It’s been quite a long time since my last update on my personal blog as I have been busy preparing for my trip to Thailand in March and sorting out my personal thoughts in myself. The reason why I decided to go to Thailand for a visit was because I won a complimentary stay at a resort in Chiang Mai called Baae Sae Moi through one of the online survey I did in the previous year. My trip to Thailand consist of a 5 days trip to both Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Before the trip to Thailand, I was quite worried as there’s a natural disaster happened in Japan somewhere in mid March. Luckily, it did not affect Thailand as it was quite far away.
My trip to Bangkok let me realized that the air in Singapore is much better as we have a better traffic system with lesser traffic jam. When I first arrived in Bangkok, we were faced by it’s traffic jam when we were going to our hotel which is about an hour ride away from the airport. The clothings over there were really very cheap and they were selling in bulk which means that you have to buy in bulk in order to get it for a cheaper price (no wonder there’s a lot of people getting their goods from Bangkok to sell in Singapore). They would give you a cheaper price if you are able to buy more. However, I only bought 3 pieces of clothings for myself as I am not those people who likes to buy a lot of clothings as I know my shared cupboard with my brother won’t be able to contain so much. Haha.
Anyway, I was quite surprised to hear the local tour guide that we engaged saying that there were over 40,000 temples in Thailand and I did went to see a few Buddhas in Bangkok. One particular Buddha was made in real Gold and it cost about 100 over millions to make it and got one is a 15m long sleeping style Buddha. There’s really a lot of different style over there in Thailand and our trip in Bangkok were mainly going to those temples, tailor shops and their well-known gem factory. Initially, we were quite reluctant to sit on their Tuk-Tuk as we have heard stories about how much they will charge overseas tourists. However, we met a security guard who told us the rough estimate pricing we can demand before taking the Tuk-Tuk and it started our ride on the Tuk-Tuk. The ride on the Tuk-Tuk was really an exciting trip as the driver know how to take short cuts through the streets and shorten the distance to your destination. However, I can say that it was not really advisable to keep on sitting in a Tuk-Tuk to travel around as the pollution level on the road was really pretty bad. One thing that I realized about the traffic road was that there were not much traffic lights for pedestrian and you really have to find an overhead bride or perform those jay-walking across the road like those locals.
Take a look at some of the photos:
golden buddha
15 metre sleeping buddha
tuk tuk
On day 2 night after our day-tour in Bangkok, we wanted to rest awhile in our hotel before going to watch the lady-boy show, we encountered a slight tremor in our hotel room. We were staying on the 20th floor and we hurried rushed down to the lobby to find out what was happening. To add on to our panic mode, we heard fire engine and ambulance rushing by our hotel to the next few building. We were told that there were a fire going on at one of the shopping malls but the receptionists had no ideas about the earthquake tremors at all. We went ahead with a worried heart to watch the lady-boy show and it was a really great show that shouldn’t be missed as my worried was gone once the show started. We managed to get a discount on the tickets through our tour agent and if you intend to watch it when you are going to Bangkok, make sure you buy your ticket through the local tour agency.
After watching the show, we went back to our hotel and find out more about the earthquake tremor that we felt previously but we were not able to get a definite answer. We decided to go back to our hotel to find out more through the news and we found that there were an earthquake happened in Myanmar which is near to Chiang Rai (somewhere in Thailand too). This caused some panic as our next day destination was to go to Chiang Mai. Lucky, the resort personnel gave me her cell phone number and we made a phone call to her to check the condition over at her side. We were told not to worry as their resort were all low rise building and there were no seas near their resort too as they were surrounded by big mountains.
When we reached Chiang Mai, we realized there were a big difference in terms of pace over there. Everything seems so peaceful and slow pace compared to Bangkok or Singapore. The air over there were much better and fresher with lesser traffic. However, we didn’t have much activities when we reached our resort as the location was quite secluded. We asked our resort manager, Aoy about what we can do over there and booked our next day tour package to the elephant camp. Over there at the elephant camp, I managed to complete another bucket list of mine which is to have an elephant ride. The day tour package consisted of bamboo rifting ride, watching elephant drawing plus show, sit on the elephant, taking a ride on ox cart, going to orchid plus butterfly farm and our buffet lunch. The ride on the elephant was quite fun as it was an experience that you can’t describe in words as it was quite shaky but enjoyable.
Take a look at the photos:
lady boy show
the big sofa that I fall in love
jacuzzi in one of the room
elephant playing soccer
elephant's drawing
bamboo rifting
lifted by elephant
elephant ride
ox riding
Overall, I enjoyed my stay in Thailand and know a few great people over there such as the resort manager and the chiang mai taxi driver. It is pretty hard to catch a taxi or tuk tuk in Chiang Mai than in Bangkok so make sure you get the stuff to get one for you through booking. If you want to see more photos about my trip, do add me as friend through facebook. I will stop my post right here and if you have a chance, do visit Thailand and update me your experience too.