Blistered in Bangkok II: Mall-ing in the City of Smile

We woke up around 8:30am and I felt as if I just took a nap. The walls of the room are so thin that conversations from the other room disturbed my sleep. I wasn’t sure with my hubby but I was pretty sure he was happy with the bed for it gave him so much space to toss and turn himself around. I was stupid enough though not to remember putting on my earplugs. I thought of having the free breakfast to somehow make up for my bad sleep, but it didn’t. Although a friendly waiter at the hotel’s restaurant warmly greeted us, I lost my appetite when my husband remarked that the hotel does not really observe hygiene as he picked up the utensils and started cleaning them with tissue paper. I inspected mine and saw traces of food stuck in between the fork tines. I couldn’t take them out with a tissue so I used a toothpick. I noticed that the grime was pretty thick so I decided not to use the fork and instead used the knife and fingers to eat my toast. I didn’t bother to ask for another because I would be more upset to receive another dirty pair of utensils.

After eating, we walked around to check the quiet neighborhood of Sawasdee. My craving for food came back when we bumped into a vendor selling various sausages on stick that smelled like Vigan longganisa. But we didn’t have smaller bills at that time so we put off our desire to supplement the skimpy meal that we just had. We didn’t find any shady character in the vicinity, till we reached the National Art Gallery which is just next to our hotel. My husband and I were debating where we were at that point and being the disoriented person that I am, he tried to show me our exact location through the map that we spotted hanging at the corner of the gallery. While we were discussing, a man approached us and asked what our nationality is. He looked amazed to find out that Filipinos bear the same features as Thais. Then he transformed into a tout talking about tours and the rates and was so persistent even as we shoved off.

The first thing on our itinerary that Thursday was to see the landmarks at the north-western side of our hotel. We walked from Soi Rong Mai to Phra Athit and straight on the Santichai Prakan Public Park. It is a relatively small and peaceful park, overlooking the Rama VIII Bridge.   On the side is the Phra Sumen Fortress, a landmark that we didn’t bother to explore much since it is not really aesthetically appealing.

We walked up north til we reached the Wisut Kasat road, which suggested that we were near the very first temple that we intended to see, the Wat Intharawihan (or Wat In) where one can see the Giant Buddha. The statue measured up to 32-meteres high that we had a hard time fitting ourselves with it in a picture. We hurried to get out of the tiled open-area when we heard the gongs ringing ‘cause we were thinking that it would be closed for lunch. As we hurried out, I heard my husband laugh, asking if what he saw was a real monk. I spotted the man that he was referring to and laughed as well. I wondered if smoking was in any way part of the precepts of Buddhist Monks.

We headed back to Wisut Kasat as we discussed how to go to MBK Mall. Funny but, yes, part of our plan was to visit Bangkok malls. We weren’t supposed to go to the malls on the first day until I was tipped off by a friend who happened to be in Bangkok weeks before we went, that Central Malls across the city are running on a 40%-70% discount sale. So my husband and I agreed to first check out the malls for good-buys so that we didn’t have to hurry through shopping at the overcrowded Chatuchak come Saturday. Since we only had around TB200 left and we had no idea how much a taxi ride would cost us from where we were to the mall, we decided to have my husband’s remaining HK dollars changed to Baht. I was getting bitchy because it was lunch time, the weather was really hot and money changers were nowhere to be found in the area. I was so desperate already that I suggested for us to take a tuktuk to the mall and when I saw one driver, I asked how much the fare was. The driver priced it at TB250 and started saying some thing which I didn’t understand. He was the second tout that we encountered so I dismissed the idea of riding the tuktuk. For those who are not aware of the modus operandi of some tuktuk drivers in the city, innocent foreigners will not only be given a rate that’s outrageously high but will also be redirected to places, like shops, and will be forced to buy items such as gems.

Finally, we reached a bank, which unfortunately do not sell currencies, but the manager was kind enough to direct us to the Krung Thai Bank which was not far from there. After we were able to secure an additional TB943, we took a cab to MBK. As expected, we encountered heavy traffic but my husband said, it was nothing like what we have in the Philippines. In Bangkok, the slow movement of vehicles are mainly regulated by stoplights, while in Manila, the main cause of traffic are the undisciplined drivers who recklessly shift from one lane to another, who slow down because they want to pore over vehicular accidents as if they can do something to help the victims and as if it is an honor to be an eyewitness of an accident that will later on be reported in radio and TV newscast. As we compared Bangkok and Manila traffic situations, I suddenly realized that I had seen no guards in the banks that we stopped at. If this were the situation in my country, I bet many robbers would now be millionaires, many banks bankrupt and a number of people murdered. Bank robbery has evolved from just plainly stealing money to both stealing money and killing guards, bank staff and customers. My maudlin moment ended when the taxi reached MBK and I thought that we shouldn’t have panicked for having only TB200 left ‘cause the meter registered only TB97. And we shouldn’t have panicked to buy baht from the bank because we saw one money changer in MBK which sold Baht for a relatively lower price.

