endroog

Well, I took the Emirates airline to London via Dubai. Man, the airport is full of people waiting to connect flights and well, there’s not enough chairs for people to take a nap. So, many people sleep on the carpeted floor on the main walkway and where ever there is space to lie down.You’d feel like in a refugee camp.

In this picture, many more sleepers are hidden behind the chairs… between the chairs and the railing of the elevator. You be surprised how they can squeeze into the narrow space behind the chairs.

Well, thats Dubai Airport.

Eiffel Tower in blue after a Frenchman was elected the president to head the EU.

I will update my blog as soon as possible once I sorted out the thousands of pictures I took while in Europe. Im back in KL and kinda reluctant to go to work the day after tomorrow. Gotta unpack and do some laundry. Tons of photos to edit before sending it to print. Bills waiting to be paid.

Europe was fun but expensive. Ha.

The hotel provided tuk-tuk service. Every morning we went out on this iconic ride.

The snack is tasty. Its something like apam. The one rolled with sausage is the best.

Getting some padthai and other famous Thai dishes.

This place is something like Bangsar…

Batu Keras… Hard Rock Cafe. Ng wanted to add yet another overrated, expensive and boring Hard Rock t-shirt to his collection. I have one of their signature series tshirt though.

Camwhorring at Swensen’s ice cream shop.

Kok Ming went glutton and walloped the ice cream in seconds. The glass cup is quite nice though. At first, I wanted to put 1 into our my bag…. but I chickened out.

We were at the MBK.

While walking past a telephone booth, we’re going to Jim Thompson House, I saw this little puppy tied to the phone both and was left there with a doll and some water. I felt like giving it a “penalty kick” like Shaolin Soccer.

The crafts were nice but cannot compare with the build quality that my late grandfather made these using aluminium cans.

Nice tree trimming…..

Some candid photos while walking to Jim Thompson House

At the main entrance. We went for the Jim Thompson House and Museum tour.

See the tank?

Nice Buddha figures for sale.

Going Chinatown>>

This building in between the roads.

Familiar Chinatown arch all over the world.

I was there at Bangkok Chinatown

This building caught my attention. Weird building.

Went to Patpong… so Ken can shop for souvenirs. Well, we were approached by pimps/agents asking us if we wanna go for ping pong show. Anyway, it is too expensive and the guys would rather shop. The only line I remember from the placard used by the agents to show us what they have in business… is “pussy cut banana”. There’s a list of action can be seen in ping pong show I’d guess and cutting banana using pussy is just one of the various tricks.

So, overall, Bangkok is a very nice place to go. Haven’t seen much of it though, as many of them wanna shop. Depends on what you think, it was not voted one of the best backbacking destination for no reason.

Alright….. next destination…. London… Europe. Yay. Yahoo.

The night flight was rather bumpy and cold due to the rain. When we reached Suvanarbhumi Airport, it was cold and the bus ride to the terminal was quite scary. A busload of people heading to i-dont-know-where. The distance could have been like Selayang Mall to Kepong Jusco. Yeah, it was that far.

Luckily the hotel we booked was near the one of the main nightspot in Bangkok, Nana. After checking in at midnite, the night was spent drinking a bit and slept early. Wong reached Bkk the next morning.

Come morning, went for the complimentary breakfast by the hotel… Omni Tower serviced apartment. Breakfast consist of just two slices of bread, two sunnyside-up (ho pau tan), butter and jam. A glass of coffee and orange juice. Its not a buffet breakfast and it was in a small conference room.

When Wong reached, we went out for breakfast again. Wong took us to a roadside stall where they sell stewed pork, intestine and other stuffs. Something like lou chi yuk. They all had their breakfast while Sean and I went looking for supermarket to buy mineral water and Oreo biscuits. Saw some imported new Guiness Stout in can which can be shaken. I forgot its name. I REGRETTED it for life that I didn’t buy it despite carrying a 280 baht price tag. Read on if you wanna know why.

After breakfast, we went to the Grand Palace for sightseeing. Wong, who has been there regularly for work and family trips, was our tour guide. Btw, always adhere to the no-smoking policy in buildings and certain public places.

Yea Chern took this photo.

There were many local and foreign tourists buying tickets and here’s the way leading to the entrance of the tour. The schoolgirls in uniform as you can see in this pic, asked us in Mandarin if we’re Chinese. Wong answered in Mandarin telling them we’re Japanese and the girls walked off. Man, we’re not paedos.

I just love the vast murals.

Ng touched the wall….. catch him !!!

Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We saw the Buddha in rainy season attire.

So hot we have to buy overpriced tasteless fruit juice to quench our thirst.

Saw some statues of men of ancient China. The Thais originated from China anyway I’d guess.

The Palace with mixed French and Thai architecture.

I wish my house can have the same colourful roof as that in the background.

