Travelogue 9: Bangkok

Bangkok has never be one of place in the my wishlist. Other than food, Bangkok is just a typical developed country's city just like Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.

It is an abrupt decision to go to Bangkok and the flight ticket was so expensive as I bought the ticket 3 days before the travelling day. If it is not a business trip, I rarely travel via Malaysian Airlines. I don't believe in the Malaysian Hospitality tagline as the food does not reflect the tagline at all. The seat is not that comfy. And my flight to and from Bangkok is without flight entertainment (no TV!). I chose MAS over AirAsia for this trip as I need to go back with my husband who was on business trip which will depart from Suvarnabhumi Airport. AirAsia depart from Don Muang Airport which the location is quite far from each other.

Selfie during arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport 

The accommodation is quite close to the Airport (sponsored by Hubby's company. He's attending an exhibition at BITEC). For the exhibitors, the location of the hotel is perfect but for tourists, it is very far from the city, thus you have to rent a car/hire taxi rather than travelling via Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS).

Avana Hotel is 45 minutes from Bangkok City

It was weekdays. The city is not that hectic at night. 

Asiatique the Riverfront

I like the idea of Asiatique. It is a proper way of selling souvenir, Thailand's local product, food, Muay Thai, cabaret, Thai Puppet, mini amusement park in one roof. It is so well planned, clean, spacious and has a lot to offer. The selection of shops is interesting, with a good range of unusual brands rather than row upon row of tourist trinkets. This bazaar is busy but isn’t overrun by tourists; crowds of locals enjoy coming here too. Asiatique is definitely worth dedicating an evening to. Please find the original sang kaya (coconut ice cream) here. It's damn delicious.

Yummylicious Dinner

The next day, while waiting for Hubby to complete his work at the exhibition, I spent half day at the hotel's spa. Thailand is very famous with Thai massage and it's very cheap as compared to Malaysia even it's hotel spa.

Next destination was River Cruise along Bangkok Canal. Seriously not recommended. Not much scenery. It's just local people's house by the canal and it's not that clean.

Bangkok Canal

We spent our night on the river cruise again. This is the first time ever that I had dinner on the boat. I had a pre book arrangement for Loy Nava Dinner Cruise as it's package is affordable and they can provide halal food. 

We had so much fun looking at lots of cruise compete with each other with loud traditional music, dancing and performance to attract tourist to choose their dinner cruise.

with one of the luxury cruise

Our humble cruise but superb food

The cruise ended around 11pm. It's not a good idea to take a cab at night where the charges will be very high couple up with outskirt hotel location. So we have to take BTS. 

Saphan Thaksin station  is the only rapid transit station in Bangkok which can transfer to a river pier for the crossing-river ferry to Thonburi and the Chao Phraya Express Boat service

No opportunity to visit the famous Chatuchak Market as they only open during weekend. Our flight back was on Saturday afternoon. We also missed the floating market. But basically we experienced the local food at Asiatique.

The most important thing to highlight for this travelogue episode is I really missed my kids. It was less fun and chaotic without them which somehow I missed that moment. It's me time but I'm more happy to travel with my kids. :)