Bangkok and Songkran

I made another trip to Bangkok over the Easter weekend, thanks to the free tickets from AirAsia (have to pay tax of course), plus my sis and bro-in-law wanted to visit the city as well.

I didn’t want to stay the Big John’s this time due to the not so nice service the last time, so I chose to stay at YHA Hostel Thailand for its convenience to the Skytrain, only 10 minutes walk away. If you’re looking to book a hostel, try Hostelbookers.com coz you don’t have to pay extra deposit.

Anyways, I got to Bangkok city only in the night. Headed straight to Suan Lum Night Bazaar. It was really hot and humid in Bangkok even in the night, we sweat like cows and dogs. Suan Lum is a pretty big place, lots of stalls and pretty cheap price. But since it was Songkran (Thai New year), many stalls actually closed early, when the normal time was up to 2am. By 1am, we were pretty worn out and headed back to the hostel.

The hostel is actually really really small. Some walk ways and the stair way is big enough for only one person to walk through. However, they make it up by having some really nice friendly staff at the reception, greeting you with smiles at all times. They’re also very fluent in English. I booked into a 6 bed mixed dorm, and the traditional mattresses they used were really hard. The bathroom was pretty tiny as well, even my sister’s private twin room used bunker beds. However, it was all airconditioned, so that was great.

The hostel was only a few blocks away from Chong Nonsi station, really convenient, and taxis were everywhere as well. This time in Bangkok, I didn’t really shop much. Somehow, I kinda lost interest in Thai clothings and stuff? Is that weird?

This was also the first time I experienced Songkran at its most active. I didn’t realise that when I booked the tickets, that the day we arrived there coincide with the first day of the 5 days Songkran Festival. My friends say that we will surely get wet being splashed on the streets. Thank goodness, I didn’t get it a lot at all.

The people of Thailand just get really wild and crazy during this time of the year. They go around in the backs of trucks, carrying huge buckets of water and flour water, and just splashing people on the streets and other trucks. Their screams and laughter can be heard from within the shopping malls and in the hostel rooms. If you don’t know better, you might think there was a war or riot going on, except instead of real guns, they use water guns. We see people walking around the malls wet and white with the flour, and many in groups carrying toy guns filled with water, shooting at passers by. It seemed like a lot of fun for the locals and some tourists who joined in the water war, but to some others, it can be pretty scary. You get stopped by a gang of them at the steps of the Sky train and there’s just no where to run. Most of the time, when it’s later in the evening, many of these people gets drunk as well.

I even read in the tourist mag that amidst all the seeming celebrations and fun the people have every year, the darker side of it is that 70% of road deaths happen at this time as well. The roads become rather lawless, with people on bikes without helmets and shooting water on other bikers, sometimes causing them to lose balance, the roads become slippery and hazardous to motorists. All these, I wonder if it’s worth it for just a few days of wild fun.

Aside from that, Bangkok is generally still a shoppers’ haven and food paradise.

They like wrapping there fried noodles and whatever else with egg. It was really nice. There was this place I quite like in Siam Center, called Food for fun. Upon entering, you’ll be given a credit card. If you lack funds, visit https://www.unsecuredpersonalloansnow.com/unsecured-personal-loans/montana.

You can use this card to swipe for food and only pay in cash at the counter upon exiting. Pretty nifty concept, bad for people who overeat and have no cash though. Anyways, I love the deco in the place, it was all high tech and modern furniture.

Very cool! And there’s lots of food to choose from. Definitely suits the Food for fun concept they were trying to promote.

There were so many more things we did and saw in Bangkok. Even though it was the hottest season of the year then, it was not so bad while I was there, as it actually rained. 😛

AirAsia was delayed again when we were departing to KLIA LCCT. Yea we will dearly miss the KLIA main terminal having to use LCCT the low cost terminal from now on. LCCT is basically a very boring place! It’s a very small building, and very human unfriendly, impossible for people to stay overnite there what with plastic chairs only. There are no nice shops, just some eating place, like McD and Starbucks and another overpriced restaurant selling Nasi Lemak at RM12. I was already wondering how to get back home as after the delay, we would only reach LCCT way past midnite, when all the buses would have stopped operating. And by the way, at departure terminal, passengers have to walk quite far to get on board. No more nice walkways like in KLIA. I pity the senior passengers and wonder how they can walk so far.

Anyways, thank God when we got back, we decided to check out the airport taxi. And it wasn’t so overpriced after all, only RM47.40 to get back home. I was glad that I didn’t have to sleep in the tiny airport!