There were still more of Bangkok yet to be discovered and today we started the day by paying a visit to the the complex of Vimanmek Palaces.
Consisting of various palaces and mansions, previously homes the Thai royalties, these extravagant palaces and mansions are now converted to become the exhibition venues of various antiquities, each mansion specialising on one theme, from collection of the king's personally taken photographs to the king's collection of watches and clocks, firearms, china wares and porcelains, carriages, royal attires etc etc etc.
The grandest of all would be the 90 over rooms of Vimanmek Mansion, once home to King Chulalongkorn of which half of them are now accessible to the public to ogle.
Stepping into the Atana Samakom or The Throne Hall was simply a breathtaking experience. Largely influenced by the Roman architecture, the Throne Hall was definitely a place not to be missed by any visitors to Bangkok.
It is unfortunate that no photographs were allowed to be taken inside the place as all that I depend on now is only the memory of it as what was registered and continue to be registered in the mind solely.
After spending almost half a day at the Vimanmek Complex, we headed next to Thewet Flower Market. The Market, lining up stalls selling flowers and potted plants was a good place to admire the beautiful tropical flowers and plants, all of which were of excellent quality.
The Flower Market was the last in our itinerary for our Bangkok's excursion as later in the day would be time for us to head home. So right after the last meal at another Halal Restaurant around Petchaburi, we then got a taxi to take us the Bangkok's grand new airport Suvarnabhumi Airport.
If this was how the first cab looked like when we started our journey 6 days ago, ...... ... this was how the cab we took to head to the Airport looked like. Noticed the boot that just could not be closed? Why and How, I'm sure you can can figure it yourself!
And our luggage had to be checked-in through a different channel, the Oversize Baggage Check-in Facility instead of the normal checking in at the check-in counter.
Kuala Lumpur was calling, and from this notice, calling for the "last time". Bon Voyage Bangkok, Hello Kuala Lumpur. Till we meet again, the fond memories of Bangkok would definitely be registered in the mind for a long time to come.
For the visitors of the blog, thank you for sharing our experience, I sincerely hope that for those who have never been to Bangkok would have at least seen and felt Bangkok through the reading of the 6 part series of our experience and for those who had been there, I hope your own fond memories of Bangkok would be recollected and relived.
Jasni AJ
SELAMAT DATANG - WELCOME - AHLAN WASAHLAN - HUANYING
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok : Tales of Day 5
After experiencing the various modes of transportation from taxis, aircraft, ferry, train, tuk-tuks, "skytrain" and buggy, all within a span of 4 days, today, the Bunch was introduced with another mode of transportation widely being used in the City of Bangkok. And the mode of transportation is none other than the Long Boat.
Though the Long Boat we took was not really kinda public transportation but it is popular among tourists to Bangkok as a river cruise along Menam Chao Pharaya would normally be in the itinerary of any visitors there.
A river cruise is one thing but a visit to the famous "Floating Market" is just another reason for the boat ride.
Like any other tourists, we also had our river cruise along Menam Chao Pharaya and along with that a visit to the "Floating Market".
Venice of the East, that's what some people have called Bangkok as historically the rivers were the highways then. Houses faces the rivers instead of the roads. And now though the roads have almost taken over the then role of the rivers, traces of houses facing the rivers are still pretty much evident in Bangkok, especially along the main Chao Pharaya River.
We were astonished to see the beautiful "jetties" built by each owner of the houses along the rivers. And these beautiful "jetties" are evidence that the rivers are still pretty much in good use as "roads" just like the yesteryears.
We were pretty disappointed on the "Floating Market" as there simply wasn't one. Perhaps due the wrong timing, all we could see were two or three sampans waiting to approach their tourists when the boats got near.
The only sampan that approached us was merely selling bananas, bread and some souvenir items. And the floating trader seemed to be only willing to move away only after we have something from him.
And we got two of bread and a miniature floating sampan from the floating trader.
You might wonder why on earth did we buy two of bread. Well, the bread was not for us but the fishes residencing along the river.
And the fishes were huge, so "gemuk-gemuk" (fat), perhaps due the constant food supply from the tourists.
Our initial programme was to visit The Grand Palace upon berthing at the jetty near it. But our plan changed as the minute we "landed", we were approached by three persons volunteering telling us that the Grand Palace was closed to public at the particular time due to a religious observation taking place within the Grand Palace premise.
Mind you, not one but three, one at the pier, one along the road leading to the Grand Palace and another one at the supposedly entrance of the Grand Palace. All three with the same line of story, that the Grand Palace was closed to public and only to be re-opened at 3.30 p.m.
What choice do we have but to follow along with an idea by the last person to visit to some other interesting location while waiting for the Grand Palace to be re-opened.
So off we went to a supposedly grand shrine that was supposedly opened to the public for free only fo that day. How lucky we were to be there to enjoy a visit the grand shrine for free!
But we were brought there by a Tuk-tuk driver. And as I have told you before, a journey by a tuk-tuk would not be complete without a detour to none other than a "gem jewelry" outlet.
So there we go again, glancing the the precious stones and beautiful jewelries to kill time.
But the tuk-tuk driver kept on insisting to take to more "gem jewelry" outlet! We have had enough and politely asked him to sent us back to the Grand Palace no matter what.
Hesitantly, he WAS suddenly on a rush mode in sending us there. We can't really comprehend it at first but we eventually came to know the actual story once we got into the Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace visiting hours was nearing its end. It closes at 3.30 and all that talk about the Palace being closed was simply a BLATANT LIE!
It seems that those people were agents of a syndicate whose main scheme was to divert visitors from visiting the Grand Palace but to other venues where they could get some form of commissions! Yuk! What is this?
We were very lucky to had that Tuk-tuk driver who had a change of heart by sending us there back before 3.30. He sent us at 3.20, just enough time for us to get the admission tickets. In fact, we were the last one who managed to get the admission ticket for the day.
