Bangkok Holiday Trip (February 2023) - Day 4 of 4

Today I almost missed my flight for the first time in my life, no thanks to a crazy bunch of friends. Firstly, our final day in Bangkok started with everyone just chilling in the Airbnb until checkout time. i woke up pretty damn early hopeful to go for some good breakfast but there was none.

Then at 10am, we took the Grab van back to the airport. Reached the airport rather fast and was happy. After the girls checked in their luggages, we walked around to finally find some food. I wanted to eat some last bits of Thai food, but the prices are so damn steep at the airport. Ended up at McDonalds, of all places in the world.

The food was good though, the portion is damn bloody huge. We ate until we were late for our flight. We had to run throughout the airport to clear customs and all. Like damn. If we didn't catch that lucky break at the Fast Track lane, we would have missed out flight. Cleared customs in 5 minutes instead of the stated 40 minutes at the normal lane.

We ran like dogs in the airport because our gate is so damn far from the check-in lanes. Damn. We made it just in time, only for the plane to be delayed because another family just took their own sweet time. The plane was delayed by half an hour because of those idiots. They didn't even apologise to everyone on the plane.

The pilot was so done he didn't even pause at the runway. While his plane was turning into the runway, he just fired up the thrusters and sped off. Dude has no chill.

We arrived back at Changi Airport at 5pm and got our duty-free alcohol. Once again, I'm a happy boy. Feels good to be back in Changi Airport too. Our airport really is superior compared to the other airports in the world.

With this, it concludes my short getaway trip. I didn't expect this trip to be the best trip of my life, I only expected it to be a break from studying. Now that I have gotten my well-deserved break, it's time to return to studying! Till next time!!!

Click here to go back to Day 1!!!

Bangkok Holiday Trip (February 2023) - Day 3 of 4

Today was apparently the best day of my trip. Here's why. The rest of the crew left the Airbnb at 10am to go visit some dog cafe. I didn't join them because I wanted to check out Bang Sue Grand Station, the largest railway station in South East Asia at the moment.

I was the last to leave the Airbnb, taking my own sweet time after watching Season 9 Episode 2 of The Flash. Couldn't miss that show for anything, really. Finally it was time for me to try out the BTS system of Bangkok. Took BTS from Ratchathewi station to Mo Chit station. I'd say the BTS is pretty cooling and the fare was damn cheap. Easily comparable to Singapore's MRT.

I considered switching from the light green line to blue line but saw that Chatuchak market was in between, so I decided to go on foot from Mo Chit station. Went back to the same moo ping stall and bought many moo pings for lunch. Shiok!!! Moo ping is the best shit ever!

Then I walked towards Bang Sue Grand Station. Chanced upon a side road leading me closer to the tracks so I took it. Ended up at this big ass railway crossing and wow, it looks like heaven to me. I crossed the tracks and ended up in a rather restricted-looking zone. 

Spotted a lot of locomotives and different kinds of trains. The old tracks and new tracks were all in the same area. Pretty damn cool!

Spotted this dog just chilling here, with the sights of the train depot behind it. Beside this photo, some old man was shouting at me so I decided not to stay too long.

This is a nice photo of the Grand Station in the background with the newer tracks at the side of the picture. The newer tracks are branched off from the main line leading into the current at-grade Bang Sue railway station.

And then it happened. I saw an opening leading into Bangkok's only train cemetery. From the google maps, the place looked big. But it was merely just 7 tracks, with each track containing less than 10 carriages or locomotives. They are all abandoned so it was pretty damn cool.

I had a lot of fun climbing into different cabins (while wearing slippers). It was the most YOLO time of my life. The internal of the engines all looked so destroyed. It was like walking into ancient history. Because of this one experience, I shall make it my own tradition to visit as many railways in the world as I can.

Photo proof that I was here at this point in time. Contrary to what most reviewers say, that train cemetery is actually open to public. I just needed to stay out of sight of the general public. Pretty damn cool!!!

And then I made the trek back to Bang Sue Grand Station. This was the most peaceful walk of my trip. Totally no human in sight, only pure mesmerising feats of engineering. I wonder how long it took for a country like Thailand to build a railway like this. Simply in awe.

Did a lot of countdown selfies in New Zealand, while only did one in Bangkok. This was the only one.

Saw a few super old locomotives leaving Bang Sue Grand Station on the elevated tracks. To someone who loves the rails like me, this was one-of-a-kind. You don't just put old trains on new tracks, you just don't. Wow. And then one level above those old trains, lay tracks of the future. 

