Bangkok, Thailand

The flight was a swift one on that rainy afternoon. Cathay Pacific is the same as Singapore Airline, they had everything in place like movies, games and music on board. Only thing is the seats were always full because it stopped at Bangkok to transfer to Hong Kong.

We reached Survanarbumi airport at 4pm and headed to look for our tour guide as advised beforehand. The airport is pretty narrow and looking for a meeting point can be difficult. Finally, I spotted my name written on a piece of white paper at gate 7. We waited for the rest and took the van to our own hotel.


First day, we try the sushi buffet at the food court ~ Sgd 10/- per person. They have other variety as well like noodles, seafood, egg, beef and fried fish for the menu. They have no limit for the drinks and the ice cream, so keep an empty stomach so you can fill up. Well, there's always a catch though. 

Next day, a van came to pick us and we headed to pick the rest of the tourists. James was our tour guide. We arrived at Ratchasingkhon pier around 8.30am, where we took the 'Chao Phraya River Express Boat Trip' to the temple.

A temple built in the 19th century. The guide told us it is Wat Arun, temple of the Dawn. The historical name given as King Taksin arrived at this temple at dawn after a battle with the Burmese. The structure is unique, if you had been there you would be amazed by the millions of wonderful Chinese porcelain coating. This temple has three level terraces surrounded by four smaller corner prangs, intermingled with four mondops.

 

On the first terrace, you can see giants and monkeys encircling the central prang. The second terrace has an exquisite pavilion and four statues potraying the events in the life of Buddha while the third terrace simply offers you a good view of the river. We went up the flight of steps that lead to a balcony. The view is spectacular from above, a good eye view of Bangkok.  

After an hour spent there, the guide took us back to a cruise around Ko Kret island along Chao Phraya river. We saw boats selling bread, cakes and crackers. They rowed their small boats over ours and asked if we would like to buy. It was a sunny morning and though the food all wrapped up it is still wet and none of us bought any thou. The cruise stopped at the river so we could feed the fish. There were many catfishes, all waiting for us to feed them.

 

At 10.45am we head back and was taken to another pier called Nonthaburi (a province north of Bangkok). Our mini van is waiting for us. James told us that we will visit a jewelry manufacturer. They've got a shop selling diamonds inside and a gift shop. No one bought anything from the jewelry manufacturer. Then, we went to a mlm company selling honey. We were introduced in a seminar room how honey is produced and what it is used for. The honey is packed into different forms like powder, water and tablets.

So our complimentary tour ended here, close to 1pm in the afternoon. The family of six told James they wanted to go shopping and asked the van to drive them there. James told us there is two zoos in Bangkok. The oldest and nearest is the city zoo - Dusit. The other one is far from here, another 1.5hr drive. We took a cab to Dusit zoo. Only 15minutes from Baiyosky hotel and cost sgd 4.

Bought two tickets, it is a big zoo though the area looks small from the entrance. We spent almost 3hours taking photos and walking around the zoo. Then we headed to downtown shopping centre Paragon. Paragon has an underwater world downstairs. Tickets ard sgd 45 per pax. We went down to Boots. A body shop well-known in Bangkok. Bought a few hair maintenance stuff then headed to the supermarket.

The next day we woke up at 9am and took our complimentary breakfast in the hotel. Waited till check-out time 12pm. We headed to the bus terminal at khao san road, south of Bangkok.

Bought the tickets to Koh Samui sgd 35. Departure time 7.30pm. We boarded the coach to Samui. 10hrs journey to southern Thailand. From Bangkok it is always easy to get coach to anywhere. And their's is always air-conditioned, with snack services and a bus conductor to assist passengers. The seats were very comfortable for sleep.

We reached Suratthani (650km south of Bangkok) in the morning 7am. The coach dropped some of the passengers at Suratthani and continued the journey to ferry terminal. The coach drove into a ferry. Several other vehicles and shipload trucks drove in as well, all of them were heading to Koh Samui island, the archipelago home for fisherman and very well-known for its high quality coconuts growing densely everywhere.

It was about 1.5hrs in the ferry finally we reached the island. It was burning hot, and we went to get our stuff before heading to take a taxi to the more popular beach at Chaweng. The 7km beach span across the ocean of south china sea, with seashells found near the shore and the waves hitting very strongly. It's the monsoon season.

The beach wasn't as nice as expected. The sand was a lil brownish, the seawater was greenish and can't see below but the beach was crowded with tourists. 

The restaurant is located at the beachfront resort, the tables and sofas were all situated outside of the restaurant. We ordered fried rice and steak for dinner.

A Thai boy came up to us to sell us his lantern. We lighted the lantern and held it in the air. It flew further n further away into the dark, the lit lantern slowly disappeared.

Chaweng beach does have many things to do even at night. The road behind the resort you can find many souvenir shops, restaurants, night clubs, coffee place and pubs. There's atm machines, money changer, 24/7 supermarket, seven eleven, fast foods and retail shops.

 Bangkok-Koh Samui-Bangkok (Free and Easy Package)