Guided by a "instant" tourist guide for a fee of 500 Baht, we we brought to admire the magnificent Siamese architecture which was simply excellent and would definitely be a sheer pity if we had ever missed the opportunity of gaining entrance into the premise.
Oh what a day it was, glad to have had another picturesque day but at the same time feeling like punching the faces of the ridiculous con men.
Stay tune to the tales of Day 6 coming up next.
Jasni AJ
Though the Long Boat we took was not really kinda public transportation but it is popular among tourists to Bangkok as a river cruise along Menam Chao Pharaya would normally be in the itinerary of any visitors there.
A river cruise is one thing but a visit to the famous "Floating Market" is just another reason for the boat ride.
Like any other tourists, we also had our river cruise along Menam Chao Pharaya and along with that a visit to the "Floating Market".
Venice of the East, that's what some people have called Bangkok as historically the rivers were the highways then. Houses faces the rivers instead of the roads. And now though the roads have almost taken over the then role of the rivers, traces of houses facing the rivers are still pretty much evident in Bangkok, especially along the main Chao Pharaya River.
We were astonished to see the beautiful "jetties" built by each owner of the houses along the rivers. And these beautiful "jetties" are evidence that the rivers are still pretty much in good use as "roads" just like the yesteryears.
We were pretty disappointed on the "Floating Market" as there simply wasn't one. Perhaps due the wrong timing, all we could see were two or three sampans waiting to approach their tourists when the boats got near.
The only sampan that approached us was merely selling bananas, bread and some souvenir items. And the floating trader seemed to be only willing to move away only after we have something from him.
And we got two of bread and a miniature floating sampan from the floating trader.
You might wonder why on earth did we buy two of bread. Well, the bread was not for us but the fishes residencing along the river.
And the fishes were huge, so "gemuk-gemuk" (fat), perhaps due the constant food supply from the tourists.
Our initial programme was to visit The Grand Palace upon berthing at the jetty near it. But our plan changed as the minute we "landed", we were approached by three persons volunteering telling us that the Grand Palace was closed to public at the particular time due to a religious observation taking place within the Grand Palace premise.
Mind you, not one but three, one at the pier, one along the road leading to the Grand Palace and another one at the supposedly entrance of the Grand Palace. All three with the same line of story, that the Grand Palace was closed to public and only to be re-opened at 3.30 p.m.
What choice do we have but to follow along with an idea by the last person to visit to some other interesting location while waiting for the Grand Palace to be re-opened.
So off we went to a supposedly grand shrine that was supposedly opened to the public for free only fo that day. How lucky we were to be there to enjoy a visit the grand shrine for free!
But we were brought there by a Tuk-tuk driver. And as I have told you before, a journey by a tuk-tuk would not be complete without a detour to none other than a "gem jewelry" outlet.
So there we go again, glancing the the precious stones and beautiful jewelries to kill time.
But the tuk-tuk driver kept on insisting to take to more "gem jewelry" outlet! We have had enough and politely asked him to sent us back to the Grand Palace no matter what.
Hesitantly, he WAS suddenly on a rush mode in sending us there. We can't really comprehend it at first but we eventually came to know the actual story once we got into the Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace visiting hours was nearing its end. It closes at 3.30 and all that talk about the Palace being closed was simply a BLATANT LIE!
It seems that those people were agents of a syndicate whose main scheme was to divert visitors from visiting the Grand Palace but to other venues where they could get some form of commissions! Yuk! What is this?
We were very lucky to had that Tuk-tuk driver who had a change of heart by sending us there back before 3.30. He sent us at 3.20, just enough time for us to get the admission tickets. In fact, we were the last one who managed to get the admission ticket for the day.
Guided by a "instant" tourist guide for a fee of 500 Baht, we we brought to admire the magnificent Siamese architecture which was simply excellent and would definitely be a sheer pity if we had ever missed the opportunity of gaining entrance into the premise.
Oh what a day it was, glad to have had another picturesque day but at the same time feeling like punching the faces of the ridiculous con men.
Stay tune to the tales of Day 6 coming up next.
Jasni AJ
Monday, March 24, 2008
From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok : Tales of Day 4
11th March 2008 - Our vacation was getting better and better each day. Today we joined thousands of Bangkokians commutting in their much prided Skytrain.
The Skytrain coaches are surprisingly of top notch quality, in terms of service, infrastructure and facilities. Just look at this picture, see how wide the coach is. It certainly a class above our much bragged about LRT (of both the Kelana Jaya Line and Ampang Line). Come to think about it, it is even better than some of the older lines of London's Tubes.
But just to be fair, Bangkok's Skytrain was just recently introduced in 1999 (more or less at the same time as our Ampang Line) while the first line in London would be 150 years old this year. So I guess the later you get the service, the better it would be as you would get the latest of the latest.
One thing that I liked about this Skytrain is their multiple number of coaches. The coaches are long, as long as our Komuter Lines and with greater frequency, the coaches would not be as packed as both our Komuter Lines or Kelana Jaya Line during peak periods. Well, at least was what I observed, I may be wrong but on that day, a ride in the Skytrain was a breeze ride, both back and fro our destination.
So where did we go to?
Yes, we went to Bangkok's Ancient City, known to the locals as Muang Boran.
A City where a visit there would mean that you have travelled troughout Thailand, from Pattani to Chiengmai, and from the territories bordering Cambodia to the territories bordering Burma.
It's 320 acres in size and shaped along the actual map of Thailand. In other words you would be entering the City through Pattani all the way up to Chiengmai.
And what do you see there?
Hundreds of scuptures. From recognisable images like these elephants of various sizes and postures .....
... to strange and mystical creatures like this part human part snake statue ...
... and to these eeery looking seven headed snakes ...
.... not forgetting the hundreds of Buddha images of every descent postures, from meditating ......
... to sleeping ....
... to sitting, standing, walking etc etc etc all of which I just could not post them here for fear of consuming to much memory space.
