2019 has been nice to me. That year gave me another reason to smile, and gave me an important boost spiritually. I've been fighting depression (not clinically diagnosed) for the past couple of months and having to travel again on a far away land made me feel loved all over again. Not to mention that I traveled once again with my mom for this spontaneous trip, both of us benefited on this.
Why call it spontaneous? Yes, it's not planned for a year, but it was planned just two (2) months. We were able to book a cheap flight via Cebu Pacific Air going to Bangkok last August 2019. This is the first time we're doing this because we're mostly fond of planning a year ahead. Especially on an international trip, which is risky.
For the record, Bangkok, or Thailand itself was never in my bucket list. I never wanted to go there, because I know upon research that it was quite similar to Manila. Scams are rampant, some people saying that the locals are very similar to Filipinos. Neither of this I cannot tell as of the moment during pre-planning, because at the back of my head one thing that I kept reminding myself that we should not be scammed.
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| Map of Thailand and neighboring countries |
Keeping my hopes high, I remain optimistic. Since this is my second time going abroad, it's more of excitement than being nervous. We researched everything what we should be doing in Bangkok, and added Ayutthaya as a whole day tour. The rest of the days is just more of immersion, spending time with the locals and just appreciating what their culture and country has to offer.
We challenged ourselves to have a lowly budget of Pxx,xxx pesos per head ALL-IN. All-In meaning that includes airfare, travel tax, accommodations, tour, pocket money, transportation, etc. Not knowing what lies ahead of us, we embarked our journey to Thailand with minimal expectations (except food!)
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| Hi Wynwyn! Ingat pa-Korea! |
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| Tulog in-flight |
ARRIVAL AT SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT
Our departure from Manila going Bangkok is at 7:30 in the morning (PH time). We arrived in Bangkok at 10:15AM with approximately 3H + air time. Upon arrival at the famous Suvarnabhumi airport, I am surprised by the cleanliness of the place. It was outstanding for something we kept on comparing to Manila, as it was huge and spacious. The toilets are awesome clean too, and everything was organized and detailed. This is the first time that I actually get to encounter pure-blooded Thai locals (works for the airport) and I was already astounded by female local beauty. They're absolutely gorgeous!
We then proceed at the immigration area and the lines are jam-packed. I was also amazed by how their immigration system works, they don't need to ask you a question and they're just going to look at you and do the biometrics. I was scared that time since the immigration officer that'll do the checking for me was doing something more than just check my passport. He's cutting papers and he was not even trying to look at me! I was so scared that time he might not grant me entry inside Thailand. It took me like 6-7 minutes (usually 4-5 minutes per person as per observation) and finally I got my stamp.
Then, there comes culture shock. It was a bad habit of mine. Since I was the one who planned mostly of the trip, I never had a thorough research about how to exit the airport except I know that the airport rail link is located downstairs. When we were at the conveyor belt area for baggage claim, we had an argument where to go next. I was forced to ask the information desk since I'm scared at first they might not receive me very well. Mistakenly, they're good at conversation! It was far-fetched from the other reviews/vloggers saying that the locals are not that good in English. Believe me, THEY'RE GOOD AT IT.
AIRPORT RAIL LINK @ Airport
We exit at gate B and head downstairs via the escalator near the arrival area. Airport rail link is situated at the basement one floor.
Oh I forgot!
We also rent a Wi-Fi device from KKDAY throughout our stay. The kiosk of KKDAY is located at the front of airport rail link station so we first go there to fetch our Wi-Fi. After that, we proceeded at the ticket station of airport rail link. Sadly, I forgot the cost of our ride (I didn't take notes of the train rides during our entire stay I'm sorry) but I do remember that it is quite pricey for my preference. But it is the best transportation we could afford.
Our point of destination from the airport rail link is at Phaya Tai station which is the last stop.
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ARRIVAL AT BANGKOK CENTRAL @Phaya Tai station
When we got off from the airport rail link train, we decided to go to the nearest mall where we can grab our lunch. Unfortunately, we never got the chance to really explore Phaya Tai from that point because we have luggage.
We decided to just go to victory mall as it is the next stop from Phaya Tai via BTS Skytrain train. It is a different train line but it does connect airport rail link and BTS skytrain at Phaya Tai station. The signages are very clear you won't be confused by the directions. There we arrived at BTS Skytrain and bought tickets. Just a train stop away from Phaya Tai station we alight at Victory Monument station.
Since this is the first time we've been to Bangkok City proper, everything is new to us. Our check in time is at 2:00 in the afternoon, so we decided to take our lunch at Victory Mall at the Victory Monument station. This is the formal arrival we have in the country so immersion is indeed a must.
We all know that Thai food is being promoted in the Philippines as they served plenty of rice and spicy food, but we had an unexpected surprise that time. We decided to dine at KFC inside Victory mall.
