| Sunday, October 14, 2007 |
| Bangkok Trip - Day 3: Shopping Galore |
For our third day, what we did is why most people would do when they visit Bangkok - shopping. Bangkok is a haven for bargain hunters with a lot of choices to choose from. The great thing about Bangkok is that as long as you are good in haggling, you will get good deals when you shop. On my first Bangkok trip, the hotel that we're staying at have a lot of Filipino entrepreneurs who would visit Bangkok to shop for the supplies for their respective business. A proof that it is a shopping haven for every bargain hunter.
For this trip, I told myself that things when I shop, my priorities are 1) a set of spoon and fork for my mother (ang pinakamahalagang bilin nya sa akin; gusto nya kc ung makapal), 2) thai iced tea (I'm really gaga about this, do I need to say more?) and 3) Bangkok's famous spicy tamarind as my pasalubong to my friends in KL. I know where to get the last 2 items so the only thing that I need to find is my mother's cutlery set. The last time that we went to Bangkok, she restrained herself from buying all the cutleries that she saw. When she found out about this trip to Bangkok, the first thing that she said to me is to buy her a set. I asked her what's the difference between the cutleries in Thailand and Philippines and she said that she wants a stainless and thick one (okay fine..).
For our first stop, we went to Chatuchak Weekend Market at the Morchit Station of the BTS Skytain Sukhumvit Line. This market, covering an area of more than 35 acres, contains 15,000 shops and stalls offering a wide range of products from household accessories and Thai handicrafts. This is considered to be the Divisoria of the locals. I could say that the prices in this area is really cheap compared to other stores that I've been to. But just like in Divisoria, this place is crowded and is really hot. I would recommend this place if you have the luxury of time and the patience to shop because it will definitely worthy. But since its very hot that morning, we don't think that we can handle the heat (for our 2-hour stay, I think I've consumed 3 bottles of drinks). But we didn't go home empty handed though because Dru bought a lot of nice shirts for himself and my 3 companions haggled for souvenirs. I also managed to find the cutleries that my mother asked me to buy for her (its pretty expensive pala.. nautakan ako dun ha hahahaha!). Oh, and I think its worth to mention that I bought a half-kilo of Thailand's famous lanzones (my mother went gaga over this that she ate 2 kilos in just one-sitting!).
Since we can't bear the heat in Chatuchak, we all headed to the Platinum Mall, Bangkok's newest mall located near the Pratunam area. This mall was suggested by some of our colleagues who have been to Bangkok recently. It reminded me of Greenhills, thus there's airconditioning inside the mall, much to our delight. But before we proceed with our shopping, we had our lunch at the food center at the 5th floor where I had a Thai omelet with crab meet while my 3 companions had a spicy stir fried beef. After that, we all decided to have our shopping galore and set to meet at 6 PM at the KFC in food court. Rey went on his own while Dru, Gen and I went for shopping. Well, the clothes in that mall has small sizes (big girl kc ako) and the design is not really my style (it's too kikay for me). The same thing happened to Gen as well. So Gen and I ended up as fashion consultant for Dru, who willingly obliged to all our suggestion. We really like to dress him up - aside from the fact that he's willing to do buy whatever we suggest, he is tall, lean, cute (although he's not aware of it) and is a real gentleman. In other words, he can make a lot of girls drool (well, HE IS and he's clueless about it) and we just wanted to bring that out physically (for the record, he's not my crush and I treat him like a younger brother. I just wanted to clarify that). Anyway, he bought 2 tops and a pair of pants. As we shopped for clothes, Gen and Dru acted like kids playing the whole time - they won't stop bickering and teasing each other. Imagine, 2 people who are taller than me doing that.. and they treated me as their babysitter. Anyway, I'm used to it because they would always do that even during office time via Skype.
Since only Dru was the one who found some clothes and he already maxed out his budget, we decided to go to the Pratunam market, where I managed to buy a top, a tube, some souveneir shirts and tamarind for my pasalubong. We're a few minutes late from our 6 PM meeting with Rey, who also went to Pratunam because he wasn't able to buy that much in Platinum. I was really tired with our shopping at that time - imagine I was carrying my mother's cutleries and 2 kilo of tamarind (and the clothes that I bought which is not heavy at all). My feet was really aching at that time.
But it doesn't end there. Since most of us were frustrated from our shopping, we decided to go back to MBK shopping center. Since I was really tired from all the walking that we did, I just sat for more than an hour at the bench near the grocery. My feet was aching. I let my other 3 companions do their own shopping. When Gen and Dru were done with their shopping, I went to the grocery to hoard my Nestle Tea Time Thai Iced tea (I was able to hoard 8 bags, imagine that (the lady in front of me at the counter told me that I don't really like the Thai Iced tea so much haha!). Anyway, I managed to buy 2 knitted sweaters (wee!).
When I got back, we all proceeded to the store that sells Replay and DKNY pants at affordable prizes. All my 3 companions were able to buy their own pants. It was a funny experience because we found out a lot of things: The size of Gen's waistline and that its was Dru's first time to try some fitted pants (he's used on wearing loose ones). After that, we all headed to KFC for dinner.
To reward ourselves from that exhausting shopping experience, we all went for a 2-hour Thai Massage with herbs. It was not my first time to do so. Frow what I know, Thai massage is a dry massage and I have to be dressed while I was being massaged. I didn't know that the package that we availed is more that what I expected. Let me put it this way - we ended up having that typical massage. It was another funny experience for us because we had our own booboos and awkward moments with the masseuse. Hihihi..
The third day made me experience what it means to shop til you drop. It was a VERY tiring day for me. Imagine, we went to 4 shopping areas! Still, the Thai massage is a very good treat for all of us. Not only that, all the things that we did on this is such a great bonding experience for all of us. ;) |
posted by subhuman @ 12:44 AM  |
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