Bang Sue Grand Station was built to integrate old lines with new ones. Level 1 is the concourse level. Level 2 contains platforms for normal commuter and passenger trains. Level 3 are platforms for future high speed rail linking China to Thailand, and down to our very own Singapore.

The station was so damn big it was insane. I found a spot with strong aircon blowing and just sat there for a good 30 minutes. I had no idea I walked well over 10km in the last few hours, geeking out at all those railway tracks and trains.

After resting for a while, I decided to head back to the Airbnb to offload some weight. Took the blue line back to Mo Chit instead of walking. The blue line is actually a different system compared to the light green line. Blue line belongs to this company called MRT while light green line is BTS. Both are separate entities.

The ride was again dirt cheap. I took train all the way to Siam interchange. Alighted and walked to Centroworld mall to check out some guitars. Abandoned the 5L bottle of water at a random spot cause it was too heavy for me to carry already. Can't believe I carried all that weight to explore the train cemetery in slippers.

Meh, the mall was disappointing. The guitars are all priced around the same as Singapore. So unless I'm looking for a specific model, those aren't worth it at all. Suddenly, Wei Liang called me to tell me to meet him at the Lumpinee stadium at 6pm. Realising I might be late, I left the area instantly. Took train from Siam to Wat Phra Sri Mahathat station. Damn what a mouthful!

Alighted at that long ass name station and realised the stadium is a good half an hour walk from the station. And so I began my walk, despite feeling damn shag already. The walk seemed like an endless one. But I eventually made it to the stadium. I bought a few hotdogs at the lobby and then entered with Wei Liang and Jaaron.

Muay Thai isn't my kind of thing but since we are in Thailand, might as well check it out. Hmmm, to be honest, if I weren't so shagged out from my own adventure in the day, I could have enjoyed the show more. Sadly I couldn't keep myself awake and I'm just super duper hungry.

The fight ended at 9pm and 3 of us took Grab to Pratunam market. We were all looking forward to some mango smoothie and good food. But sadly, Pratunam was again a shopping market. We had to walk to some really isolated alleyway to find some food.

Chanced upon this coffeeshop-like place and settled dinner there. Finally tasted mango smoothie again. My life is complete. Walked back to Airbnb after that because our Airbnb is right behind Pratunam only. Shag but fun day 3.

Click here for Day 4!

Bangkok Holiday Trip (February 2023) - Day 2 of 4

4am. That was how early we had to wake up today, for this money shot above. Of course, I had no problems meeting the timing because I'm always, and forever will be, a trained soldier. The van driver actually came to pick us up on time at 5am. Wow.

The ride was 3 hours out to the wilderness. Everyone else slept in the van. I tried sleeping, but kept waking up because of my motion sickness. Played a lot of Pokemon Go to keep my motion sickness in check. Passed by a lot of Pokegyms in the rural areas and just trashed all of them. LOL.

We reached the zoo rather early, too early. It hasn't even open yet. So our driver drove us to a nearby local breakfast spot. I'd say the view was amazing. So many scenic spots to take pictures.

Nobody dared to buy the local meat, but I was too hungry to consider food safety. I just purchased this 3 sticks of meat for 60 baht. Damn, does it taste good. It was like Teriyaki chicken, but better. I wonder if this is their daily food or something...

The town was super chill and quiet for a Friday morning. Chanced upon another coffee stall again and the girls bought drinks. Me and Jaaron just chill one corner. Honestly, this reminds me of New Zealand, not many buildings around, just simple life. This is the kind of place I'd love to visit more!

Even the coffee stall is just an extension of someone's house. We were perhaps the only visitors all year. After a bit of photo-taking, we walked back to the 7eleven.

After half an hour, we all headed back to the zoo. First up, it was the zebra and giraffe feeding tour, hence the money shot. It's my first time in my life interacting with the animals I have been watching on discovery channels all my life. Pretty unique experience. But if you ask me, I still prefer watching them on screen.

Took a few shots of myself. Sick ass shots!!!

After the feeding tour, we got dropped off at the zoo entrance. The zoo was rather disappointing. The animals all look skinny and sad. I'm pretty sure they are all underfed and are starving. The elephant show and crocodile shows are a waste of time. They just want our money. This makes me believe that all zoos in Thailand are the same.

On the way back to Bangkok, the driver dropped us at River Kwai Bridge. It's another small little off-road village and we got down for a break. The railway line got me so excited!!! It was a railway used during WW2 and built by slaves, as with any other old railway in the world.

