this trip to bangkok is fully sponsored by by brother, abg ijan! he booked us (my parents amd i) the flight tickets and accommodations. so, we flew with thai airways! actually my sister in law, kak intan was invited to be a lecturer at NIDA college for a couple of months. furthermore, my nephew, izz (abg ijan's son) had a rugby tournament there. initially, only my parents would go but then the invitation was extended to me (i'm one lucky girl, right?! hehe..)
17 December 2019 (Tuesday)
our flight was around 8am from KLIA, we arrived at bangkok maybe around 10am. abg ijan picked us up with a car he rented for the day. ooo, before the trip, abg ijan told me to buy thai travel simcards and it really is convenient. the simcard only costs RM12, valid for 8 days with 19GB 4G data. bought them at lazada. so, on our first day, kak intan took us on boat taxi (public transportation) in bang ka pi area for NIDA college is situated there. later that evening, we went to the hotel abg ijan booked near bangkok. kak intan called grab. for me, the most convenient way to travel if you are in group is by grab. unfortunately, i forgot to activate my debit card (couldn't get the verification code because it was send to my malaysia's phone number) before going there, so i couldn't use grab.
18 December 2019 (Wednesday)
today, i joined a tour booked fat
klook to ayutthaya. ayutthaya was capital of the Kingdom of Siam, and a prosperous international trading port, from 1350 until razed by the Burmese in 1767. it is located about 80km from bangkok. early that morning, i walked to the nearest bts station (about 20 min from the hotel). itinerary is as follow. i joined this tour alone since the others had other plan, beside my mother couldn't walk much since her feet are swollen. the real reason i chose this tour in the first place is because thai historical drama series,
love destiny! i binge-watched the series at netflix and i kept rewatching my favourite scenes. there are maybe about 20 people in the tour, a mixed bunch, came from different part of the world. since, i'm travelling alone, i had to ask strangers to take my pictures. so, there are not a lot of picture of me. overall, the tour is great and i highly recommend it to all of you!
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| main casts of love destiny |
19 December 2019 (Thursday)
we took a
tourist hop on/off boat along chao phraya river. we started at sathorn central pier and stopped at grand palace. here, i went to rent thai traditional cloth from
sense of thai. another influence from love destiny. while i changed into the costume, my other family members already entered the grand palace. my mom had to use the wheelchair for her feet were getting worse. we met inside the grand palace. once we explored the grand palace, we went to see thai masked dance performance at Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre, it was included in the grand palace entrance ticket. the play was interesting and we got the chance to take picture with a couple of the performers
after that, we split into two goups; my parents with abg ijan and kak intan, me with the boys, izz and areef. the nephews and i went to wat pho while the others went to mbk centre. the boys act as my photographer of the day, haha and they took beautiful pictures. thanks to them i got a lot of pictures wearing thai traditional cloth worth my rental money! then, we took grab to mbk centre where we had dinner. done with dinner, we went to asiatique with the car rented by abg ijan for the next day we planned to go to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and Maeklong Railway Market.
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| tourist boat route |
20 December 2019 (Friday)
on this day, we went to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market which was about 2 hours drive from bangkok. we took the boat ride but we didn't buy anything much. still the boat ride was fun! we then had lunch at armeen halal restaurant.the restaurant owner didn't speak malay but she told us she received a lot of customers from malaysia. there was another malaysian family eating lunch there as well. if not mistaken, they are from bangi. once lunch is done, we stopped for a while, just to take pictures at maeklong railway market. since it was already late in the evening, not many stalls were opened. most of them were closed already.
21 December 2019 (Saturday)
abg ijan called a grab for us to the airport early this morning. it was time to say goodbye to bangkok. maybe, inshaAllah i want to come here again to visit the temples or museums that i didn't get to see.. thank you abg ijan and kak intan for this wonderful trip! may Allah bless all of you, amin~
