My hotel room in Swiss Lodge... Very huge bed this time...

First night in Bangkok:
After dinner with my colleague, I started out on my first night in Bangkok on the streets of Silom. Since it was Monday, most Thais wore yellow as part of the celebrations of their King’s 80th birthday. It is really an amazing sight to see people wear yellow all around. I can’t help but feel awe for the King for the people of Thailand is honoring him in their everyday lives: his portraits, banners and shrines are all around the city.

Since it was a Monday, hawkers are not allowed to have their stalls on the streets. So, I went to a department store (Robinsons) just to start on my shopping spree. I was very impressed with the kind of details the sales assistants put attention to when they display their products. Every sleeve on every shirt was neatly pressed and tilted to the exact same direction. It was so perfectly neat that I couldn’t bear picking up the shirts just to look at the price tags. It’s the first time I have ever seen a department store arranged with such detail. Too bad the price tags were as exquisite as the displays as well, so I just bought a pair of trousers for my daily office wear.

Patpong was my next destination. Before I came, I heard stories about sleaze they have over there. True enough, lining the street bazaars were sleaze clubs with people touting outside with naked photos and cheap menus. The street bazaars were very similar to the ones in KL, Hong Kong and even Singapore. One special feature was the astounding number of t-shirt shops and fake accessories shops. To be frank, I was quite bored with seeing the same wares appearing again and again in the same night market.

As I was looking for somewhere else to go, suddenly I heard a long and loud car horn. For a moment I thought it was a disgruntled driver but upon finding the source of the din, I was shocked out of my life. There was a vehicle on fire! Policemen were running around and shouting; people along the streets were even afraid to stand and watch. I was completely freaked out and immediately ended my exploration to head back to the hotel.

Second day in Bangkok:
Breakfast was a simple affair as compared to other hotel breakfasts I had. There wasn’t much variety but at least the food is nice. I watched the morning crowd passing the window as they went pass. Food stalls now line the streets as if they sprouted in the night and were selling breakfasts to the students and working class. Workout fanatics were working out profusely at the gym below my office; cars were inching around as always. It was a very surreal start indeed to my second day here.

After work, I immediately headed to the hotel to drop my laptop and documents, before rushing to the train station. During the day, as I was traveling in my colleague’s car, he told me of the different places I should visit during my stay here. One of the places he mentioned was the famous MBK in Siam. It was my first time on the Thai MRT and I was felt that the MRT here really brought the one in Singapore to shame. The fare was really cheap for traveling for 2 stations and the interior of the train was very clean. There was a TV screen featuring advertisements just like some trains in Singapore and Hong Kong. I suppose its counterpart in Singapore will never reach this standard even with their higher fares.

MBK was a typical bargains building with everything under one roof. The same repetition of wares happened here as well and though I walked there till their closing hours, I had bought nothing except for 3 locally made silk ties for over 1400 baht (yeah, stupid me) in the departmental store.

For dinner, which was at 9pm, I went to the Food court at Siam Paragon, supposedly one of the most posh shopping places in the city. There was nothing here that fits my budget; in fact some clothes were more expensive than they are in Singapore!

The famous Siam Paragon...

So back to Patpong I went, this time shopping for some gifts for my friends and fellow trainees in Singapore. It was freaking expensive (250 baht for 10 keychains?!) and I have a strong feeling that someone made a good profit out of my pockets. Oh well… I can’t go back empty handed…

In such a bustling city, there are always some who are living at the edges of survival and begging on the streets. It always breaks my heart to see children involved in the same plight. I emptied my pockets of a bunch of shillings to one of them tonight. It may not be much, but at least it will cover for her dinner tonight.

Night 2 ended without big surprises. In fact I was starting to wonder about what to do for valentine’s day (which is the day after). We shall see how adventurous I become tomorrow.