Khi Baht? - Round 2.
Sesungguhnya kamu terang bagaikan cahaya
Yang menyinari hidupku dikala ku kelam.. kelam
Terciptalah aku tuk kali pertama
Dan akan ku buktikan kesungguhan dari hati ini
Hati ini…
- Nitrus’s "Kamu" -.
Heeeee, i’m glad I’ve put up a haloscan comment box, its like having a guestbook all over again! gratifying siut hehehe *sigh* Thanks you beautiful ppl, all 3 of you, farenster, iRRa and Nerrs! Anyhoots, some shoutouts:
Faren: I can’t believe you went to the Dewa showcase and tak ajak I !!!!!!!! u owe me a pasta dinner! hehehe...hope everything’s fine in Farenland!
iRRa: Heee, ada orang tu dah ade blog! ;) happy writing dear :)
Nerrs: Nerrs, put la some feedback thingy to urs, penat tau I gelak tapi tak boleh nak respond hehe...
And now, back to my Bangkok stories. Oh, btw, Khi Baht means How many Bahts? or How much? in Thai. That’s basically all I properly learnt of the language. Even Sawaddekaap and Kap Khun pun I got mixed up :p *ini yang nak gi belajar Mandarin, Japanese or French nie*
So, third day was Monday, and we’ve made plans the day before to go to the floating market. I’m not sure if there’s other floating markets in Bangkok, but I suppose the one we went to, Damnern Saduak, is the biggest? It’s located some 2 hours journey away from Bangkok, so as to avoid the morning traffic jams, our guide told us to be ready by 6.45 am. So that means, waking up at about 5.30 am. Nasib baik the buffet breakfast starts at 5 a.m, or else, makan Maggi lagi la that morning. But the nice thing was that the sun rises pretty early in Bangkok. By 6.00, its already light. But that means, prayers are earlier la.
Anyway, our tour guide’s name is Peter, and he’s this really funny guy, who errm, sprays when he talks. So, beware. But very, very entertaining. He told us stories about Bangkok, which I can’t quite remember as I was pretty drowsy. He recited Bangkok city’s full name which is actually in the Guinness Book of World Record for the city with the longest name. He sang a few children rhymes in Thai, and cracked us up silly. Whenever he wants to start singing or reciting something, he’ll go "One, Terr, Free" (One, Two, Three la tu), pointing his fingers and rocking from side to side. He’ll translate a few songs for us and sang and dance along with it, the famous one among us is the "Chang, Chang, Chang" (Elephant, Elephant, Elephant) song which Elly got stuck on and sang for the rest of the day. We arrive about 1 ½ hour later at acoconut sugar making factory along the way to Damnern Saduak, where Peter explained how sugar is derived from coconut. Pretty interesting, and very much like the short documentaries that FINAS used to serve us on RTM back in those days. Sue, of course, couldn’t resist posing with the traditional coconut shell scraper, which if I recall correctly, my mom once have and used, but ours was a miniature version. Half an hour later, we arrived the Floating Market village.
All of us board the long, covered sampan with motor which was made for 8 ppl *Sue had to sit with Peter, hehe*, and there we went, rumbling along the motorway. We were advised to keep our hands inside the boat, for fear of knocking into other boats *ouch*. The waterway is a sungai, but pardon me, with the dirty looking water, it kinda looked like a big longkang to me. But twas very interesting. Along the waterway, you could see wooden houses, with its inhabitants in their sarongs *or as how Peter refers to it; Thai’s national bathing suit* washing up dishes, clothes, and even bathing *pardon me again, but eww!*. We were given young coconuts to sip from as we made our way, down a few kilometres of the waterway to the market. Very serene surroundings, traditional and rustic.
