Bangkok... a short family trip
I have been to Bangkok several times before
.... The first trip was in 2004 when I was working with KUB... There were 5 of us at that time, Hiruddin, his wife and son, and my wife Nana and I.
I kind of like Bangkok... not because of the sleazy entertainment that it is famous for... in fact Bangkok has a lot more to offer... shopping, cheap custom made suits and foot massage.... and of course the tom yam food...
This time I traveled with my wife Nana and our two sons, Umar and Luqman. They have been to many places before... Beijing, Jakarta, Bandung, Hat Yai, Turkey, Krabi and Seoul but this is their first trip to Bangkok. My two daughters Sob and Lekha couldn't join since they are now studying in universities and the term break is out of whack. It is not going to be easy to travel with the whole family anymore...
sigh!...
I was looking for a window to take the family for holiday... need to balance between the work schedule and school break... haha... I was lucky when the company planned to go for a company trip to Beijing in late May 2016... I told Nana that instead of going to Beijing which we have been there before, might as well take the boys to somewhere they have never been before and somewhere that we like... and somewhere that is close by....not a 7 hours flight... both of us immediately agreed to go to Bangkok...
I immediately browse thru for hotel and flight....Nana wanted to stay in a serviced apartment so that all 4 of us can stay in one apartment...I did some online check and we decided to book thru Booking.com and chose to stay at Centre Point Sukhumvit Soi 10... the usual area that we stay when we go to Bangkok... On the airlines, after comparing MAS and AA, we decided to fly with MAS since the price difference is not that big... despite whatever people say, travelling with MAS is always more comfortable for me...
orang melayu cakap tak banyak songeh.....
Nothing much to prepare since the weather in Bangkok is similar to us in KL... I only asked my brother in law Ramlan to change some Baht for us since he is now working for a money changer company... I asked him to change B25,000 which is about RM2850....
Our flight to Bangkok took off at about 6.00PM and we arrived in Bangkok around 7.00PM local time... even though it is a 2 hour flight since Bangkok is 1 hour behind Malaysian time... we felt kind of early but it was already dark then...clearing the immigration and custom were quite a breeze.... taking a taxi at Suvarnabhumi airport is very easy... just go to level 1 and proceed to the counter and press for a ticket...the number on the ticket shows the parking bay the taxi assigned to you...no waiting... no haggling... just tell the taxi driver where you want to go and he will press the meter...even better if you have a printed address in Thai since not many taxi drivers in Bangkok can converse in English....but they are always friendly and helpful... (sorry...can't say the same about Malaysian taxi drivers)...
We arrived at the hotel at around 8.30PM... as I suspected, the hotel is fully booked and they don't have a 2 rooms apartment. The hotel staff offered us 2 single rooms at different floors... No point arguing when the hotel is fully booked. We just took the rooms...Umar and Luqman took the 10th floor and we took the 16th floor... Out of the blue... suddenly one of the hotel staff start conversing with us in Malay... I was a bit surprised... he quickly explained that his real name is Abdul Hadi and
not Harry as printed on the name tag... he is from Southern Thai and studied English in Malaysia. In fact his brother in law is a lecturer at UTM...
I planned some itinerary before we left for Bangkok...some kind of plan what we want to do in Bangkok... the only place that Nana want to go is to visit the floating market... and for me is to make a few custom suits for myself... the rest nothing specific... just
jalan-jalan cari makan...
After checking in, I asked the boys whether they want to go out for a quick meal...finding halal food around Sukhumvit is not that difficult... there many Muslim restaurants but mostly are middle eastern taste... Arabs' food... However both of them were dead tired...so only me and my wife went out for a quick bite. We also stopped by at 7Eleven to buy some bread and toiletries...
Walking back to the hotel...there were many street vendors plying their trade along the main street... we just stopped by and glanced at the stuff being sold there... most of them are clothes and souvenirs which you can find almost anywhere in Bangkok...we were dead tired and quickly headed back to our hotel...
Next morning feeling a lot fresher... we started early... since the hotel that we stayed don't serve halal food, we decided to go out and look for breakfast...it is not like in Krabi whereby almost all foods sold there are halal... We took a taxi and let the taxi driver find a halal restaurant for us.... after a quick turnaround...the taxi driver dropped us at an Egyptian restaurant....
We were politely greeted and stepped into the restaurant. Looking at the menu...I know I don't have any problem but I know my wife don't quite like middle eastern kind of food... the same thing happened when we went to Turkey... I really enjoy oven baked bread with cheese, honey, yogurt and of course milk tea... but since she knew it is not easy to find other foods in Bangkok then she just ordered some bread and hot lemon drinks.... I promised them to take to a good tom yam restaurant for lunch...
