Day 3, in Bangkok

Day 3. Saturday. We settled for Breakfast at Burger King, a BK Pork burger set for me and a croissant breakfast set for her. After our burger BABI we went to Hua Lampong Station (MRT Subway) to catch the train to Chatuchak Park Station. We reached there at about 8 am and suddenly everyone was standing still.

We later realized they were actually playing their national anthem and a video footage of their King was shown. Not a single soul dared to move. This wasn’t the only time we encountered this.About half an hour later, we reached the place you cannot miss out, that is the Chatuchak Weekend Market. It is one of the largest markets in the world, it is only open on weekends, Saturday and Sunday from 8am until 6pm.
It covers an area of 70 rai (35 acres), contains more than 15,000 shops and stalls, has over 200,000 visitors each day, The range of products that you can fine on sale is extensive, and includes household accessories, handicrafts, religious artifacts, art, antiques, live animals (which unfortunately are frequently caged in cruel conditions), books, music, clothes, food, plants and flowers etc...
Chatuchak always gets very hot and humid during the day, and it's far from the most comfortable shopping experience but for most people the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Going early in the day when it is a bit cooler is recommended.
We came back at about 6pm then we take a walk to Khaosan Rd. to end our day.

Day 4, 18 May 2008

After a 3-day shopping spree, we were still thinking of what to do, but at the end of the day we still went to shopping in Pratunam, this time we shopped in Platinum shopping mall. And believe me, when I say most Thais get their stock here, and the Pratunam Market, clothes are way cheaper here than in Chatuchak.

We had a very nice Tom Yam Kung at the Platinum Mall food court. Also must try when you are in Thailand are the crab fried rice, phad thai , chicken green curry and fish grilled in banana leaf. It was Wesak eve, and as we wanted to experience the Wesak celebration in Bangkok, we decided to travel about 50km out of Bangkok to a famous Buddhist temple call Phud Ta Mon Thon, We take the bus (124#) since it was way cheaper, but the journey was double the time!

The conductor couldn’t understand English at all, but luckily a few passengers could and they helped us until their stop, we left Bangkok about 6pm and we got there about 8-ish.

Since the bus service are only up to 9pm, there was no way we could catch the bus, so we took the meter cab, which cost us about 120 baht and 20 mins of our time. And like what I've written in my previous post, the Wesak eve is different from the ones we have here. There were no beautiful floats and no all night chanting.