Inevitably, we bumped into a few sampans displaying their wares. Majority of them were selling souvenirs, vegetables and fruits, and food. Oh my. If only I could eat those food, I would have prolly sunk the front portion of the sampan, hehe. We stopped by this lady selling some noodle soup, and everyone (cept me and Elles) shared a bowl of yummy looking, steaming hot bowl of noodle, with of course, the customary fish sauce. Then we passed this lady selling a Thai dessert, sweet mango with sticky rice. Then it was the lady that sold the small crispy pancakes, with creamy santan filling..*drools*. Pity Elles and I couldn’t taste those desserts as we were flat broke :( Whenever we passed by other sampans, the passengers would almost always wave to us, and Sue even tried to pick up this Mat Salleh riding alone.. "Waah, you look soo lonely!" haha..hilarious!
When we finally got to the market, it was just an amazing sight. It’s exactly as how they pictured it on those postcards, and Discovery Travel shows. Many, many sampans floating along, bumping into each other, each of those, laden with all kinds of vegetables and fruits *i can’t recall any fish, poultry or beef tho* and along the banks, stationary stalls displaying more souvenirs. We drifted along *as we’re not allowed to power up the motor*, while the Thai merchants called out their merchandises. The hustle and bustle of it all is reminiscent of a typical market place, only on water! There were of course, loads of other tourists as well on other sampans. The ladies of our sampan bought some fruits as souvenirs, as nobody really shops at the floating market due to its unattractive prices and out of the way location.
We drifted along until we reach the end of the market, and then the guide powered up the sampan to take us to this sacred place along the waterway, where there’s a temple and where we were going to feed the fish that breeds near the temple. It is said that the fish are sacred and that no one’s allowed to catch them or, God forbid, have them for dinner. Tho these fishes are sacred, but man, are they hungry! Each of us were given a bag of fish feed to throw into the water, and when we did, we could see like 10 to 20 fishes, coming up to the surface, gobling up the food. Think piranhas. If they were any bigger than the normal fish size, they’d prolly have rocked the boat side to side. There must have been hundreds of fish down there, as wherever we threw the food, you could see the black shapes of the fishes coming up in large groups to feed.
We were given some time to hang around the banks of the Floating Market, but by then, the Elles have realised that she left her purse back at the hotel. So, it wasn’t a very pleasant outing for her(read: can’t shop, hehe). Earlier, we had asked Peter to drop us off at Chinatown as soon as we arrived Bangkok, but Elly decided to go back to the hotel, with me to accompany her, so that she can pick up her wallet *she managed to call Housekeeping, who found her wallet, and was keeping it for her*. On the way back, we stopped by this furniture factory to see wooden furniture, carved out by talented Thai craftsmen.
All of us slept on the way back to Bangkok, and upon arrival, were greeted by a massive traffic jam. We were all hungry, and as the girls were leaving for Chinatown, me and Elles decided to look for some halal food. We asked Peter who told the driver to drop us off at the nearest halal food restaurant, nearest to our hotel. He dropped us at this alley, with a small mosque at the head of it, lined up with halal restaurant and warongs..yayy! Elly was craving for some tomyam, and I just wanted to fill up my growling tummy. We found a nice small place, with airconditioning to boot, and ordered a sumptous lunch. Telur bungkus, tomyam campur, some mixed vegetables, and upon looking at our neighbour’s fish dish, decided to order the Kerapu fried with chilli. Heavenly meal! We actually polished up the giant fish, and sipped the tomyam to its last drop! The food was perfecto, making us drowsy, as we dragged our feet back to the hotel *which was about 10-15 minutes walk away*. We passed by a Thai massage parlour along the way, and its 250 baht Thai massages intrigued us to go back for some needed kneading of the muscles *what muscles?*.