After breakfast, while walking back to the hotel, we were approached by a taxi driver. He was trying to sell some tourist package and quickly showed us a catalog. I told him that I want to go to floating market tomorrow. He told us the place is about 1 hour from Bangkok and he can take us there for B1000. I thot that kind of cheap and we agreed to use his taxi... we agreed to meet at our hotel again tomorrow at 8.00AM.
After breakfast, we went back to the hotel. I left my two sons there and soon after that me and my wife went out again. This time we went to the tailor shop to make my suit. In Bangkok, making a custom made suit is cheap and fast. There are many shops that around Sukhumvit and they have been in business for a very long time... more than 20 years. I chose to go to a shop call Narry in
Sukhumvit Soi 11. I was greeted by a tailor by name of Rai... he is a Nepalese and has been working with Narry for over 20 years. After taking my measurement and agreed on the time for fitting, we went back to the hotel.
The next thing on the itinerary is to go MBK mall. MBK mall is one of the largest mall in Bangkok. Everything is sold there and there are many local as well as tourist there. We agreed to go there since there is halal tom yam restaurant called Yana. It is kind of easy... we can have lunch then only go for shopping...
When we arrived at Yana restaurant it was during lunch time... the place is pretty packed with locals and tourist like us... I think the group set next to us is from Indonesia looking by at their dress and language... The good thing is the waiter can speak Malay. That make the ordering of food easier... We ordered a few local dishes. The food and the service
were good and the price is reasonable.
After lunch I let my wife did her own shopping and me and the boys just walk around. We ended up at the place where all handphones gadgets are sold... we end up buying handphone car holder for my wife... nothing else.... Anyway all things that can be found in KL can be found in Bangkok and the prices are about the same... Tired of walking in the mall, we took a taxi and went back to the hotel...
I promised my family to go to Usman restaurant for dinner . We have been to Usman restaurant before during our earlier trip. The food and service were excellent and the price was reasonable too.... Usman Restaurant is on Soi 22 which is a bit of distance from our hotel. The best is to go by taxi...
After Mahgrib prayer, as planned we went out for dinner.... but the main road was jammed... at first I thought to walk to Usman restaurant but the humidity and too many people on the road made me changed the plan... instead of going to Usman, we went to Terminal 21... another shopping complex
in Sukhumvit... Terminal 21 is nearby and has a food court where there is one stall that sells halal food... Terminal 21 is sort of upmarket shopping complex. Mostly fashion items are sold there.
I didn't know that I need to buy a prepaid card to use at the food court. Only after we ordered our chicken rice that I knew we can only pay using the prepaid card. In fact to buy any food and drinks there must be paid using the prepaid card. If there is any balance after the meal, the balance can be refunded for cash... not a bad system after all... We had chicken rice, drinks and fruits... after that we all walked back to the hotel... again sweaty and tired....
On the way walking back to the hotel, both my wife and I stopped at the foot massage parlour for a foot massage. We let both our sons went back to the hotel by themselves. It is sort of a must do thing when you are in Bangkok to have a foot massage...
The next morning we had a simple breakfast in the hotel room... just bread and hot drinks...
As agreed, the taxi driver was already at the hotel by 7.45AM waiting for us at the lobby. We boarded the taxi and he drove us to the floating market... it was quite far since it took about 1 hour to reach the floating market... The taxi driver was quite chatty and we converse as much as we can.... he also showed us the largest salt mine along the way to the floating market...
We arrived at the floating market around 10.00AM and soon greeted by a local agent for the floating market trip.... Then I realised that we need to hire a boat to go for the sight seeing...No body told me about this before arriving here... I felt like being taken for ride when the agent started to show that the tour packages. Prices started from B1500 - B4500 per person depending whether you want for a simple package or together with riding elephants.... Realising that we were not prepared to pay for such a large amount, he showed us a basic package which is only B1000 per person. Once we paid the agent, he quickly introduced us to the boatman.... and he showed us to boat which is parked nearby... since he cannot converse in English, whole boat ride is just a site seeing... nothing much... The boat ride was about 1 hour... I didn't
enjoy as much but my wife kind of like it...
We left the place soon after that and headed back straight back to Bangkok... nothing much to see on the way back but my wife bought some fruits when the taxi stopped at the gas station to fill up... I told the taxi driver to drop us at Usman restaurant on Soi 22 instead at the hotel...
Usman restaurant is well known amongst Malaysian who regularly frequented Bangkok... when we
arrived there the were already a few Malaysians having their lunch there... luckily the place is not full and there is a table for us to sit... we ordered their tom yam speciality and had a good lunch...We went back to hotel for a rest after a good lunch....
