Chiang Mai (23-26 Oct 07)

And so, the trip to ChiangMai for 4D3N...


Very early in the morning, Nic came to pick me up and off we go to the LCCT. Unlike my Bangkok trip, the flight was on time and it arrived earlier than expected. ChiangMai was hot, same as Bangkok, slightly less humid.

At the start of the trip, it was clear that it was gonna be a very relaxing trip for the both of us. In fact, it turned into a mini-spa retreat as we went for spa for two days. Though Thai massage was everywhere at minimum cost, we both opted for the high ends ones that cost us an average of RM100 for each hour. Very pricy, in fact, I find it even more expensive compared to KL, but it was good. We went to Imperial Spa, located in the hotel where we stayed in and the Oasis Spa, also around the corner form where we stayed. Spent about a total of 5 hours of spa during our trip, and that left me RM500 poorer.


The above picture pretty much sums it up for Chiang Mai. Shopping in Chiang Mai is, of course, NOTHING compared to Bangkok. It has a lots of cultural stuff, things that we normally see durning a Thai fair in KL. Which left me disappointed of course, but then again, it leaves me the cash to go spa. Otherwise, I think I'll be back totally broke.

I'm beginning to like DIY trips. Booking the flight and accomodations ourselves, and then booking short trips/tours at the hotels. I like the flexibility of the trips and it gives us the decision on places that we WANTED to visit, rather than going to every statues/temples/parks and eating at tourisy restaurant that claim to offer local foods that no locals go to.


Apparently, there were hundreds of Wat (temples) in Chiang Mai alone, and we opted for a half day tour to the biggest and most important temple, Wat Prathat Doi Suthep. It was alright, since we're not a big fan of temples and going to see the most important one is good enough of us. Of course, like any other tours, it includes a visit to a nearby hilltribe village to "experience their lifestyle". It should give you a clear indication on how the visit is when the tour guide says "that the villagers now survives mainly on tourism". Yeap, more and more cultural shopping stuff.


The highlight of our trip is a half day cooking lesson that we sign up. It was just the two of us, and for RM60 per person, we were taught to cook local Thai dishes and to savour our dishes. The class was run by a Thai couple and they were very friendly and accomodating. We were taught to cook stir-fry glass noodle, TomYam soup, springroll and desserts. And it was GREAT! Walau eh, with two huge spoonful of oyster sauce, one huge spoonful of fish sauce, salt, soysauce, ANYTHING will taste good ok! Its an easy step-by-step way of cooking, where the chef will let you do the chopping and frying and cooking and boiling, all on your own! You're supposed to cook your own food and then eat it! My, the last time I cook was during my uni days. Not too bad for a person who last held a wok since 4 years ago! Highly recommended for those of you going to Chiang Mai, MUST sign up for cooking class!

Des was so mad when I told him that I went for the cooking class cause he is the one who loves cooking. Hmm, another trip to Chiang Mai again? Hehehe


Then, we opted for another tourisy thing, which is to join a "khatoke" dinner with traditional cultural dance. Cultural dances, hilltribe dances and a mini-version of our chap fan for dinner. Nothing to shout about, but then again, think you should go for once since its around RM30 per person anyway. One of the dancers is truly very beautiful and that is the highlight of the night for me :)

Shopping in Chiang Mai means practicing my bargaining skills. I admit, my skills werent as good few years ago. And normally, I wouldnt go lower than I should if I REALLY liked the item. Cause i couldnt use the "walk away" technique. Bought a few bags, bangles, food and sourvenirs.

My most prized purchase?

Came from a nearby night market, and it is a sign for the toilet.

Bought it for RM27 (bargained from initial RM35.

Felt that it could go lower, but I really liked this.

Hoping it would last a few homes :)

Cute eh?

Bangkok (18-20 Sept 07)

And so, it was the beginning of a very short trip to Bangkok.

It was also my first time taking the KLIA Express, first time going to LCCT, first time flying AirAsia, first time traveling without makeup, and first time seeing the 1 litre restriction thing.


