And finally had time to pen our unforgetful experience and share some photos.
My last visit to Bangkok was 12 years ago with my grandparents (on guided tour of course). Not much memories from that except visiting temples after temples, so we've decided this trip shall not include any temples! (And we should have sticked to that)
This was also my first time on scoot and believe it or not, first time taking budget airlines. The airplane was pretty alright, like any other planes, and luckily no delays for both trips. But it's still a budget afterall and I think it reflected perfectly on the cabin crew! Uniforms aside, the way they look and the way they talked was totally with a Singapore accent! Luckily it was only a 2-hour ride if not I'd have been starved and bored to death.
Because the immigration was so slow, by the time we cleared and took a train to our hotel, it was already 9 plus. And hence the highlight of day 1 - dinner and beautiful hotel!
Our first meal at bkk. Yumyums from a random restaurant down the street. Fresh juicy cockles with thai dip, vegs, and huge pot of sotong in lime and chilli!
Now check out the hotel:
And did I just say the hotel is fabulous? It's right on top of Platinum Mall, new and looks exactly like the photos! A tad pricey for a bangkok hotel but given the location and comfort, it was worth it. The room given wasn't very big, but at least it didn't disappoint as a 4-star hotel. (not like those cheap 'hotels' that post super misleading photos on the internet and the room looked more like a camp)
Day 2 began with none other than Breakfast!!
Love the spread! And look at that carnivorous spread on cheeky's plate! tsk tsk!
Wiping our mouths clean, platinum mall is literally an escalator away! and then our shopping began! Honestly, I didn't buy much, less than 10 pieces of items altogether maybe for myself. Poor cheeky, tired and back aching from carrying all the loot and his camera, so we've decided to go for a massage. We checked out the stretch of shophouses along the road, there were at least 5 massage shops, all with masseurs sitting outside the shop trying to pull us in. We walked up and down and eventually decided to give one a try. Half an hour of foot massage and half an hour of thai massage left me almost screaming in pain! The masseur wasn't very professional but nonetheless not a bad experience for my first thai massage.
Spot the shoe-paholic! Surprisingly I only bought 1 pair of shoes for the whole trip, because nothing spectacular caught my eyes and those platform heels that are so pretty and vibrant are almost impossible to walk in.
Yes, I have a sweet tooth and tada! mango sticky rice!
Dinner at the roadside chicken rice stall. Dirt cheap! less than 100 baht (that's less than SGD4) for 2 plates of chicken rice and 2 bottles of coke.
What's bkk without a tuk-tuk ride, so we decided to give it a try and visit the Night market. And guess what, it brought us to Patphong, aka the red light district. Out of curiosity, we decided to be lured into one of the night clubs for some tiger show. The guy leading us in claimed it's 'happy hour' and only need to pay for a drink each (which is 200 baht) and we can just watch for free. When we entered, there was a centre stage with a few poles, 2 women in bikinis and 1 totally naked dancing around on stage, and there were seats all around the stage. We ordered a beer each and soon the naked woman started doing stunts like blowing whistle and shooting pingpong balls with her ahem down there. But she keep asking for tips and the 'show' was getting boring and there was only the other angmoh couple left as audience, so we decided to leave. But guess what, the people there popped the bill to us and it added up to 2800 baht!!!! for beer, for entertainment bla bla bla. WTF! We immediately said NO, and they refused to let us go. So we just threw a 500 baht note and barged out. Patpong is filled with fake branded goods and prostitutes! yes, we chanced upon the back alley where they are all seated along the roads and ready to hook!
Now day 3 is the day when the scam story began, before I start the long story, here's some other highlights of our trip:
Dinner at Cabbage & Condoms. I was determined to find and dine at this restaurant after chancing upon it on the internet. Interesting concept, and the restaurant was set-up to promote family planning. They serve mainly Thai food, I don't know about cabbage, but they definitely had condoms, lots of them!
Look, that's one of the condom man and the condom family - made from different coloured condoms!
That's right, condoms for souvenirs! Interesting concept indeed! And because I was so curious how a Thai condom will look and feel like, I opened one that night, and.... it smelt like strawberry!! I still have 3 left for me to open and smell and try. hahaha.
We also went for our second Thai massage before heading back to our hotel. And oops, I gave in to temptations of supper!! Because the big cat in me has been eyeing the roadside barbecued fish since day 1 and I'm so determined to give it a try.
Drinking and eating like a Thai! Yums!