Most amazing was the sight of magnificent reproduction of the hundreds of Thailand's historical structures, buildings, palaces, temples from all over the country, grouped into one city for all to admire.
And to reflect the real Thailand, there is a reproduction of an ancient mosque too on display. A reproduction not only for display but functional too as you are free to perform the solat without any problem.
You would also be brought back in time of about fifty years once you enter the Old Market Square Enclave. Old Kopitiams, Barber Shop, Grocery Shop and all those that exist 50 years ago were carefully preserved. Entering this Barber Shop for instance would bring you back to the memories of the old Malay films and the experience of reliving in that era was simply tremendous. Imagine being at a place where your grandpa or even your great grandpa could be used to, something that is now extinct in our modern surrounding.
Getting around the huge Ancient City was absolutely not a problem. The management of the city was proactive enough by providing vehicles for rent. This buggy, for instance, was rented for a fee of 300 Baht an hour. But since the City is huge, don't ever dream that you can cover the whole City within an hour. In the most minimum, you would be spending about three hours there, the amount of time we spent there.
Other than buggies, you can also rent bicycles or if you wish, you can always join a guided tour of the City in a tram.
My elder son would be the happiest person when we chose to rent the buggy. After a few metres driving it, he politely asked whether he could get his hands on the steering. His request was duly granted and that day became history to him as the first time he ever drived.
Yes, we did had our scary moments with his driving, but for a first timer, I would admit that he was not bad a driver indeed. I guess it won't be not long now that he would be driving us around town, as I'm sure he would be scrambling to get his driving license once he reach the eligilibity age.
All in all, we were extremely glad that we managed to get our way to the Ancient City. For new visitors to Bangkok, do make it a point to pay it a visit and have a taste of wholesome Thailand. Like us, you won't regret it.
But not to confuse you, you can't actually reach the Ancient City by just taking the Skytrain ride. The Skytrain ride was only probably a third of the journey. The rest of the journey would be by taking a cab from Skytrain's last station On Nut. The taxi fare from On Nut to the Ancient City would be around 250 Baht (according to the meter).
Day 4 ended with a splash in the Hotel's swimming pool, a day well spent and the splash was simply refreshing.
Stay tune to our adventures in Day 5 coming up next.
Jasni AJ
The Skytrain coaches are surprisingly of top notch quality, in terms of service, infrastructure and facilities. Just look at this picture, see how wide the coach is. It certainly a class above our much bragged about LRT (of both the Kelana Jaya Line and Ampang Line). Come to think about it, it is even better than some of the older lines of London's Tubes.
But just to be fair, Bangkok's Skytrain was just recently introduced in 1999 (more or less at the same time as our Ampang Line) while the first line in London would be 150 years old this year. So I guess the later you get the service, the better it would be as you would get the latest of the latest.
One thing that I liked about this Skytrain is their multiple number of coaches. The coaches are long, as long as our Komuter Lines and with greater frequency, the coaches would not be as packed as both our Komuter Lines or Kelana Jaya Line during peak periods. Well, at least was what I observed, I may be wrong but on that day, a ride in the Skytrain was a breeze ride, both back and fro our destination.
So where did we go to?
Yes, we went to Bangkok's Ancient City, known to the locals as Muang Boran.
A City where a visit there would mean that you have travelled troughout Thailand, from Pattani to Chiengmai, and from the territories bordering Cambodia to the territories bordering Burma.
It's 320 acres in size and shaped along the actual map of Thailand. In other words you would be entering the City through Pattani all the way up to Chiengmai.
And what do you see there?
Hundreds of scuptures. From recognisable images like these elephants of various sizes and postures .....
... to strange and mystical creatures like this part human part snake statue ...
... and to these eeery looking seven headed snakes ...
.... not forgetting the hundreds of Buddha images of every descent postures, from meditating ......
... to sleeping ....
... to sitting, standing, walking etc etc etc all of which I just could not post them here for fear of consuming to much memory space.
Most amazing was the sight of magnificent reproduction of the hundreds of Thailand's historical structures, buildings, palaces, temples from all over the country, grouped into one city for all to admire.
And to reflect the real Thailand, there is a reproduction of an ancient mosque too on display. A reproduction not only for display but functional too as you are free to perform the solat without any problem.
You would also be brought back in time of about fifty years once you enter the Old Market Square Enclave. Old Kopitiams, Barber Shop, Grocery Shop and all those that exist 50 years ago were carefully preserved. Entering this Barber Shop for instance would bring you back to the memories of the old Malay films and the experience of reliving in that era was simply tremendous. Imagine being at a place where your grandpa or even your great grandpa could be used to, something that is now extinct in our modern surrounding.
Getting around the huge Ancient City was absolutely not a problem. The management of the city was proactive enough by providing vehicles for rent. This buggy, for instance, was rented for a fee of 300 Baht an hour. But since the City is huge, don't ever dream that you can cover the whole City within an hour. In the most minimum, you would be spending about three hours there, the amount of time we spent there.
Other than buggies, you can also rent bicycles or if you wish, you can always join a guided tour of the City in a tram.
My elder son would be the happiest person when we chose to rent the buggy. After a few metres driving it, he politely asked whether he could get his hands on the steering. His request was duly granted and that day became history to him as the first time he ever drived.
Yes, we did had our scary moments with his driving, but for a first timer, I would admit that he was not bad a driver indeed. I guess it won't be not long now that he would be driving us around town, as I'm sure he would be scrambling to get his driving license once he reach the eligilibity age.
All in all, we were extremely glad that we managed to get our way to the Ancient City. For new visitors to Bangkok, do make it a point to pay it a visit and have a taste of wholesome Thailand. Like us, you won't regret it.
But not to confuse you, you can't actually reach the Ancient City by just taking the Skytrain ride. The Skytrain ride was only probably a third of the journey. The rest of the journey would be by taking a cab from Skytrain's last station On Nut. The taxi fare from On Nut to the Ancient City would be around 250 Baht (according to the meter).