I was very worried about the printed confirmation email and was very jittery throughout the trip to Bangkok in fear that AirAsia screwed up and 1) was not allowed to fly and 2) was not allowed acocomodation.

Anyway, all went well and even my 102ml deodorant made it through the custom (though I do not recommend it)!

We arrived late at night to the hotel at Bangkok on Tuesday night (about 9:30pm) and were off to the Airport at Thursday, 3pm. Looking back, despite having very little time, we did manage to cover quite a number of places.

We went to Kao Shan Road (which is a “hub” for backpackers), Yaowarat Road (Chinatown), Floating Market (joined a half-day tour), Pratunam (a concentrated shopping area), Suan Lum night market (another great place for shopping), Snake & Elephant places (included in the tour), few more shopping malls, Correction Museum (along the street of our hotel), and passed by many temples.

I brought along my mum’s camera, and I tried (very hard!) do to the tourist-picture-taking thing. I mean, I like taking pictures, but I just don’t have the knack of taking every scene that I came across. Especially when it comes to food. By the time we finished the food, THEN only we’ll think of taking pictures. The food in Bangkok was absolutely MARVELOUS! There’s pork everywhere! Their street food is cheap and super tasty! Beef noodle and duck noodle, UMPH! The flavour of their duck noodle soup, is like our instant duck noodle mee, only 100 times better! Now imagine the cartoon characters, Tom & Jerry. Whenever they experience something nice, they close their eyes, body straighten, flipping their feet and off they fly… that’s exactly how I feel after tasting their beef noodle soup. I kid you not! Their mango dippings were a different world altogether! Basically, the less luxurious the settings, the better the food! These are the only few pathetic pictures that we managed to take…


We mostly travel using tuk-tuks and taxis. At any time of the day, their taxis and tuk-tuks are at abundance, hence traveling around is a no brainer. The tuk-tuks experience was great, not necessarily the safest alternative, and Des and I both felt that we have inhaled enough fumes from our Bangkok trip to make up for the lost time in KL while we were uphill…


We managed to find our way to one of the prominent shopping areas called Pratunam. And this is where, sadly, I admit defeat. One one particular floor, I was so overwhelmed with shoes that I walked out of the mall WITHOUT buying any! I was so stunned by the choices that I panicked and couldn’t choose! Well, to consoled myself, though the shoes were selling at (RM-equavalent)25 and above, the shoes were of Sg Wang’s quality and design. And so, I left the mall new-shoe-less, but with 4 tops and a skirt.


A funny story with the tops though, I was looking at the t-shirts, and I asked the salesperson for the price, and I heard she say, 1 for (RM-equavalent)15, 3 for (RM-equavalent)13. And so I grabbed 3 and took out (RM-equavalent)13, and THEN she say “No, no, if you buy three, each is (RM-equavalent)13!”. Don’t ask me why I couldn’t figured that out (during the conversation, even Des heard right but I keep insisting that I’m right!), cause it is a warehouse place and things are known to be ridiculously cheap…

The highlight of the trip? It’s the floating market trip. Though it caters mostly for tourist now, the experience itself is worthwhile. The instruction to keep your hands in the boat comes handy when our boat jostle next to each other to pass the narrow river. If you don’t like the fact that it has turned to a tourist experience more than local occurrence, just go just so you can buy food on the boat next to you. The sight of seeing a bbq pit in a boat is great enough an experience…


And what about our favourite pastime? We went to many shopping malls, and never seems to find a supermarket. I was about to give up and admits to Des that we’re spoilt and Bangkok people(?) still buys their meats and vegetables in a wet market until we chance upon TOPS! Hahah, finally a supermarket!


Overall, Bangkok was a wonderful trip. The weather was fine, and most of time, whenever we wanted to go out, it would have just finished raining, so the weather was wet and very cool. The people were very accommodating, probably because we were in a tourist area. Almost every other corner, there is a temple to explore (which we didn’t because we were not too keen on it), and the look and feel is almost exactly like KL. I mean, if you replace the Thai words into our Bahasa, wouldn’t you agree that this place looks exactly like Bukit Bintang???