Ok, and so here's our Bangkok scam story (beware, it's a long one):
On day 3, our plan was to go shopping at MBK, then head down to Sukhumvit area for more shopping. We were walking to MBK where a stranger came up to us and chatted with us, he says he's a computer teacher at a learning centre, he asked where we were from, where we are going etc, then he said things like 'you never read the newspapers today? Today is the government day, so MBK doesn't open so early.' He also told us all the stuff from MBK is bought from another wholesale centre called Bobae Market and recommend us to go there instead. He also told us because it was the 'Government day' that day, there's this temple just nearby that only opens on that particular day and strongly recommend us to pay it a visit as hundreds of people would go there every year. He also told us there's this export centre for gemstones which is selling at much cheaper than sgp and in a few day's time, the tax is going to increase. He even offered to get us a tuk-tuk for only 30 baht to bring us to the temple, the export centre and to the market. We were a bit skeptical as I didn't really want to visit any temple, but since it was just a temple visit, we thought there's no harm.
And so the tuk-tuk brought us there, not too far away but definitely not walkable. Upon reaching the temple, a guy came up to us and told us a bit about the temple and even took our palms to read. He then brought us in to pray and after we're done, he told us to go into another tower to pay a visit. When we went up to the second level, there's this man there who was dressed in formal attire, he said he's a Singaporean who claims to be the son of the director of CDL and even gave us his namecard - Arnold Kwek, it says. Then he began talking abt fengshui, and how the suntec fountain is built by them, and talked abt how mbs is designed based on fengshui as well bla bla bla. We thought that was the end and we were eager to go off because the tuk-tuk was waiting for us. As we were about to get on to the tuk-tuk, this other guy, probably someone from the temple, asked us to visit another hall, and so quite reluctantly we went in. Inside was a big Buddha statue and another guy inside, he started talking to us more about buddhism etc. Once again, he looked at our palms and faces and told cheeky 'she'll be a good mother in the future.' and cheeky was to tickled by that! He also talked a lot about fengshui and told us to get fengshui stones from the export centre because it's cheaper etc and that his wife came all the way from US to buy it also. He said I should get a pendant for good luck, and cheeky should get a ring so that money won't slip out from the gaps. He still said he had written books on buddhism for the monks and he has even told tony tan he'll be the president.
After listening to all these, we thought why not just go to the export centre and take a look. The shop's just around the corner and it did look like a proper shop. So we looked at the orange sapphires which the 'master' claims to be the fengshui stone. Ok, I admit it was really quite pretty and cheeky's decided to get one for me for my bday present, as well as for good luck. I was quite hesitant initially because it was quite expensive, but since I don't know what I want for bday, and my current swarovski is still at the repair centre, I agreed and even insisted he gets a ring for himself as well. And so we spent quite a bit of time choosing and resizing the ring. Total damage: 30k baht! that's $1.2k sgd! We were so naive not to notice anything wrong, and still happily continued shopping for the rest of the day!
Fast forward >> The next morning, as I was washing up and getting ready for breakfast and checkout, cheeky decided to google 'Arnold Kwek' and the first thing that came out: 'I got conned! Bangkok scam...' The exact same story happened to many other travellors! Damn!! It was such a well-crafted and I must say, professional scam!! There goes our $1.2k!
For the next half an hour or so, we were busy googling and reading up on forums on what to do. As we know next to nothing on how to tell if a gemstone is real, or how much they should cost, we had absolutely no idea whether what we got was fake or just obscenely overpriced. Since we're just 2 helpless tourists in the foreign land, and knowing that even if we go back to the shop to demand a refund, they are probably just going to brush us off and say it's non-refundable, we decided to approach the hotel staff for help. Thank goodness the hotel staff were very helpful, after some discussion among themselves, they decided it is best to go back to the shop with one of the hotel securities to ask for a refund, if they refuse, then proceed to make a police report. So we took a tuk-tuk there and even the tuk-tuk driver didn't know the place! Luckily we brought a local security, the conman who sold us the gems agreed to our refund without much question, but claims they still have to deduct 5% for Credit Card charges, well, much better than wasting $1.2k!! Their credit card system was so old-fashioned that they only gave us a credit notice and says it takes 1 week to process. Since the whole thing was such a scam, I was so afraid that the credit note was a fake too, so we went back to the hotel to verify and the very night after we reached Singapore to call up Citibank to report of the whole incident.
And so that's my whole Bangkok scam story. Luckily, I must say, in such unfortunate circumstances, there are still helpful people to make the whole incident a bit more pleasant! I know cheeky is definitely more street-smart than me, but now I also know his soft spot - me. I know no matter how much something costs, or if it's something I want badly, he'll definitely try his best to satisfy me. And I'm so glad we manage to resolve this whole scam incident together rationally and peacefully, rather than pointing fingers and scolding each other. Loving my cheeky boy to bits!
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