After a short nap and rest, we walked down to our friendly money changer hehe, and changed some more moolah. Then we decided to take the Tuk Tuk to Chinatown area. FYI, ppl say the Tuk Tuks are a rip off, as you are better off riding in a metered cab, but sometimes, it works out cheaper considering the distance and the condition of the traffic. A metered cab is a cheaper ride, provided that there’s no traffic jamsla. The Tuk Tuk guy would usually charge about 100 bahts per ride, and the more ppl ride with you, the cheaper it is. Go for longer rides, then its kinda worth it la. Plus, its such an experience riding the Tuk Tuk; it ‘s not half as dangerous as riding the Jakarta Bajais *or so, i’ve been told* but the wind rushing in your hair, plus fumes in your face, and giggling at the absurdity of weaving through the cars during heavy traffic, was just exhilirating. Hehe, plus photo opportunity y’all. :) We passed an area lined with designer stores along the way too.
We arrived at the Chinatown/ Pat Phong area near dusk, and walked around for a bit, as we were quite early *we were supposed to meet the girls at 7pm*. The area is bustling with loads of shops * I counted 3 Watsons within walking distances of each other!*, malls, fast food places, and people. We walked down this alley where there’s lotsa Japanese bars, found a Starbucks and sat down for a drink. Near 7 pm, we walked towards the skytrain station where we’re supposed to meet the other girls. Along the way we saw some S&M looking bars which was an indication of what we were going to see that night hehe. The girls were having some McDonalds for dinner, and after that, we crossed the road to the Pat Phong market.
Well, what I didn’t know about the Pat Phong area, is that its famous for its Thai Girl Shows *which everyone refers to as the Tiger Show*. As we walked down the alley with the stalls displaying Petaling Street merchandises on one side, the other side was lined with bars. And upon peeking into those bars, we’d see a barcounter inside, with long poles attached on top of it. And dancing on those bars and gyrating up and down the poles, were scantily-clad Thai women *men?*. Hmm, veerrrrry interesting *winks*. We were thrusted menus of what these Thai Girls could do, and I caught "Ping-pong show" on one of the menus. What? So, Elles was quite excited, as she wanted to go watch one of the shows *we couldn’t really decide as there were so many bars!*, so when one guy claimed "Free show, free show!", all 7 of us, followed him up this neon-lit staircase to this darkly-lit bar, with topless girls dancing on the countertops.
Oh dear. *I now fully realised how the term "Free Show" came about*. We all sat down, quite hesitantly, and suddenly this group of barmaids charged at us, demanding that we order some drinks. And apparently, the cover charge was about 700 bahts * I think, I can’t remember la, I had topless Thai girls in front of me!!*. So, err, no thank you for me, as I politely decline, climbing down the stool, and running after Kai Yee, Rebecca, Sue and Huei Wen who also left. Elly and Pui Yee decided to stay and sat there for what must have been one unforgettable night of their lives. *we later found out that despite the unbelievable stunts those Thai Girls performed, Elles and Pui yee were also harrassed by some err, pimps? Pui Yee claimed that her heart didn’t stop beating the whole time she was there, as she was quite terrified, and that she felt dirty when she left the place..poor thing! Dahlaa Pui Yee nie soo small and cute, just like a little sister you want to take care off. She didn’t even know what Tiger Show meant..she actually thought there’ll be actual tigers!*
The others and I roamed the Pat Phong market for a bit, but found that the prices they charged are quite unreasonable, so one advice, you’re better off back in Uptown, bargaining for the same t-shirts hehe. Or Pratunam and Chatuchak. After about 45 minutes later, Elly and Pui Yee arrived, and we took 2 cabs back to the hotel. The thing is, its important to ask for a cab that follows the meter if you’re gonna go on a metered cab. Unfortunately, most cabs don’t, as it was quite late. We have all almost given up hope and it was already near midnight, but in the end found 2 that were willing to follow the meter. Then again, due to a late-night traffic jam, caused by an actual elephant crossing the busy roads of Bangkok, the fare weren’t that low either.
Hey, this is sooo taking up my office time!! Will come back with the 2 last days in Bangkok *where nothing much happened pun, but i’m still gonna post them up for remembrance*..Have a fuss-free day folks!
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