Since it was lunch time, the first thing we looked for was MBK’s food court section. The receptionist at the information booth instructed us to go to the 5th floor, which happened to be the international food center with independent restaurants lined up and not the usual food court set-up with tables and chairs in the center surrounded by food stalls. Famished, we decided to eat in one restaurant there anyway, since the prices we found relatively cheap, ranging from TB100 to TB150. Besides, it was one restaurant without an unusual smell. Luckily for us, the tom yum soup and spring rolls that we ordered suited our Filipino taste buds and had similar tastes to the food served at Thai eateries that we usually go to in Quezon City – Jatujak (SM The Block), S.R. (Katipunan Road) and Mommy Thai (formerly along Balara ‘til the owner closed down). We spent around TB240 for our meal, and realized later on that this wasn’t cheap when we discovered the real food court on the 6th floor. There were food stalls around and accessories booths on one side. Customers here do not use the real currency for buying food; there’s a booth near the accessories section that converts baht to tokens.

MBK is a classy version of EVER Gotesco malls in Manila. Aside from the boutiques, one can see bargain stalls from corner to corner. We weren’t impressed with the goodies there nor with the discount rates of stores like Giordano so we left and walked our way to Central Chidlom, which is still several blocks away. Luckily for us, there’s a covered sky walk from MBK to the other malls so that we didn’t have to get sunburned. Unlike MBK, the second mall that we passed by, Siam Paragon was genuinely a high-end mall. Burberry, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs were only a few of the posh stores that I saw in these malls and we didn’t bother to look around cause even if the products here were on sale, we still won’t be able to afford them.

The next mall is Gaysorn, which we, again, didn’t bother to enter but instead took a peak of the Erawan Shrine across the street. A couple of steps more, we reached the Central Chidlom department store. We were expecting a 70% discount on men’s apparel but to our dismay, the items that we found were not that cheap. Being the New Balance fanatics that we are, we each bought a pair of rubber shoes for only TB900 but with quality same as the original NBs sold in markets (genuinely soft, flexible rubber soles).

Carrying our new pairs of shoes, we walked further north to the Pratunam market, passing by the Central World Plaza. The Pratunam Center is a huge and almost bare building with few bargain stalls, which are transferred to the road side during rush hour. We decided to end our malling but first hung out in front of the building to eat some street food, breaded shrimp and chicken. The taste wasn’t bad, except that the breading was greater than the meat. As we walked our way out of the Pratunam market to find a ride, I saw a cart selling the same sausages on stick that I saw that morning near our hotel. Not very much satisfied with what we ate minutes earlier, I bought the pork sausage for TB10 and it didn't suit our Filipino tastebuds and i don't think it will => Good thing it was only a TB10 worth of food that I threw on the nearest garbage can. After a long walk, we were able to hail a taxi but were rejected because the driver seemed not to know where Khao San was. Hubby was starting to sense my grouchiness, so he gave in to the demand of another unscrupulous taxi driver, who wanted to be paid TB200 for the whole trip. When we reached our place, the driver kept on saying “Rambuttri, Rambuttri!” and we realized that the taxi drivers are most familiar with Soi Rambuttri, than Khao San.

It was way past our dinner (since we usually dine at 6pm) so we went out hoping to eat at the side walk eatery along Soi Rambuttri. But there were no available seats because of too many westerners dining at that time so we decided to go to Khao San and check out other eateries there. What we saw there were bargain stalls strewn everywhere and typical fast-food restaurants which weren’t our option because we were determined to try out Thailand's street foods. So we returned to Soi Rambuttri and looked for a food cart without the awful smell; sorry but I found the smell of some authentic Thai foods like a combination of burning tire and dung. We spotted the pad thai vendor and bought ourselves one order of spring rolls (TB15) and another order of pad thai (TB20) with egg (additional TB5), and added to that 2 bottles of Tiger Beer from 7-11 and feasted inside our room.  Back home, I struggle so much cooking Pad Thai to perfect the taste. But after seeing how the Pad Thai lady cooked it, I thought how silly I was to stress myself out on this easy recipe. (Pad Thai recipe)   My husband didn’t like the spring rolls that much because there was a tinge of star anise. The delicious but simply prepared pad thai was not enough but we didn’t go out anymore to buy and instead, he gulped his beer and we called it a day.