Day 4 ended with a splash in the Hotel's swimming pool, a day well spent and the splash was simply refreshing.
Stay tune to our adventures in Day 5 coming up next.
Jasni AJ
Sunday, March 23, 2008
From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok : Tales of Day 3
10th March 2008 - At long last we arrived at Bangkok's Hua Lamphong Railway Station. Hua Lamphong Railway Station is Bangkok's main station, equivalent to our own KL Sentral, in role that is, as it serves as the station where train services to Thai's eastern, northern and southern territories commences and ends. Bangkok's MRT station also commences from this station, an underground line running for some 20 kilometres that went into operation since 2004.
Though slowly getting modernisation touch, you would not want to disembark from coach initially as you might not believe that you have actually reached the final destination upon seeing the rundown platform with groups of people peeling onions and potatoes there. I hate to say this but the station really looked so "kampung" not befitting the "city" image that we might be used to with. This is especially true when back home anything belongs to the city would normally be given greater attention in its maintenance, appearance etc etc. Just look at KL Sentral and I'm sure you know what I mean.
Right after "touch-down", we immediately hailed a taxi to head to our Hotel, the First Hotel. Well, we did not exactly hail a taxi but rather we had actually followed a taxi tout already there waiting for prospective clients.
There is no coupon system in place there so, it will all depend much on your luck of either getting a taxi driver whot would use the meter (as they should) or those taxi drivers who are cousins to the taxi drivers at KL's Puduraya, Subang Jaya's KTM Station, Subang Jaya's Carrefour and every taxi drivers at Penang, where pre-determined fixed price prevails.
The fare that I had to pay the cab driver (who didn't use the meter) for the short journey from Hua Lamphong to First Hotel at Petchaburi was 150 Baht, approximately about RM15. It's a bit on the high side, but as we were just interested to get to the Hotel fast, to check-in and and to freshen-up that slightly high fare didn't really bother us then.
And it was at the Hotel's Halong Restaurant where we first had our first real meal of the day. We did not take any meal on board the train as when looking at the menu, there were various dishes of "pork" being served, ending up us getting only Milos.
Halong Restaurant on the other hand is a full fledged Halal Restaurant that also caters to Vegetarian dishes making it a favourite among Muslim and Indian visitors.
Our first real tour of Bangkok started right after lunch when we took a cab to Jim Thompson's House, a house once belonged to an American Jim Thompson who fell in love with Thailand and decided to stay there until his mysterious disappearance during a holiday trip at Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.
He was attributed as the person responsible to revive and commercialise Thai's cottage industry, in particular, the silk weaving industry.
The House itself is a reflection of Jim Thompson's appreciation of local arts and culture. Maintained by a foundation that takes care of Thailand's cottage industry, the House is now turned into a museum displaying Jim Thompson's collection of local arts, antiques and handicrafts as well as those from the neighbouring states.
Right after the visit to Jim Thompson's House, our adventure with the Tuk-Tuks began. With cheap fares of between 20 to 30 Bahts, you can get the Tuk-Tuk drivers to take you to everywhere, especially to all the Gem Jewelry and Silk Outlets, willingly or otherwise!
It was fine for the first two days, visiting a number of Gem Jewelry and Silk Outlets, but it proved to be a bit to much to swallow when the Tuk-Tuk drivers kept on insisting to take us to other Gem Jewelry and Silk Outlets whenever you hailed them to transport you elsewhere on the subsequent days.
We were in a dilemma, a dilemma between hailing a taxi who doesn't want to use meters and charge exorbitant fare and hailing tuk-tuks which are cheap but we would have to follow their itinerary first before your own!
And Bangkok has tons of Gem Jewelry and Silk outlets indeed. And these outlets actually incentify these Tuk-tuk drivers with Fuel Coupons whenever they brought in potential clients, hence the reason for the over-zealousness of these Tuk-tuk drivers taking you to these outlets one after the other, until you buy something that is!
And we did get something for ourselves : a Ruby Gold Ring, a Topaz Silver Necklace and a two-piece suit from visiting of about 8 of such outlets all over Bangkok - all thanks to the Tuk-tuk drivers.
We ended the day by having a taste of Bangkok's hawker food. Though there was no "Halal" sign, the sight of the lady in tudung was halal enough for us to have a bite on the Thai variant of our Roti Canai.
It's very sweet, extremely sweet indeed. Each roti has an egg each, a spoon of sugar and a spoon of condensed milk. So that's Thailand to you, sweet sweet Thailand!
Jasni AJ
Though slowly getting modernisation touch, you would not want to disembark from coach initially as you might not believe that you have actually reached the final destination upon seeing the rundown platform with groups of people peeling onions and potatoes there. I hate to say this but the station really looked so "kampung" not befitting the "city" image that we might be used to with. This is especially true when back home anything belongs to the city would normally be given greater attention in its maintenance, appearance etc etc. Just look at KL Sentral and I'm sure you know what I mean.
Right after "touch-down", we immediately hailed a taxi to head to our Hotel, the First Hotel. Well, we did not exactly hail a taxi but rather we had actually followed a taxi tout already there waiting for prospective clients.
There is no coupon system in place there so, it will all depend much on your luck of either getting a taxi driver whot would use the meter (as they should) or those taxi drivers who are cousins to the taxi drivers at KL's Puduraya, Subang Jaya's KTM Station, Subang Jaya's Carrefour and every taxi drivers at Penang, where pre-determined fixed price prevails.
The fare that I had to pay the cab driver (who didn't use the meter) for the short journey from Hua Lamphong to First Hotel at Petchaburi was 150 Baht, approximately about RM15. It's a bit on the high side, but as we were just interested to get to the Hotel fast, to check-in and and to freshen-up that slightly high fare didn't really bother us then.
