Bangkok’s Rush Hour: Day 2 – Ocean Walk with the Sharks

Waking up to a bright and early morning.

There’s something so special and magical about this time of the day. Mornings represents a new beginning of the day or rather, it signifies a brand new start of your life. I am in love with my mornings!

A selection of fine tea at our hotel! It was on display in the lounge and I thought it was free for hotel guest but it’s not!

Chinatown.

“We were young, we were free! ” As much as possible, we wanted to cover as much attractions as possible today so we practically “flew” from place to place. Let the rush hour begins!

We first took a hot pink taxi to Chinatown.(Yes!The taxis in Thailand are in bright neon colours! Don’t think you could ever missed it!) The hotel staff recommended that we should try their local porridge for breakfast in Chinatown but in view of the shortage of time, we decided to settle for this foodstall that looks quite packed. Good food attracts people, right! Sad to say, the noodles tasted pretty alright. It’s those standard noodle soup with springy fishballs.

Both of us were still not fully satisfied after having noodles for breakfast so we headed to 7-11 and grabbed a bun and hotdog sandwich. As we walked out of the convenience stall, we spotted several people having a steaming hot bowl of dessert which looks like Bobo hitam… Yes, it is black rice pudding dessert! Since the locals are eating it, we should have a go too, isn’t it?

Our breakie for the day.

Then, we took a taxi to the Grand Palace.

As tourists, we need to pay an entrance fee to enter the Grand Palace. But the price of the ticket was highly exorbitant! If I remember correctly, it cost about 400 Baht to enter the Grand Palace. However, for the locals, it is free! Grand Palace is an attraction that is not to be missed and both of us really want to visit the Grand Palace quite badly without burning a huge hole in our pockets. ( Shh… we manage to join the local crowd and get into the Palace for free!)

It’s so grand. I don’t think I ever seen anything quite like this before!

I thought this place is great for photoshots! The gold brillance…all that sparkles…

Like what I’ve said, you have to visit the Grand Palace when you’re in Bangkok!

The walls were actually made up of small pieces of reflecting glass mirrors and ceramics. Some of the glass pieces were tinted with colours like red or blue.

Lotus. In Buddhism, the lotus represents purification and faithfulness.

Liberated. Haven’t felt that liberated for a long time.

Lost in transition

It’s hard to get a picture without random people behind in the background. Sometimes life is like this. You’ve just gotta accept all these distractions in life. They could be sparklers that adds some fun to your life. In the end, you will still get that beautiful picture of yourself in the midst of chaos.

Prayers and worshippers. Their hands clasped onto burning joysticks and flowers, praying earnestly to their gods.

The King of Thailand is visiting the Grand Palace on the very next day! These people are preparing for the King’s visit!

The guards at the temple. I’m not poking fun at him. But it’s really a tough just standing still for hours. I’m trying to be still too! But I don’t think I could stand still any longer if there’s an ant crawling up my legs.

Trying to picture myself as Taylor Swift in her music video, “Love Story”. You do get what I mean, don’t you?

The Grand Palace was so huge that I don’t even know where I was after walking out of the temple. It’s like a themepark out here!

Thanks mate, for the prefect jumpshot!

Wrapped around by the true beauty of Bangkok. The Heart of Asia.

I’m loving this blogshop model pose! I should totally do this often!

Another spectacular shrine.

I feel small. Though we gotta admit that the world is big out there, and we are just tiny ant soldiers. Don’t forget that all of us need to have a big heart. We may be small but with a big heart, we are bigger than anything else.

It was scorching hot outside! We were lucky that we spotted a cafe selling cold drinks and ice-cream.

I choose Salaca and my friend chose Yam. When it comes to food, I’m the daredevil that tries anything except insects and exotic animal species. Haha, is there anything more gruesome and disgusting than that? Anyway, the salaca popsicle tasted really sour. Almost like lemons.

Fortune-teller. I’ve never approached one before but I would like to try it someday.

Uh-uh. When it comes to this part of my traveller stories, I’m a little dissapointed but I told myself, it’s alright because it’s all part of the travelling experience. That’s the traveller’s spirit! The story goes when we agreed to walk to the sleeping buddha temple but along the way, we met this drink stall uncle we told us that the sleeping buddha temple is closed. Instead, he recommended that we go for a floating market tour by taking a ferry ride at one of the ferry terminals. He was telling us, in good English, that we should not take ferries from other terminals as they charge tourists at a high price. I kept asking how much the ferry ticket is but he refuses to disclose to us at first. I smelt something fishy but just went along anyway since the temple was closed and we had no where else to go. He helped us get a tuk-tuk to the ferry terminal and at the terminal, we were told that we need to fork out 900 baht per person. That’s when I know we’ve been cheated! In the end, we manage to negotiate to about 600 baht per person and the floating market tour which they have promised was never there in the first place. It was just a long-tail boat ride in the Chao Phraya Rivers. What a shame! But then again, as travellers, we need to keep our spirits high! Let’s hope it will never happen again!

Trying to smile albeit feeling cheated by the boatman. Hah, where’s the floating market,really?

After all that dissapointment, we decided to head back to the hotel for some high tea. Maybe the tea and cakes will help lift our spirits up.

M Gallery’s high tea buffet.

 The scones and muffins did made me feel so much happier! There were also some assorted mini cakes and macarons but the buffet spread was quite small but acceptable. The sweet and savoury treats were good and it’s pleasant to sip mocha and nibble some cakes while surfing the wifi,checking emails online and having a heart-to-heart talk with your travel mate. It’s a good time for reflecting and recalling what we have done so far. Even as we travel, we all need that little break too.

Savoury treats.

Sweet treats.

There’s quite alot of effort placed in making the desserts look delightful.

Hot mocha

Creme Brulee.

Girl’s favourite perfumed tea: Earl Grey.

We were pretty hungry because we hadn’t had our lunch that day!

We were so full after the buffet that we decide to skip dinner! That’s our Lunner! ( Lunch + Dinner)

 Next, we took a free tuk-tuk service provided by the hotel to Siam Paragon where we purchase a gold package at the Siam ocean world. This gold package is quite a good deal as it includes tickets to enter Siam Ocean world, Madame Tussauds, 4D movie, oceanwalk and a few other activities. But, then again, the highlight of the package is the oceanwalk where it takes quite abit of guts to do it!

It was a nerve-wrecking moment when I know that I had go down first! There’s some risk involve because we all need to sign some sort of a contract and fill in a safety form.

We need to be in our diving suit and then this man standing right in the middle will pass us this huge round spaceship-like helmet and place it over our heads. The helmets encloses our entire head and it supplies us with oxygen so that we can breathe even when we are underwater. It was quite a fulfilling and awesome experience because this was something which I’ve never done before in my life! If not for my friend’s persuasion and persistence in doing this, I would have never tried something like this in Bangkok. Who says Bangkok is only about eating and shopping? It’s a place for the adventurous too! Maybe Singaporeans only love to eat cheap and good food and shop til we drop?

This is the ladder we descent to do the ocean walk.

It was a pity that we didn’t manage to capture any photos of ourselves when we are underwater! But some of the tourist who were at the side of  aquarium took photos with us while we were contained in the glass-tanked aquarium. Did I mention that there were a school of sharks swimming right above us while we were walking on the ground?

5D movie experience. I enjoyed this alot! I didn’t expect cold air to be blowning down my neck during the movie!

Siam ocean world is quite an awesome place to visit! GRrr… walking with the sharks was fun!