Blistered in Bangkok III: Trying our luck at Jatujak Market on a Friday

It was a Friday, and since there was not much in our itinerary, we didn’t hurry to get dressed after we took our breakfast (which to my delight didn’t turn out to be bad because the utensils were clean =>). Around 11am, we went straight to Phra Athit Road to take our lunch, again on the street side to taste the bagoong rice sold in a cart, which we spotted the other day on our way to Phra Sumen Fortress. The cart was parked at the side walk across ASTV Headquarters, with plastic chairs and tables set up closeby. I pointed to the vendor/cook 2 of the 3 meals displayed on the cart. Each of us were served a simple but spicy soup while waiting for the main course.

Then came the 2 dishes, both with bagoong rice but with different toppings. Mine was like a vegetarian meal, with steamed bokchoy and okra, cucumber, salted egg, strips of green mango and a little dipping sauce which I believe to be bagoong isda with tomatoes and lots of chilies. My husband’s meal was the bagoong rice that we are familiar with, with pork, cucumber, strips of scrambled egg, lemon, and chilies. If I hadn’t been watching my weight, I would have ordered another one of those delectable dishes which was only TB45 each. The only problem for us was they didn’t sell any beverage which our burning tongues badly needed. 

From the cart, we crossed Phra Athit and walked a couple of steps to the Phra Athit Pier. Traveling by boat along Chao Phraya river was the easiest and cheaper way to reach the BTS (Skytrain) station. We paid around TB15 each to reach the Sathorn station and waited for 10-15 minutes for our boat.

For those who plan to try this, be sure to walk fast to reach the boat since it parks for only about a minute or two and leaves immediately, not wasting any second to wait for lazy-walking passengers. Most of all, use the railings cause when the boat smashes into the platform to park, one might go out-of-balance and fall into the dirty Chao Phraya waters. It was definitely not a sophisticated ride but it was totally an efficient transportation system to escape the torturing Bangkok traffic. In addition, you can do sight-seeing since it passes through wonderful landmarks such as the Grand palace and most especially, of Wat Arun.




 The ride to the last station, Sathorn, was about 10 minutes. This connects to the BTS Saphan Taksin station. There are a number of card dispensing machines, and I, being a technology-ignorant, let my husband get the cards, costing TB25 each. Not surprisingly, the train was more spacious than the MRT trains in Manila, but almost similar to LRT. We got off at Sala Daeng and transferred to the MRTA (Subway) Silom station. We bought tickets for TB45 each, and these came in the form of round black chips, which we thought shall be inserted into a slot. Apparently, after a funny but embarrassing experience, we learned that we just had to flash the coin across a small screen until the sensor recognizes the microchip inside. Thanks to the Indian, who probably thought that we were inexperienced Thai commuters who rode the BTS for the first time. Of course there was nothing to see during the entire ride because we were underground. I wanted to chew Mentos during the 15-minute trip to lessen the discomfort caused by the pressure in my ears, but foods and drinks are prohibited inside, which my law-abiding husband wasn’t familiar with cause he drank water several times, unaware also that one passenger disdainfully stared at him.

We got off at Phahon Yothin station because we wanted to check out the Central Ladprao Mall, again for discounts. Again, my husband was disappointed with Giordano because the discount was not that low enough; on the contrary, I was, because ladies’ pants were only sold for TB400. At first I didn’t find it cheap but when I recalled the cheapest Giordano pants that I bought on sale in Manila costing PhP700, I grabbed one khaki pants and paid for it right away. What delighted my husband was when we found a nice-looking pair of Hush Puppies with 40% off from the original price and spent only TB1900 for it. Since we each both got ourselves super-discounted products already, we stopped by Auntie Anne’s to rest and have snacks. Actually, those who have weakness for pretzels will be thrilled in Bangkok cause Auntie Anne’s are everywhere. There are also lots of Dairy Queen stores, which is justifiable because of the hot weather in the city. Had I known that DQ Blizzard is sold inexpensively here, I could have tried all the flavors, which I couldn’t do in the Philippines because the price is not that cheap.

It was still early when we finished snacking so we went to visit the Union Mall across. The building was overflowing with bargain and second-hand stores and what attracted me was one store selling used designer bags. I actually spotted a Dolce & Gabbana shoulder bag, and though I was not sure if that was genuine (because I never owned one designer bag), it didn’t look fake at all. I cannot persuade the vendor to bring down the price to TB350 (from TB700) so I didn’t buy. And now I still regret buying it because at the Bangkok Airport I saw one lady carrying the same exact bag with the same color and it really looked classy.