As usual, the others weren't so excited cause railway isn't their interest. So I quickly took a few photos and then left the place. Chanced upon a milk tea store and gave it a try. Damn. The milk tea was nice but the pearls were tasteless. I guess we better leave things like milk tea to other cultures.

For lunch, we got dropped off at Bubble in the Forest, a super expensive restaurant in the middle of nowhere. The girls wanted to go there basically for the insta-worthy shots. I was there just to eat. The food served was nice, so that's nice. There was a lot of meat and it's all top quality taste. Too bad I didn't take any picture of the food as we were all too hungry.

We bought an extra packet of rice for the driver before leaving the place. Dude dropped us back at our Airbnb at 5pm. We then left for Chatuchak market. Took Grab there again. Checked out the place real fast and almost all of the internal shops were not opened.

There was nothing much that interests me so I just kept walking until I found food. The food was awesome. I ate a lot of moo pings and other kinds of meat. Finally drank Chang beer too. It was a great meal. Tried their mango sticky rice too. Kinda meh. 

We got back to our Airbnb at 11pm. Played a few ranked games on ML with Jaaron to kill time to digest our food. Then we visited this massage parlour for our Thai massage. 500 baht for 2 hours. It was a great massage. I screamed for my life when my guy placed hot sand on my back. Damn. Luckily he is deaf and mute so he couldn't hear me scream.

Day 2, ended with a bang. Click here for Day 3!

Bangkok Holiday Trip (February 2023) - Day 1 of 4

For as long as Covid-19 was a thing, I never travelled at all. Last trip was New Zealand in 2019 and honestly, that was the best trip ever in my life. Today, in 2023, Bangkok is the first country I took a plane to ever since Covid-19 took a backseat.

It all started last year when me and this same group of friends (Kityee, Sherianne, Wei Liang, Jaaron) went JB and realised going somewhere further might be possible. Plans became reality in December when we booked the flight tickets. Clarie soon joined after she cleared her schedule. 6 pax, 4 days, 1 short getaway trip!

So for this short 4-day trip, originally I wanted to bring the 30L backpack I carried to New Zealand, but figured it's overkill. The above picture shows everything I need for Bangkok. So I switched to my daily carry army bag instead, with a mini army bag as travel bag.

All 6 of us met at Changi Airport at 9am. We all ate McDonalds breakfast before flying off. Upon arrival at the Bangkok airport, Clarie's luggage was missing. Turns out that some boomer took her luggage by accident and we ended up spending more than an hour at the airport waiting to resolve the situation. Only left the airport at 3pm. What a sad start to the trip!

Because of the hoo-ha, everyone was too sian to carry all their luggage onto the Airport Rail Link so we took Grab instead. This above picture was the very first thing we ate after we reached the Airbnb via Grab van. It was basically roti prata, made in the exact same way but different condiments. Super good sia.

We walked further down the street and saw this noodles store. Feeling too hungry, we just sat down and ordered everything on the menu. It turned out to be surprisingly good. Like damn. This was the best roadside noodles I have ever eaten, or maybe it's because we are just too hungry.

Look at that!!! After filling our stomachs, we took a shortcut to Siam square by cutting through the alleyways. Chanced upon a coffee store and entered it to drink some coffee. Super atas place and coffee wasn't cheap. But oh wells, we were all super thirsty then.

I ordered a cup of "Military", whatever that meant. To be very very honest, it's just coffee to my taste. I don't know, I'm not a coffee expert. But it was a nice little expensive drink. We then carried on our journey towards Siam square. 

The girls got straight off to shopping while us guys just wanted more food. We chanced upon an ice cream store and went all out. Wow. Super duper tasty. Amazing!!! Then 3 of us just crossed over to Siam Center and found a spot to sit down. We sat down for a super long time before leaving for our next location.

Took Grab to Jodd's Fair for our first night market experience. The Grab ride was super bad. Traffic jam everywhere. Honestly would have been so much faster if we took the MRT. Not to mention, much cheaper too. We arrived at the night market at 9pm plus.

Went to find the girls who found seats right infront of the Tiktok girl. The amount of people just visiting her stall to take videos is insane. Literally felt like they were treating her as a monkey in a cage. Unbelievable. 

Us guys walked around to buy food and drinks. Tonight was the night I fell in love with Bangkok's mango smoothie. Look at the size of that and that colour! It's crazy! Food-wise we just ate random stuff and was too hungry to take any pictures. Damn. This pretty much sums up day 1, ending with another Grab ride back to the Airbnb.

Click here for Day 2!