And it was at the Hotel's Halong Restaurant where we first had our first real meal of the day. We did not take any meal on board the train as when looking at the menu, there were various dishes of "pork" being served, ending up us getting only Milos.
Halong Restaurant on the other hand is a full fledged Halal Restaurant that also caters to Vegetarian dishes making it a favourite among Muslim and Indian visitors.
Our first real tour of Bangkok started right after lunch when we took a cab to Jim Thompson's House, a house once belonged to an American Jim Thompson who fell in love with Thailand and decided to stay there until his mysterious disappearance during a holiday trip at Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.
He was attributed as the person responsible to revive and commercialise Thai's cottage industry, in particular, the silk weaving industry.
The House itself is a reflection of Jim Thompson's appreciation of local arts and culture. Maintained by a foundation that takes care of Thailand's cottage industry, the House is now turned into a museum displaying Jim Thompson's collection of local arts, antiques and handicrafts as well as those from the neighbouring states.
Right after the visit to Jim Thompson's House, our adventure with the Tuk-Tuks began. With cheap fares of between 20 to 30 Bahts, you can get the Tuk-Tuk drivers to take you to everywhere, especially to all the Gem Jewelry and Silk Outlets, willingly or otherwise!
It was fine for the first two days, visiting a number of Gem Jewelry and Silk Outlets, but it proved to be a bit to much to swallow when the Tuk-Tuk drivers kept on insisting to take us to other Gem Jewelry and Silk Outlets whenever you hailed them to transport you elsewhere on the subsequent days.
We were in a dilemma, a dilemma between hailing a taxi who doesn't want to use meters and charge exorbitant fare and hailing tuk-tuks which are cheap but we would have to follow their itinerary first before your own!
And Bangkok has tons of Gem Jewelry and Silk outlets indeed. And these outlets actually incentify these Tuk-tuk drivers with Fuel Coupons whenever they brought in potential clients, hence the reason for the over-zealousness of these Tuk-tuk drivers taking you to these outlets one after the other, until you buy something that is!
And we did get something for ourselves : a Ruby Gold Ring, a Topaz Silver Necklace and a two-piece suit from visiting of about 8 of such outlets all over Bangkok - all thanks to the Tuk-tuk drivers.
We ended the day by having a taste of Bangkok's hawker food. Though there was no "Halal" sign, the sight of the lady in tudung was halal enough for us to have a bite on the Thai variant of our Roti Canai.
It's very sweet, extremely sweet indeed. Each roti has an egg each, a spoon of sugar and a spoon of condensed milk. So that's Thailand to you, sweet sweet Thailand!
Jasni AJ
Saturday, March 22, 2008
From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok : Tales of Day 2
9th March 2008, the day Malaysia changed. It was also the day when Penang got its first ever King, DYMM King Jasni AJ, installed exactly on his 45th birthday.
What a wishful thinking, but it does not deter me from donning the crown on my birthday and declare myself as the King of Penang for that special day. By sheer co-incidence, it was here in Penang where I was born some 45 years ago (you don't have to be math genius to figure this out as I have told you that it's my 45th birthday!). So basically, I was at the right place and at the right time to celebrate my one and only 45th birthday.
Though I'm just jesting and strictly just for a laugh, I sincerely hope that I have not offended anyone with the self-proclaiming as Penang's new King as from the last time I checked, the state is still without a royal ruler hence there is absolutely no Penang royal family.
And my first royal chore of the day was to pay a visit together with the new royal family to Butterworth Railway Station.
You may ask, why the Railway Station and not the Airport? Well, we were there to board the Thai State Railway's Butterworth - Bangkok Express Service.
Yes, we're getting to Bangkok by train and not by plane! A journey that would only take about 1 and a half hours if taken through a flight from Penang will now be a trip of some 20 hours trekking the padi fields of Kedah and Perlis as well as those in southern territories of Thailand and all the way up to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
It was also a sentimental trip as I had taken the same train before, some 18 years ago, for my first ever visit to Bangkok with a bunch of friends, all of whom were OKUs of the Armed Forces.
So basically, as this visit to Bangkok would be the first ever visit there by the rest of my family members, I thought it would be nice to relive the excitement and experience I once had when taking the train trip to Bangkok then.
The fare was not cheap, that's if you're wondering, as it would cost more or less the same if you're to take an Airasia flight to Bangkok (provided that you can get the zero fare promotional tickets, that is).
If you're still wondering, well the fare is approximately RM100 for each passengers one way. Not cheap right, for a train ride, but it does have its own charm that would be registered in your mind for a long long time.
And the coach was not bad too. Fully air-conditioned, it was two seats facing each other with a table in between to allow us to play chess and scrabbles as as for having meals, each seat for a passenger. A seat that could comfortably seat two passengers.
Come evening, the seating arrangement changed when the personnel in charge start converting the seats to sleeping berths. One lower and one upper making them simply just comfy for a nice and good night sleep.
But something went amiss, something very wrong that had made me thinking that I had made a grave mistake by choosing to take the train ride instead of a flight.
These two pictures tell everything. Yes, you might be thinking that these two pictures were taken from the third class coaches where there would be standing passengers, passengers without assigned seats.
But the sad truth is that these two pictures were taken from the same "comfy" coaches I was bragging about just a couple of paragraphs ago.
It seemed that KTM finds it justifiable to load in passengers indiscriminately right from Bukit Mertajam station all the way up to Arau station, a journey of some two hours!
That two hours was simply beyond my comprehension as we were forced to be part of KTM's scheme of "profiteering", taking in passengers in a supposedly express service by turning the the second class assigned seated express coach into a third class free to all commuter service, much to the annoyance of other "paying" passengers. I say "paying" as I doubt whether all of these "tumpang" passengers were all paying passengers as well as no ticket inspector came over to check the tickets! In fact, we could have taken a free train ride from Butterworth to Padang Besar without anyone knowing as nobody seemed to be checking the tickets until we got into Thailand! Interesting isn't it?