Only one hour was left before the Jatujak weekend market was scheduled to open so we left the mall and started to walk. Strolling along Jatujak Park was calming because of its clean surroundings and simple but panoramic landscapes. It was a long walk so we rested our feet for awhile when we reached the end of the park, which is nearby the entrance to the market and at that time, was still closed. But we hurried to leave when it began to drizzle and then found ourselves inside the famous Chatuchak Market. As we expected, not even 1/16 of the total number of stores were opened, it was, after all, a weekend market, and it was only a Friday. But we wanted to try our luck that day so that we didn’t have to force our way into the crowded market the next day. There were a few house decor stores that were opened but we weren’t interested in buying furnishings, but clothing. We spotted one opened store selling polo shirts, bought 3 items, and that was it. We just waited for the rain to stop then we headed out to go back to the hotel.

We wanted to ride the bus that’s going to Khao San but the people we asked, including a policeman, didn’t understand English. We crossed the Phahon Yothin road and waited for Red Bus 3 at the bus stop close to the Mochit BTS Station but never found one. We were having second thoughts about taking the BTS because the nearest station where we could get off, Siam Station, is still far from our place (10kms) and we were not sure if we could easily get a cab since it was Friday. So we ruminated for about 15 minutes at a bench nearby, and looking at the private cars parked in front of us reminded me of unruly Filipino drivers because they had been occupying one lane of a very busy main road while a big parking block was just close by. We stood up to look for a cab, and to our surprise, a Red Bus 3 showed up! We ran towards it and we were welcomed by a fetid smell of body odor. It was an old non-airconditioned bus with wooden flooring but with spacious aisles since it has only one row of seats on the right side and two on the other. I took a seat at the back while my husband stood along the aisle ‘cause there were no vacant seats anymore. I wanted to ask either of the 2 female passengers beside me how much the fare is, but I was hesitant if they could understand English at all so I just waited for the conductor to collect. I told myself how lucky I am to be a citizen of a country that has English as one of its primary languages.

Undoubtedly, a Filipino who is able to speak and write in English makes him/her globally competitive. I have nothing against English but it seemed that the language has become one dividing block among Filipinos. It has become the primary language of the rich, educated and famous and Filipino the tongue of the common and usually underprivileged citizens. And what does this lead to? A Filipino ridiculing his fellow citizen who can’t speak English fluently and ends up not being hired at all for a job. Yet, we don’t scoff at a Chinese or a Venezuelan who speak incorrect English. Can someone tell me if this attitude is solely Filipino? I would think that in Thailand, Thai has remained to be the basic language of people coming from different classes, and I also suppose that a Thai wouldn’t laugh at a fellow Thai because of crooked English.

I snapped back to reality and saw my husband securing a seat and kept on tracking where we were through a map. It was really an excruciating traffic and we were in the bus for almost an hour, enduring the stench inside. Still, we had something to thank for since we were able to save around TB200-300, which we could have used for a taxi had we not fortunately spotted the bus, the fare for which, we expected to be about only TB7. Later on we would discover that the ride was for free! Although TB14 was not too big a savings for us, we greatly appreciated and envied how the Thai government looks after its people by devising simple means such as providing commuters with free rides, which, irrefutably, can yield considerable savings, especially for the humble working class. I sat beside my husband when the seat behind him was finally vacated and we were discussing the area where we were as we referred to the map. Little did we know that the lady passenger behind us was observing us ‘cause before she got off, she tapped our shoulders and told us where exactly we were and that Phra Athit was just 15 minutes away. We thanked her and we wondered also why she only talked to us when she was about to go down; maybe she wasn’t that fluent in English and was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to answer us in case we asked other questions? Hehe, just some thoughts that came across my mind but we were glad somebody was there to help because apparently, my husband’s thought as to where we were was wrong! Only 5 minutes had passed and he hurried to get off. Again, he thought wrongly and we disembarked prematurely at Thanon Wisut Kasat, about 2- kilometer walk to the hotel. We finally reached the familiar Soi Rambuttri and as agreed earlier, we will be having Pad Thai again for dinner. And since my husband wasn’t that happy with the Tiger Beer, we bought a can of Singha Beer, the country’s local beer, for only TB35 at 7-11 and a whopping TB95 at the hotel. Then again, after a long day, for the last time in the hotel, we drifted off.