Bangkok Part 1 : LubD and MBK.

Posted: April 11th, 2009 | Author: faddy | Filed under: Travel | Comments Off

As mentioned in the Pre-Bangkok entry, the first Thai we came into contact with was Pissit, our taxi driver, and I think he embodies the character of most Thais. He was friendly, funny, always smiling and eager to practice his English with us throughout the entire journey.

When we first boarded his SUV and told him that his flat rate of 500 baht was too much as we were supposed to be charged only 400 – 450 baht (he did not want to turn on his meter), he kept on saying “Big car! Big car! Diesel!” while laughing like nobodies’ business. We found him so cute that we just agreed to the price as we were getting along fine.

Around 30 to 45 minutes later, we bode farewell to him and entered the hostel where we were supposed to be sleeping at the next 3 nights – Lub’D, which was conveniently located within a 10 minute walk to a skytrain station – Chong Nonsi.

I totally dig the hostel, man. Apart from the funky interior design, LubD also offers free wireless access, around 10 laptops for your usage, many different boardgames, Wii!, a theater room, a mini-bar (which we didn’t use la *cough*) and for powerful security, key card access to most parts of the hostel!

To top it off, most of the clientele at LubD are backpackers between 15 – 30 years of age, so the overall ambiance was a very friendly and cosy one :) Me loike!

After unpacking our luggage (did not take long as Qiey, Kal and I intended to buy everything and most of Anz’s toiletries were at Changi Airport wakakaka!), we trudged out to fill our famished tummies at a Halal Indian restaurant as recommended by one of the hotel staff who is a Muslim as well (”You all Muslim? Me too!“).

However, I would not really call it an “Indian” restaurant, as they served Italian food as well, and the interior design leaned more towards Egyptian. Think they were having some personality issues kekeke. The food was good but priced roughly the same as restaurants in Singapore.

Armed with my Lonely Planet guidebook and map, we began our quest to start burning our pockets. The above picture I think pretty much captures how most Bangkok streets look like – buildings (not skyscrapers) lining the sidewalk, tuk-tuks and motorcycles (Finos are a dime a dozen here) parked everywhere and wires hanging overhead.

There is not much of a traffic light for pedestrians, and the zebra crossings are practically invisible to the drivers. It’s all a mad *breathe in – look around for cars – run for your life* dash across the street when you want to get to the other side. This might be unnerving at first, but on the second day, the four of us were crossing streets like the locals man :P

When we arrived at the train station, I was rather amazed as everything was on par (if not better haha) as compared to our train system in Singapore! Seriously! For example, the security guards taking care of the stations were beefed up men in dashing uniforms who walked around with a fierce look on their face (though they smile when one smiles at them).

Who would dare to commit suicide there during rush hour, I ask you? Kekeke… Anyway, the interior of the trains are much like our local trains, except that the TV with advertisements are bigger (and have better funnier commercials kekeke).

Very cheap some more. Shame on you local trains for charging so much!

We dropped off at the Siam station and proceeded to MBK mall, surpassing Siam Square and Siam Paragon along the way. It was quite a long walk and coupled with the very humid weather (it was drizzling on and off), we were very very thankful when we finally saw the HUGE building.

We found it really hilarious that the MBK mall supplied us a travellator spanning from the overhead bridge entrance right up to the building… when we had to actually climb up the stairs in the first place. Couldn’t they have cut and pasted the travellator on the stairs instead (Travellator! Morph into escalator!)?

As I had mentioned before, MBK is huge. It’s design was basically something like Bugis Village’s second floor and had everything and anything you’d want… from Tshirts to souvenirs and even a spanking huge robot.

However, I would advise that unless you see something you really, really love, it’s best not to burn the bulk of your cash here. Compared to the places we shopped at the next few days, MBK’s prices are not that cheap seeing that everything had a starting price of 199 baht.

There was however this jeans shop on one of the floors (wow I am so helpful haha… just refer to the above picture and you all guess la hor) that has pretty good jeans designs and offer alteration done immediately. Kal and Qiey went a bit wonky here as they glided across the floor while Anz and I collapsed in a heat from all the walking about.

Famished after spending approximately 4 hours at MBK, we started walking back to the train station and entered the first familiar food stall we see – Pizza Hut. Of course it’s not halal like Singapore’s outlets, so we just ordered the large seafood supreme and baca bismillah hehehe.

Food was good, waiters were SO polite and the glass they filled our Pepsis with were humongous and kept on being refilled for freeeeeeee. Awesome news for thirsty hippos.

Despite knowing that Tuk-Tuk drivers in Bangkok are rather notorious with over-charging tourists and bringing them to places that they don’t want, we finally managed to find a decent young chap to take us straight back to LubD.

Of course, at 100baht per ride, it was not really cheap but we were tired, had lots of things to carry, and had had enough of other Tuk-Tuk drivers offering us 10baht per person, only to say at the last minute that they will be bringing us to watch a Thai Girl show which will cost us 500 baht per person (after discount, mind you).

Very thrilling sia the Tuk-tuk ride! The driver was like squeezing in the middle of anything that can be squeezed in, and swerving here and there and… wah syiok! It was like taking a roller coaster ride, just that there were no seatbelts, no doors and I was sitting on the floor of the tuk-tuk holding on to my dear life hahahaha.

After washing up, Anz and I met up with the boys again at the lobby of LubD where we spent the remnants of the night going for a POWER massage, playing the games that the hostel supplied, and whacking each other whilst playing Wii.

It was hilarious when a couple of times, random AngMohs would approach us and invite us out for a drink and give a blank look when we say we don’t drink hahaha. And it was even cuter that everyone was just starting to go out and club the night away, whilst we bid them goodnight because we were going off to sleep. HAHA.

Ok, Bangkok Day 2 coming right up! Chatuchak Weekend Market and the Vespa Market (my favourite tehehe!).