We planned to go to Asiatique The Riverfront at night... Asiatique is a new attraction in Bangkok.... It is located along Chao Phraya river.... actually the place was an old wharf that has been converted into a nice shopping area... Abdul Hadi, the hotel receptionist told us to go there by skytrain instead of taking taxi... this is because the road going to Asiatique is always jam...
We left the hotel around 5.00PM and took the skytrain as advised. From our hotel we took the train from Nana station and has to change at Siam station. We need to embark at Saphan Taksin station and walk a bit to the river where a free shuttle boat will take us to Asiatique.
Well the crowd was huge... the queue to get to the boat was getting longer while waiting for the boat to
arrive... I guess there could be a few hundreds boarded the boat to Asiatique...we arrived around 6.00PM and the place is getting darker... quite nice scenery though but the heat and humidity really got to me....
Halal food wise, we were told there is no other halal stall in Asiatique except the one selling kebab... Once we found the stall, we all ordered what else...either chicken or beef kebabs... and ate at the bench around the tree nearby... well the kebab is not that tasty but we have not much choice...
We walked around for a bit... the place is nice for those who want to have a drink and listen to some local music performance... there was a live band performing but we can't appreciate much since we do not know much about Thai music scene... nothing much to buy or see since what can be found in MBK mall can also be found here... mostly tourist gift items.... we soon left back to out hotel... took the river boat and skytrain...a nice experience though but tiring....
On the last day... we have to check out at around 11.00AM since our flight back to KL is at 2.00PM. Nothing much to do in the morning.... so I took the boys to the swimming pool... I also planned to test
my new camera that I bought to replace the G1X that I drown in Romlon.... well the camera Olympus TG4 is good...the colour is nice underwater as well as the video.... Then I only need to buy the underwater housing when I want to go for my next scuba outing...
We had a sort of brunch...breakfast plus lunch in our room... what we did was we cooked instant noodle that we bought at 7Eleven earlier... Abdul Hadi told my wife that there is some food sold in 7Eleven... we only need to look for the halal logo...
I booked a taxi-van earlier from the front counter and the taxi was waiting for us at around 11.00AM... we get on the taxi and it took us about 45 minutes to reach the airport... again everything went on smoothly but since there are many passengers at the airport... everything seems to be rather slow...checked in, security clearance, passport control etc...we quickly look for surau at the airport for our zohor and asar jamak prayers... the surau is quite large and very clean too... well kept...
We soon make our way to the gate for boarding since not much time left before departure...while waiting at departure lounge to board suddenly I saw a person that I really recognised... it was Shah Sham...my old friend in MRSM Kulim...he was also my 4x100m team mate... we were in the team since I was in form 2 until form 5...the other team mates were Amir Hamzah and Ibrahim Bakri...
He was surprised to me and family there... He told me that he is now the captain for B737 series for MAS and fly regionally... He has been flying for more than 20 years with MAS and used to be the captain for B747 series but since MAS has no longer deploy B747s...he now flies 737... we chit chat for a while and not wanting to stop him from his work we shook hand and he quickly walked to the aircraft...
Shortly after that, I saw him again walking towards us... he told us there were 3 empty seats in the business class but there are 4 of us but actually on 2 seats are vacant since he does not want to disturb a VVIP.... well...lucky us...he upgraded our seats from economy to business...he asked whether I mind if I sit in the jump sit in the cockpit and my son sit in the economy... well I was very excited to be given the opportunity to sit in the jump sit... and Umar has no choice but sit in the economy all by himself...
Sitting in the jump seat is a privilege to me...not many people has this sort of opportunity...I thot after the 911 episode...passengers are not allowed to go the cockpit anymore... I felt really honoured when I was invited into the cockpit...the seat is small... and not the most comfortable...not much space between you and the two pilots... however this is the once in the life time experience...
Shahar Sham introduced me to the first officer, Farid. Farid was rather young...late 20s or early 30s... Shahar Sham started to explain to me a lot of technical things about the aircraft and the communication that needs to be done between them and the control tower...everything must be done as told...
I was in the cockpit for 2 full hours... most of the time Shahar Sham explained to me about the aircraft and what pilots need to to do...during this time I saw most of the clicking and pushing of the
buttons and switches was done by Farid...Shahar just gave the instructions...finally when we arrived at KLIA, Shahar told Farid that he will take the control and land the aircraft...It was really a smooth landing....my wife always appreciate good nice landing.... I shook hands with both Shahar and Farid and thanked them for the once in the life time experience...
I will always remember this trip for a long long time...
Taman Melawati
May 2016
