siham and a big grilled fish. I was too exhausted to follow them for another round of massage because I have been too tired from all the cycling in the morning and walking around in the shopping malls. We decided on some plans tomorrow to meet up and go to the airport together despite having different flight times to save on travel cost.

The final day, I went to drop off my bag at their hotel before we go on our final excursion. I made a bad decision to walk from their hotel to the shopping malls (about 2 BTS stations away) only to find that the shopping malls have not open for business. Realizing that I quickly changed my plans and went to Chatuchak. I was quite ready for what I was about to enter but I was totally taken aback by my daunting task of finding my way around the place. I have exhausted my water supply within the hour of my exploring. In the end I just bought some shirts for my son and a jersey for myself :D

Before I left there to join up with my hosts, I bought an iced chrysanthemum tea to help cool me down. I used the bottle to help cool my face which was still red hot from my previous day adventures. Overall I would say that Im satisfied with what I bought and seen BUT given another chance, I would definitely want to finish checking out Muang Boran and the other shopping malls.