The shock is literally a shock, as we we're going to order, there was no rice available. It's not out of stock. They just don't serve rice. I mean, what? LOL
So we just took three orders of single piece of chicken and paired with Coke and Mashed potato. That's enough to suffice out hunger for the next hour of expected "finding our accommodation" trip.
BTS SKYWAY EN ROUTE TO PHROM PONG STATION AND ARRIVAL AT PARK 24 ORIGINS
After a short rest and lunch, it's now time to board the BTS Skytrain once again and now try to alight at Phrom Pong Station located in Sukhumvit area. But before that, of course we tried to take a peek at the stores inside Victory mall.
We bought our train tickets and ready to depart.
On our way to Phrom Pong Station, we are amazed with what we experienced and saw inside the train. We're casually speaking in Tagalog yet there were no eyes rolling. They're literally accept us speaking casually. Although not so loud, but we did talk in Tagalog without cold eyes.
We saw different malls as we approached every station. There was the Siam Paragon mall in Siam station, Terminal 21 in Asok station. Then the Emporium at Phrom Pong which happened to be our stop. It's amazing how these malls occupied two blocks of the street as they were HUGE compared to what we have in the Philippines (e.g., Ayala station - SM Makati in the south bound part but there was no SM mall in the north bound part) so yeah, it was humongous.
We got off Phrom Pong station, and followed signages which lead us to the Emporium Mall's department store. From there, we took a 10 minute walk in Sukhumvit 24 road until we reached Park 24 Origins.
We got our accommodation via AIRBNB and they promote affordable packages for your travel needs. We have paid everything in advance back in the Philippines before we fly out to Thailand. The owner of the unit emailed us detailed instructions to how we're going to pickup our keys. This is not your typical hotel style accommodation as this is an apartment style accommodation.
As soon as we entered our unit, it was perfect.
FIRST DINNER AT TERMINAL 21 MALL
After we settled down a bit in our unit, it's time to grab our first dinner in Thailand. What way to cool down someone's excitement is to rush over the place we first planned on going. Terminal 21 mall. It's our main landmark of everything; near our place, the middle ground of transportation, middle of food crawls, shopping etc.
I personally grabbed an authentic Hainanese chicken to serve as my dinner. KC had a Tom Yum noodles whom she said was good, and Mama had Pad Thai noodles. After eating, we spent rest of our stay to roam around the mall. They have several floors, and each floor represents a different country theme. Surprisingly, most items doesn't cost much.
We then head back Park 24 to prepare for tomorrow's tour.
AYUTTHAYA TOUR VIA KLOOK
Here's the whole day tour by Klook to Ayutthaya! So we got up at 5:30am, washed and prepared for everything then we head to Phrom Pong BTS Skyway, en route to Victory monument station.
We arrived a bit late for about five minutes as we're trying to acquaint ourselves as to where the front of mall is. The assembly spot is somewhere there. Fortunately, we arrived during their grace period. We boarded the bus and soon realized that we are in a bus full of different people. The bus set out at around 7:30AM.
It took us two hours to reach our destination. While on the bus -- as we were observing everything outside, it does look like Metro Manila as a whole. It's just way too similar. But disciplined.
ARRIVAL IN BANG-PAIN PALACE
Our first destination is called Bang Pa-In Palace. It was called summer palace formerly used by Thai Kings. We arrived around 9:15AM, and the sun was already scorching hot. I remember going down the bus to find a toilet since I've been doing that since forever. We also found some useful shops that sells Thailand stuff such as Sarongs and souvenirs. They got great discounts too, same as what Manila offers.
It's a humongous place, only then you can scrape out most of the palaces if you happen to drive a golf cart. What we did is we decided to rent a golf cart for 300 Thai baht. It's reasonable for me as the place was just big. But we're time restricted for an hour and we rented the cart for an hour too. But since there were several tourists, there was traffic. Everything is Instagram worthy, so I took most shots for KC and we just enjoyed driving while under the sun. Oh, and it's the first time I drove a right handed vehicle. And they asked for my driver's license too. They never allow underaged drivers and should be a drivers license holder.
LUNCH AT AYUTTHAYA BOAT AND TRAVEL
Since this is an organized tour, they invited us to have lunch at Ayutthaya boat and travel. The funny thing here is, before we got off the bus, the coordinator told us some useful Thai phrases that might help us order the food. What I can actually remember is "Mai Ped" which means not spicy. Since Thai foods are known to be extremely spicy, there's a need to like heads up the restaurant people. And that's what I did. I told the waiter "Mai Ped" and ordered I forgot the name. LOL. Anyway. he served mine and still it was that spicy. But it's delicious though. I'm just not used to eating spicy food.
