dresses Archives - Between Bites - Bites of Food, Travel and Lifestyle

April 2, 2009 by Janey

For a change, it was Bubba who planned everything about the Bangkok trip –which is actually his birthday gift for me this year. Our flight was scheduled at 1030am. It was a 2-hour and half flight and we arrived in Bangkok as scheduled around 1pm. Bangkok is an hour behind Manila time.

I cannot believe that a sea of people was traveling that same weekend to Bangkok. The immigration line was pretty long and it moved slower than a turtle on a race! It took us 45 minutes to an hour to get out of the Bangkok airport. Before leaving the airport, we booked a tour by the group tours booth near the exit area. The tour for us both with private car and an English-speaking tour guide for half-day was only PHP500, which to us was pretty cheap.

We hailed an airport cab to bring us to our hotel. We stayed at the Baiyoke Boutique Hotel, which is Baiyoke Sky’s boutique hotel. I’ve heard of boutique hotels (small hotels with themes/concepts) but this is actually the first time I am staying in one. After checking in and settling down, we explored the Pratunam Area, which is the heart of a lot of street markets and shopping malls.

After a few hours of going around and familiarizing ourselves with the neighborhood, we decided to rest and get refreshments. We spotted Black Canyon Coffee and decided to take a break there.

On the Table

Chicken Green Curry (Gaeng Kiew Whaan Gai) BHT 85

Pasta in Spicy Prawn “Tom Yum Goong” Soup BHT 85

Chicken with Vietnamese Sausage Meal BHT 85

Tamarind Juice BHT

Orange Juice BHT

By 4pm, we flagged a cab and asked to be taken to Lumpini Stadium to catch some Muay Thai action, which supposedly starts at 5pm. To our disappointment, the cab driver said there was no Muay Thai that day. We continued our shopping instead. Bubba couldn’t believe that the online schedule for Muay Thai was wrong. I suggested asking another cab driver since the one we’ve asked might have misunderstood us. Whatever the case is, the Suan Lum Night Market was right next to the stadium. We can just check out the night market if the first cab driver was right. The second driver brought us to the Lumpini Station, where ushers steered us to the paying booth. The first cab driver did misunderstand and now it cost us the time. There are two show times, one at 5pm and the other is at 9pm. It was almost 7pm at this time. There are only 3 sections at BHT 2,000, BHT 1,500 and BHT 1,000 per head. The farthest one is where the betters stay, so we scratched that off our list. We couldn’t decide whether or not to take the current show or wait for the next one. If we pick the current show, we are down to just 3 matches. If we pick the next show, we won’t have time to check out Suam Lum Night Market because the show ends at 11pm and the market closes at same time. We were supposed to get the second section but was told that we are not allowed to take photos in that section. The only area allowed for photography is the prime section at BHT 2,000. I tried to haggle the price but we were only given BHT 1,800 for the BHT 2,000 ticket. Grr… how retardedly expensive!

After 10 minutes of mulling it over, Bubba decided to watch the current show at BHT 1,800. When we got inside, we found out there are only 2 matches left and everything finished at 730pm. We quite enjoyed the show but felt that we paid too much to see a 20-minute show. Nevertheless, Bubba had fulfilled his goal of watching an “authentic” Muay Thai fight in the very same country where it started and was popularized.

At 8pm, we were amidst the Suan Lum Night Market. Yes, shopping again, Bubba’s favorite pastime. Thank goodness that items in Suan Lum are more interesting than those we found in the Pratunam area. There is a portion in Suan Lum that has an alley of artist stores that display their creativity in fashion, accessories, display items and paintings.