But the Bukit Mertajam to Arau train ride was simply a letdown. An experience that will go down in the memories of all the other "paying" passengers of whom were mostly foreign tourists, a bad reflection of how KTM render its services.
I was dumbfounded, the coach were so full, packed to brim, especially for the journey from Sungai Petani to Arau. I can't even see my children sitting on the other side of the passageway and had to be on the look out every five minutes of so just to see that they were not harmed by anyone!
Fortunately the coach reverted to its actual status once it entered into Thailand territory and remained its status quo all the way to Bangkok. Thank god we were in Thailand!
And that's the end of our Day 2 of our family vacation to Bangkok, Thailand. Stay tune for tales of Day 3 tomorrow.
Jasni AJ
What a wishful thinking, but it does not deter me from donning the crown on my birthday and declare myself as the King of Penang for that special day. By sheer co-incidence, it was here in Penang where I was born some 45 years ago (you don't have to be math genius to figure this out as I have told you that it's my 45th birthday!). So basically, I was at the right place and at the right time to celebrate my one and only 45th birthday.
Though I'm just jesting and strictly just for a laugh, I sincerely hope that I have not offended anyone with the self-proclaiming as Penang's new King as from the last time I checked, the state is still without a royal ruler hence there is absolutely no Penang royal family.
And my first royal chore of the day was to pay a visit together with the new royal family to Butterworth Railway Station.
You may ask, why the Railway Station and not the Airport? Well, we were there to board the Thai State Railway's Butterworth - Bangkok Express Service.
Yes, we're getting to Bangkok by train and not by plane! A journey that would only take about 1 and a half hours if taken through a flight from Penang will now be a trip of some 20 hours trekking the padi fields of Kedah and Perlis as well as those in southern territories of Thailand and all the way up to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
It was also a sentimental trip as I had taken the same train before, some 18 years ago, for my first ever visit to Bangkok with a bunch of friends, all of whom were OKUs of the Armed Forces.
So basically, as this visit to Bangkok would be the first ever visit there by the rest of my family members, I thought it would be nice to relive the excitement and experience I once had when taking the train trip to Bangkok then.
The fare was not cheap, that's if you're wondering, as it would cost more or less the same if you're to take an Airasia flight to Bangkok (provided that you can get the zero fare promotional tickets, that is).
If you're still wondering, well the fare is approximately RM100 for each passengers one way. Not cheap right, for a train ride, but it does have its own charm that would be registered in your mind for a long long time.
And the coach was not bad too. Fully air-conditioned, it was two seats facing each other with a table in between to allow us to play chess and scrabbles as as for having meals, each seat for a passenger. A seat that could comfortably seat two passengers.
Come evening, the seating arrangement changed when the personnel in charge start converting the seats to sleeping berths. One lower and one upper making them simply just comfy for a nice and good night sleep.
But something went amiss, something very wrong that had made me thinking that I had made a grave mistake by choosing to take the train ride instead of a flight.
These two pictures tell everything. Yes, you might be thinking that these two pictures were taken from the third class coaches where there would be standing passengers, passengers without assigned seats.
But the sad truth is that these two pictures were taken from the same "comfy" coaches I was bragging about just a couple of paragraphs ago.
It seemed that KTM finds it justifiable to load in passengers indiscriminately right from Bukit Mertajam station all the way up to Arau station, a journey of some two hours!
That two hours was simply beyond my comprehension as we were forced to be part of KTM's scheme of "profiteering", taking in passengers in a supposedly express service by turning the the second class assigned seated express coach into a third class free to all commuter service, much to the annoyance of other "paying" passengers. I say "paying" as I doubt whether all of these "tumpang" passengers were all paying passengers as well as no ticket inspector came over to check the tickets! In fact, we could have taken a free train ride from Butterworth to Padang Besar without anyone knowing as nobody seemed to be checking the tickets until we got into Thailand! Interesting isn't it?
But the Bukit Mertajam to Arau train ride was simply a letdown. An experience that will go down in the memories of all the other "paying" passengers of whom were mostly foreign tourists, a bad reflection of how KTM render its services.
I was dumbfounded, the coach were so full, packed to brim, especially for the journey from Sungai Petani to Arau. I can't even see my children sitting on the other side of the passageway and had to be on the look out every five minutes of so just to see that they were not harmed by anyone!
Fortunately the coach reverted to its actual status once it entered into Thailand territory and remained its status quo all the way to Bangkok. Thank god we were in Thailand!
And that's the end of our Day 2 of our family vacation to Bangkok, Thailand. Stay tune for tales of Day 3 tomorrow.
Jasni AJ
Thursday, March 20, 2008
From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok : Tales of Day 1
8th March 2008, a day anxiously waited by most Malaysian adults as it was the General Election Day. Everyone was eager to contribute their votes to the candidates of their choice, some wanted to maintain the political status quo, while some were eager to "make a change". Well, as everyone now knows, it was a change indeed, a change that I personally would not imagine could occur in my lifetime.
But 8th March 2008 was not only significant for the General Election, it was also a very significant date to the J&Fs Bunch as a whole irrespective of those who are eligible to vote or not.
Yes, 8th March 2008 marked the first day of the Bunch Family Vacation, a vacation that the Bunch had eagerly been waiting for quite a while now.
Our last family vacation was to Pulau Kapas last August and this time around, it's Bangkok, Thailand.
So of we went to Bangkok on that fine 8th of March 2008. But not so fast, it was Election Day, remember! And we can't just pack our luggage without voting first, can we? So 8th of March 2008 became a very busy day instead.
The day started with me rushing Mrs. J to TAR College, Setapak as Mrs. J is a registered voter in the Wangsa Maju constituency. After having breakfast at one of the roadside stall at Taman Bunga Raya, I left Mrs. J to cast her vote on her own conscience and proceeded to the office as I had pick certain documents relating to our Bangkok's vacation which I had accidentally left behind.
