Day 1:
Had to reach the airport by 5.30am because our flight was at 7.10am so I had to take a cab there. After check in, we went on to have breakfast because it was really early. After breakfast, we proceeded to board the plane and they have to put the gates for jetstar at the very end because we were a budget airline. But it was ok considering how far people have to walk if they flew from the budget terminal. Jetstar was ok except the seats were super cramp and I doubt I can take it if the trip was longer than 2 hours.
Upon touchdown, we were met by the hotel driver to fetch us to the hotel. The hotel was in the middle of an alley and I think we only decided on it because it was cheap and we were ignorant. After unloading our bags and checkin in procedures, we walked to MBK to begin the shopping day.
MBK is huge. Had lunch at the 5th food avenue which had a system like marche and village, where u tap cards and pay at the end of the meal. The food there was nice but a bit steep compared to other options we had. During the first 30 minutes of shopping, I've already gotten used to the art of bargaining, as you'll definitely get cheated if you don't bargain. The dealers are willing to settle for prices that are about 60% of the price they quote you, even more so if you buy in bulk. We got some clothes and bags and decided to go back to the hotel for a rest.
Upon my suggestion, we went for a full body massage at 200 baht for an hour. That's not even $10. The massage was defnitely rejuvenating, considering we sat like a rock on the plane for 2 hours and walked around MBK for 4 hours before that.
At night, we took a cab to chinatown at yaowarat road for dinner at nam xing restaurant, reccomended by jeremy and my sister. The food was just slightly cheaper than singapore's "zi cha" but it was good to try thai chainese food. Bought lots of goodies to bring back to singapore for my family and my office mates. Ended the day with a dvd in the hotel room.
Day 1 should have ended there, but that night was the champion's league finals and chelsea was involved, and since the lobby had the telecast, we woke up at 2am to catch the match and I can only say chelsea lost to lady luck, with terry slipping at the last spot kick. Chelsea also hit the post twice before that. On the whole, I thought it was a nice match between 2 evenly matched sides. However, I get very irritated when people mock chelsea as a rich club that cannot win trophies. When chelsea don't win, they say that chelsea has money yet cannot win. When chelsea won the league in 2005 and 2006, people say chelsea is rich that's why they win. To me, people can say that chelsea's skills and teamwork is not good, but that totally has nothing to do with money and buying good players. If chelsea doesn't spend, people start talking about how chelsea can buy good players and they don't buy. If you are rich and can have tuition for all your subjects, does that guarantee good results? Yup, so people should let the feet do the talking. If chelsea don't play well or play well, it has nothing to do with the money. And I do agree that man utd has a better season this year but the champion's league finals was definitely evenly matched. Real Madrid is also rich, and they only showed their class this season amd they didn't buy many good players. It takes time for a team to gel together. Anyways, this totally should be in a separate post.
Shall update about days 2-4 in the next post.