VISIT TO SEVERAL TEMPLES, ELEPHANT VILLAGE AND THE SUNSET BOAT RIDE
Oh sorry, we first got to elephant village pala I just double checked with mama rofl and it's great! During our pre-planning to go to Thailand, we actually agreed on one thing; not to ride on elephants. For us, it's like animal cruelty. Well, it's us naman. For me, it was the second best destination we've been in our Ayutthaya tour. They had a lot to offer there, they have street foods, they got the famous floating market, lots of souvenir shops where you can buy quality silk clothes and the like. It's fun! We actually had fun there as we're not that familiar when it comes to shopping in the country yet. So this is a great start for us. We get to know how to ask for discounts and pick the best food. And we get to see the elephants up close and personal. We just never rode it. Both KC and Mama just bought a lot of souvenirs there since we're not planning to go to night markets during our stay... yet.
After that we visited several temples which I cannot remember all their names. I'll let the pictures speak na lang. All of them are unique in their own ways, and most of them are preserved beautifully. And it kind of reminds me of my previous work with NCCA, the preservation of natural heritage. Ayutthaya as a whole is considered a national heritage.
The culminating activity and my personal favorite, the sunset boat ride. Not sure if it's connected in Chao Phraya river, but it's big and we get to ride for an hour! There were tons of Instagram worthy silhouettes during the ride, I managed to salvage just one photo and just enjoyed the ride as it was really relaxing.
After the boat ride, we got off the boat in some sort of market where we had our merienda and tried some Thai street foods. We get to buy juice and a waffle like food that's immersed in Hershey's Choco syrup. I forgot the name! But it was delicious.
This is the end of the Klook Ayutthaya tour and we head back to Bangkok Victory monument mall for two hours. We decided to take a picture with Enju, our Korean friend we met during the tour, exchanged contacts and bid our farewells. We had dinner inside Victory mall before we head back and rode the BTS Skytrain again to Phrom Pong.
WAT PHO AND CHATUCHAK MARKET
The next day, we planned for a DIY tour of Wat Pho and Grand Palace. The route goes as this -- Phrom Pong BTS station to Asok BTS station, then cross to Sukhumvit station MRT going to Sanam Chai MRT station. From there, we will be walking to the nearest entrance of Wat Pho. Sanam Chai station is a big station and we got lost for a few minutes. We just realized that it was new when we get to walk going to the escalator.
As expected, there were a lot of Tuk-Tuk outside the walls of Wat Pho as other bloggers stated. They were known to be notorious when it comes to transportation scams. We actually proved them wrong. I find our tricycle drivers more intimidating than them. When they were asking us to ride the Tuk-tuk, I happen to like say a firm "No" and they just got off our backs without hesitation. Meanwhile, ours is like... no comment.
We found the back entrance (the nearest from the MRT station) of Wat Pho because we noticed a group of monks walking in an awkward direction. I told the two to like let's follow them. And eventually, we found the back entrance. We didn't have to walk far until the front entrance.
Once inside, we paid our ticket per individual it's around 100 baht per person. We took a couple of photos as we walk towards unique structures. It was scorching hot that day so it was kind of uncomfortable walking for too long.
We were in the middle of something where we noticed a long line piling up. That's when we realized that the reclining Buddha is housed near we rested. We decided to enter the reclining Buddha but we have to remove our shoes and put it in a provided plastic bag.
Oh, and we actually saw a local giving away free water. And he's angry at Indians for some reason.
After reclining Buddha, it's already lunch time. We decided to go out of Wat Pho and look for good in the nearby Tha Tien Market. We found a simple restaurant there, perhaps an Indian inspired by the looks of it, and ordered some food.
After eating, we discussed if we're going to proceed to the Grand Palace. It's technically our last day so Mama decided to just go to Chatuchak than going to the Grand Palace where we we're basically going to see same old structures. So we walked back to Sanam Chai MRT station. This is memorable for us since this is the first time we used the word "Hong Nam" which basically means toilet. We get to use their clean toilet at the station and that's memorable!
CHATUCHAK MARKET
We rode the MRT from Sanam Chai station all the way up north to Chatuchak Park MRT station and arrived Chatuchak Market around quarter to 3:00 PM. We met some Filipino shoppers there and told us tips on how to make discount. We wandered around the entire market until it closes. And I treated ourselves with chicken lollipop, grilled steak, French Fries and drinks at a nearby café inside a mall.
GOING BACK TO MANILA
Again, technically this is our last day in Thailand. After arriving in Phrom Pong Station, we bought dinner at McDonald's just below Emporium Mall to serve as our dinner. Then we walked back to our accommodation. Our flight is around 3:00 AM the next day and the time we got back is around 10:00 PM. Mama slept for a bit while KC and I just fixed our things and planned how are we supposed to go back to Suvarnabhumi airport. I told them to just do the same and check out around 10:30 PM. As planned, I told them to do BTS Skytrain to Phaya Thai then cross to Airport Rail Link. The problem is, these trains operate only until 11:00 PM. So the time is kind of tight and Mama is still asleep.