Though the doors to the office would normally be opened on Saturdays, that Saturday was very different. The doors to the office were remained closed with the person with the keys was no where to be found. After patiently waited till 10.00 am and later told that the person with the keys would only be coming in after casting his vote, I sped of to pick up Mrs. J back home in the hope that I could still exercise my votes too. I am a registered voter at Kota Raja/Sri Muda constituency.
But I guess luck was not at my side as time was working against me. Right after reaching home, I took Maal (our Pet Cat) to his regular "Pet Hotel", a place where he would normally stay whenever we goes out of town.
As arranged a cab taking us to the Airport arrived at exactly noon and so and off we went, to Bangkok without me ever able to cast my precious votes.
But our journey to Bangkok was really a bit "bengkok" (twisted) as the aircraft we took did not land us at Bangkok's Srivarnabhumi Airport but at Bayan Lepas International Airport, Penang instead.
Ha ha, it was not an accident but rather it was planned as such. Our trip to Bangkok was to be via Penang with a night spent there. The fateful night that saw Penang having a new government from the opposition camp, just like Selangor, Kedah, Perak together with the existing opposition held state, Kelantan.
While the whole nation was witnessing and following the unbelievable election results over TV, we were at Hammer Bay, a place near Queensbay for a special dinner together with the families of the in-laws.
While we were enjoying the food, very nice I would say, our topic of discussions couldn't run from talking about the election results of which SMSs had been spreading around saying that Penang had been captured by the Opposition Alliance of DAP & PKR.
But most importantly, that night was also remembered as the night to mark my 45th Birthday, celebrated about 4 ours earlier than the stroke of midnight of the actual birth date which is the 9th of March.
And the wee hours of 9th of March was actually observed by getting glued to the TV, jumping from RTM1, TV3, Awani and Bernama TV for coverages of the election results.
In fact I did not at all sleep until the next morning, Day 2 of our vacation to Bangkok.
Jasni AJ
But 8th March 2008 was not only significant for the General Election, it was also a very significant date to the J&Fs Bunch as a whole irrespective of those who are eligible to vote or not.
Yes, 8th March 2008 marked the first day of the Bunch Family Vacation, a vacation that the Bunch had eagerly been waiting for quite a while now.
Our last family vacation was to Pulau Kapas last August and this time around, it's Bangkok, Thailand.
So of we went to Bangkok on that fine 8th of March 2008. But not so fast, it was Election Day, remember! And we can't just pack our luggage without voting first, can we? So 8th of March 2008 became a very busy day instead.
The day started with me rushing Mrs. J to TAR College, Setapak as Mrs. J is a registered voter in the Wangsa Maju constituency. After having breakfast at one of the roadside stall at Taman Bunga Raya, I left Mrs. J to cast her vote on her own conscience and proceeded to the office as I had pick certain documents relating to our Bangkok's vacation which I had accidentally left behind.
Though the doors to the office would normally be opened on Saturdays, that Saturday was very different. The doors to the office were remained closed with the person with the keys was no where to be found. After patiently waited till 10.00 am and later told that the person with the keys would only be coming in after casting his vote, I sped of to pick up Mrs. J back home in the hope that I could still exercise my votes too. I am a registered voter at Kota Raja/Sri Muda constituency.
But I guess luck was not at my side as time was working against me. Right after reaching home, I took Maal (our Pet Cat) to his regular "Pet Hotel", a place where he would normally stay whenever we goes out of town.
As arranged a cab taking us to the Airport arrived at exactly noon and so and off we went, to Bangkok without me ever able to cast my precious votes.
But our journey to Bangkok was really a bit "bengkok" (twisted) as the aircraft we took did not land us at Bangkok's Srivarnabhumi Airport but at Bayan Lepas International Airport, Penang instead.
Ha ha, it was not an accident but rather it was planned as such. Our trip to Bangkok was to be via Penang with a night spent there. The fateful night that saw Penang having a new government from the opposition camp, just like Selangor, Kedah, Perak together with the existing opposition held state, Kelantan.
While the whole nation was witnessing and following the unbelievable election results over TV, we were at Hammer Bay, a place near Queensbay for a special dinner together with the families of the in-laws.
While we were enjoying the food, very nice I would say, our topic of discussions couldn't run from talking about the election results of which SMSs had been spreading around saying that Penang had been captured by the Opposition Alliance of DAP & PKR.
But most importantly, that night was also remembered as the night to mark my 45th Birthday, celebrated about 4 ours earlier than the stroke of midnight of the actual birth date which is the 9th of March.
And the wee hours of 9th of March was actually observed by getting glued to the TV, jumping from RTM1, TV3, Awani and Bernama TV for coverages of the election results.
In fact I did not at all sleep until the next morning, Day 2 of our vacation to Bangkok.
Jasni AJ
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Keeping the Democratic Spirit Alive
Poles were climbed, banners were hanged, flags were hoisted, all these seems to be nightly activities of my group of friends for the past few days in the run up towards the big G-Day, yeap, the 12th General Elections, fast coming up on 8th March 2008.
These bunch of friends of mine are basically just ordinary folks, volunteering themselves to be the Alternative Front's "party workers". They also are self appointed, self motivated and self financed. They might be sympathetic to the struggles of either party in the Alternative Front but they are certainly no party "fanatics", in fact some of them are not even party members to any of the parties in the Alternative Front. In keeping and ensuring the democratic spirit alive they are just making themselves available through the rendering of their valuable services to the disadvantaged party, the party that needs help the most in order to make them to be at least visible to the public eye in our small Taman through their banners and flags as they are not too positively viewable (over TV), positively audible (over Radio) and positively readable (over the mainstream newspapers). Why the word "positively"? Well, if you really want to qualify your claims that the Alternative Front are not getting publicity over those media, you are dead wrong as they do get publicity no doubt. But for some orchestrated reasons, all the publicity they're getting are mainly negative and stereo typed publicities that carry the message that everything good comes from only BN and everything bad comes from only BA.