Baris… baris sediap. Jangan senang diri. The royal guard must have wanted to stab tourists with the bayonet who make fun of them by doing all kinds of poses next to them. The guards are emotionless. Well, thats the protocol.

Ok, after we’re done at The Grand Palace, we went to Pratunam Market. The taxi driver who took us there was an ex Thai boxer. He suffered an accident to the leg. He’s now a coach and he showed us muay thai training ground as we pass by along the way to Pratunam.

The guys wanted to shop for themselves and the ladies at home. This is the beginning of the shopping madness.

After shopping at Pratunam, we went to this post shopping mall for dinner. Central Plaza or something, I forgot the name.

We skipped lunch and we certainly needed dinner after walking the whole day. This is taken at a Thai restaurant, Banana Beach Restaurant, while waiting tom yum and other authentic Thai dishes to be served.

After dinner, accompanied my best buddy for a fag. I smoke when I want to.

Ng, Ken and myself were looking at the nice bags from outside as we thought it was expensive as Sean was so busy browsing the shop. Then Wong called Ng to ask us to go and see the cheap bags. At first we dont believe… but seeing is believing.

Ended up, everyone bought bags for the ladies back home. So cheap you cannot say you’re not buying any of it.

While waiting for Ng to do his big business, we sat here for a rest and look at the stuffs we’ve bought.

The lady on the phone turned away as we were talking too loud. Yea Chern caught sms’ing his wife to tell her he bought bags for her. Geez.

Fountains. We were heading towards the BTS station. Their train service is very efficient.

Yet another shopping centre, Erawan. Ng, overlooking the shrine of 4-faced Buddha.

Every building have a nice shrine for the 4-faced Buddha. Wong said this is the most famous shrine in downtown Bangkok.

After getting back to our apartment for shower and a short rest, we headed out to Nana entertainment centre (a renowned sex mall as stated in some websites)…. which is just walking distance to the place we’re staying. Saw some pole dancing show and ladyboys show. Sometime its hard to distinguish who is real and who is fake. When the place closed at 2am, went back to apartment to drink and chatted as there’s a crisis happening to one of the buddy. Im not gonna elaborate more about it.

Btw, I can’t find any Guiness Stout in Bangkok. 7-11 doesn’t have it, mini market, restaurants and pubs also don’t have it. When I asked the people do they serve Guiness Stout, they dont know what the hell is it and gave me a strange look. They just dont know what the fuck is Guiness Stout. I dont mind if they have only Royal Stout or any other brand…. I needed stout but… they just dont know what is stout. Arrgh. I wanted to shout “Where the fuck can I get Guiness Stout in Bangkok???!!”

Stay tuned for the Day 2 happenings.

Bangkok is great !

Went to the hot spring while on the way to Ipoh the other day. Its a nice place. They have chalets there and run by Federal Hotel Group. Landscape in clean. There’s even a giant octopus at the resort. The place is quite a nice place for a weekend trip but to go out to the nearest town is quite far away. But if you plan to spend the whole weekend in one place, this should be a nice place. You can picnic, play water and go for massage. I love putting my feet into hot water. It kills all the germs that linger between your toes.

I’m standing on water.

How to get there? You take the PLUS highway and exit at Sungkai interchange. You will see signboards leading you to Sungai Klah Hot Spring. You’ll pass by a lot of Felda oil palm plantations before you reach the place.

I have more pictures in my Gimping Photos under the CNY2008 directory.

Ok…. a real post now. Just had the exam today and I’m a lil bit free now to sit down and blog. Went to Ipoh last week for the Sky God Day at my dearest’ place, just like last year. And of course eating will be part of the Ipoh trip. The salted chicken was GREAT. Ayam garam.

I was lucky enough to be able to visit some place that otherwise I won’t be able to visit… in KL. Alright, I went to this “roast pig house” to collect 2 roast pigs with my dearest’s mom. I was able to see how roast pig was roasted. There were 15-20 slaughtered pigs hanging upside down, waiting in line to go into the old skool oven. Too bad, I didn’t have any picture of it.

Then, we all went to this heong peng shop… err.. I mean house. Yeah… these people manufacture stuffs in the backyard. Roast pigs and heong peng. I will post some of the heong peng experience in the next post hopefully.

We also went to this soy sauce factory. Pak yau chong. And I was amazed by the processes undertaken to make the pak yau… I mean soy sauce that we all take for granted. Again, this I will blog about it further in the next post as I need to process the pictures first.

Oh yeah, my Szer and I also went to Sungkai hot spring while on the way to Ipoh. It was a nice place. But I can also get hot spring in my hometown, Selayang which is just 20 minutes drive from here. You can swim, take a dip, boil eggs etc there too. Selayang Hot Spring is just 30 minutes drive from the heart of KL.