Then I remembered something. I once read that the GRAB app is connected globally. So I tried my GRAB app which I downloaded pa in our house sa Pinas. To my surprise, I mean shookt ako -- It technically traced me until Thailand! I tried to booking a GRAB Car to know how much from Park 24 to Suvarnabhumi airport, and again shookt nanaman ako, it's around 400 baht. Wow, super cheap! Actually, everything around in Bangkok is cheap to tell you honestly. Then that's the plan now. We'll just do GRAB Car to the airport so we won't be restricted by how tight the schedule is. International departure as a rule, always 3 hours before the flight. We let Mama sleep more until she wakes up around 11:30 PM, then instructed everyone to like checkout by 12 midnight. Then that's when we got back to the Philippines safely.
NOTES: Thailand baht as a currency is equivalent to Philippine peso. No need to convert in your mind, just remember that if the price is around 90 baht, think of it as 90 pesos. Kasi hindi talaga sya nagkakalayo. Magkalayo man, siguro 30 pesos difference lang. Hindi kasi sya ramdam unlike nung nag Singapore kami.
We decided to have a common fund. Since I'm with my Mom and girlfriend, we have like 1000 baht per head sa common fund. To our surprise, during the whole trip doon lang kami kumukuha. Basically, wala ako kinuha sa wallet ko and the last time I remembered na kumuha lang ako doon is yung pang Golf Cart rental namin sa Bang Pa-In palace. Second is yung kumain kami ng Chicken lollipop etc. sa isang mall sa Chatuchak market.
711 is the go to shop sa everything. We bought most our breakfast and dinner sa 711 lang din lahat. Super kumpleto sya. Lahat din ng binili namin dito is from out common fund. And their Nissin Creamy Seafood is the bomb! Super sarap! Even their sandwiches, my gosh super sarap. And their serving is big. Oh, nakakita na rin pala kami dito ng Nissin Creamy Seafood sa Robinsons at Shopwise, ang layo ng lasa ng natikman namin sa Thailand. Promise super sarap.
Our budget per head is Pxx,xxx ALL IN. It incudes airfare, transportation and kung ano ano pa. Wala naman show money upon entering Thailand so okay na okay na. To tell you honestly, super laki na ng Pxx,xxx per head para mabuhay ka sa Thailand. Ganun sya kasulit! And mind you, may common fund lang kami na 1k per head. Halos gastos namin dun lang kami kumuha. Mama and KC naglabas ng sarili nila since nagshopping sila ako naman wala mai-shopping kasi panay pang girl din mga items doon.
Transportation nila is super smooth. Medyo comparable sila sa Singapore train lines and super disiplinado ng tao. Nag tatagalog na kami doon minsan ng malakas pero wala silang pakealam. They don't mind if you laugh hard and is kind of obvious the way they like shrug you off like a local. Sobrang belong kami doon. Di mo mararamdaman na iba ka sa kanila. And we Filipinos look like them and we think that's a factor.
Most vloggers and blogs say that Thai's don't speak English much. Nope. They're good! Sila na mismo mauuna mag English para sayo. Hindi sila mapilit. Sobrang babait nila.
Rent a pocket Wi-Fi. You can choose the likes of Klook or KKday. Maganda naman Wi-Fi nila, ang problema lang tingin ko, sobrang laki masyado ng Bangkok at nakakapagod maglakad. Having a pocket WiFi helps you decide agad kung saan kayo pupunta. And masaya mag take ng photos kasi marami sila Instagram worthy places.
Thailand for me is the best basic entry level travel para sa mga newbies. Damn, I fell in love sa lahat doon except food kasi sa sobrang tipid namin, we never get the chance to try ung mga famous restaurants nila. Sobrang higpit namin sa budget kaya nakakatawa parang may natira pa kong 10k+ sa budget ko.
Dress neatly. First time ko nag travel na hindi ako nagshorts. All the time naka pants ako, iwas hassle na lang din since very religious ang country nila.
GRAB APP works and the car driver we had is a female and she even offered us three water bottles upon arrival sa airport. Doon ako na inlove na lalo sa Thailand. THEY'RE FREAKIN' POLITE AND KIND. Ang layo sa ating mga pinoy. And our Grab Car price is only 380 baht. Given na malayo sya.
Yes, I thought I fell in love with Singapore since it's my first travel, but now? THAILAND IS MY FAVORITE COUNTRY, everything they presented made us feel good in a short span of time.
Given the chance bumalik? YES, gladly. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. BABALIK AKO NG THAILAND! So many unfinished business, tourist spots, Baifer, Davika.. kahit na lang ung mag relax sa Café dun. Mas mura pa sya kesa pumunta ako ng Mindanao area. And, our airline tickets is NOT PROMO FARE. It's a regular fare flight.
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