I guess for that reason alone, the BA Ceramahs are something the local folks would look forward to as that would be the only platform that is made available to the Alternative Front folks. And thanks to the self-appointed, self-motivated and self-financed BA "party workers", a grand BA Ceramah was successfully held just last night at our main padang in the Taman, an event that would make the other party contesting in the GE duly worried, if attendance has any bearing on the indication of the voters' preference in casting their votes.
This GE would be our second GE as a community in our small Taman, the first, some 4 years ago, saw contests from the same two parties, i.e BN (MIC) vs BA (PAS) for the Parliamentary seat and BN (UMNO) vs BA (PKR) for the State Seat.
BA lost both seats then, but their lost was not something to be ashamed of as they had managed to garner quite a substantial number of votes though short of a majority. And all these were achived despite of the lopsided campaigning tools made available to all parties contesting in the Elections.
The same tactics are still being used this time around, in fact I personally think that it has gone from bad to worse. There is definitely an overdose of messages asking voters to choose the god-sent BN leaders to continue to lead the country. There is absolutely NO CHOICE BUT ONE and that's the BN. No one else can do a better job as if you do pick the wrong ones, you're just pushing the country into the pits, at least that's what I understand from the messages I'm seeing over TV, listening over radio and reading over the mainstream newspapers.
How far is the claim true, no one knows actually. But the fact that nobody can deny is that Malaysia is indeed very unique that despite having a single ruling party ever since achieving independence and for a period now exceeding 50 years, the country has been doing exceptionally well, certainly far and a lot better than other third world countries that were once in the same league as ours in terms of resources, population, racial mix etc etc. If this were to take place in other third world countries, we could almost be certain that there would either be in turmoil with suppression, corruption, abuse of power etc. etc. ruling the day. We are actually blessed indeed having the Perikatan/BN ruling us all these years.
Well, I'm actually straying from the topic in hand, the topic is actually "Keeping the Democratic Spirit Alive" and not an essay on my own political beliefs. So, reverting back to the topic in hand, just what was the product of all those pole climbing, banner hanging etc etc, well see it yourself. Don't you think they have beautifully decorated the roundabout rather well? Of course, the BN party workers played their part too. In fact, they're working much harder as the roundabout shown here has actually been given a new facelift last night where more BN banners could now be seen there, but there are still 3 more days to go, the roundabout might just change its appearance every single day!
Selamat Mengundi
Jasni AJ
These bunch of friends of mine are basically just ordinary folks, volunteering themselves to be the Alternative Front's "party workers". They also are self appointed, self motivated and self financed. They might be sympathetic to the struggles of either party in the Alternative Front but they are certainly no party "fanatics", in fact some of them are not even party members to any of the parties in the Alternative Front. In keeping and ensuring the democratic spirit alive they are just making themselves available through the rendering of their valuable services to the disadvantaged party, the party that needs help the most in order to make them to be at least visible to the public eye in our small Taman through their banners and flags as they are not too positively viewable (over TV), positively audible (over Radio) and positively readable (over the mainstream newspapers). Why the word "positively"? Well, if you really want to qualify your claims that the Alternative Front are not getting publicity over those media, you are dead wrong as they do get publicity no doubt. But for some orchestrated reasons, all the publicity they're getting are mainly negative and stereo typed publicities that carry the message that everything good comes from only BN and everything bad comes from only BA.
I guess for that reason alone, the BA Ceramahs are something the local folks would look forward to as that would be the only platform that is made available to the Alternative Front folks. And thanks to the self-appointed, self-motivated and self-financed BA "party workers", a grand BA Ceramah was successfully held just last night at our main padang in the Taman, an event that would make the other party contesting in the GE duly worried, if attendance has any bearing on the indication of the voters' preference in casting their votes.
This GE would be our second GE as a community in our small Taman, the first, some 4 years ago, saw contests from the same two parties, i.e BN (MIC) vs BA (PAS) for the Parliamentary seat and BN (UMNO) vs BA (PKR) for the State Seat.
BA lost both seats then, but their lost was not something to be ashamed of as they had managed to garner quite a substantial number of votes though short of a majority. And all these were achived despite of the lopsided campaigning tools made available to all parties contesting in the Elections.
The same tactics are still being used this time around, in fact I personally think that it has gone from bad to worse. There is definitely an overdose of messages asking voters to choose the god-sent BN leaders to continue to lead the country. There is absolutely NO CHOICE BUT ONE and that's the BN. No one else can do a better job as if you do pick the wrong ones, you're just pushing the country into the pits, at least that's what I understand from the messages I'm seeing over TV, listening over radio and reading over the mainstream newspapers.
How far is the claim true, no one knows actually. But the fact that nobody can deny is that Malaysia is indeed very unique that despite having a single ruling party ever since achieving independence and for a period now exceeding 50 years, the country has been doing exceptionally well, certainly far and a lot better than other third world countries that were once in the same league as ours in terms of resources, population, racial mix etc etc. If this were to take place in other third world countries, we could almost be certain that there would either be in turmoil with suppression, corruption, abuse of power etc. etc. ruling the day. We are actually blessed indeed having the Perikatan/BN ruling us all these years.
Well, I'm actually straying from the topic in hand, the topic is actually "Keeping the Democratic Spirit Alive" and not an essay on my own political beliefs. So, reverting back to the topic in hand, just what was the product of all those pole climbing, banner hanging etc etc, well see it yourself. Don't you think they have beautifully decorated the roundabout rather well? Of course, the BN party workers played their part too. In fact, they're working much harder as the roundabout shown here has actually been given a new facelift last night where more BN banners could now be seen there, but there are still 3 more days to go, the roundabout might just change its appearance every single day!
Selamat Mengundi
Jasni AJ
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