ununoriginal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ununoriginal) wrote2006-08-14 09:44 pm
ununoriginal) wrote2006-08-14 09:44 pm
Entry tags:
曼谷游
even up till the day before i left for bangkok with my 2 colleagues, i was still quite ambivalent about it. maybe work has been a bit too overwhelming recently, to the extent that i barely felt any excitement at all at going, merely a faint sense of relief. it was all incredibly blasé - yep, i'm going to bangkok, wat shall i do there? no. effing. idea :p
more than a week after i got back, my memories of tat siamese city grow fonder and fonder. lolz, i've become a great ambassador of the place, or at least, it's shopping establishments ;) it's a place tat grows on u, and the more i look back on it and describe it to others, the more i realise tat one day i would like to go again - cuz there're many other areas and facets of the city i have yet to see.
shopping in bangkok is an entirely different experience from shopping at home. for one, thai ppl love their colour, so the stuff on display is so much more vibrant, like jewels glinting in the sun. one sees more the thai culture reflected in their fashion and interior designs as well.
we went thru the whole gamut of shopping establishments, from the posh-ness of siam paragon and the discovery centre to the middle-class-ness of mabungkorn and silom complex to the class eradicator of patpong, suan-lum and chatuchak. and such an enjoyable downward spiral it was... ;)
of course, the essence of thai shopping enjoyment is tat it's SO DAMN CHEAP - it's truly a place where the poor singaporean/malaysian can be king, pardon my non-PCness :p for the amount i spent at chatuchak and suan lum, i got more things, of better quality, compared to the few paltry items i could afford for the same price back home, where the standard of living in singapore and malaysia has gone beyond tat.
i also learned the power of bargaining - where i got a pair of shorts originally priced at an outrageous 850 baht for 150 baht at the patpong night market. tat was a one-hit wonder, i never achieved tat level of accomplishment anywhere else :p but i def came away from thailand a better bargainer - act indifferent, and never ever want anything too damn much ;p
another constant while i was in bangkok was the walking - which must be the thai ppl's secret to staying slim. on day one, we discovered tat NOT ALL OF THE TRAIN STATIONS WERE EQUIPPED WITH ESCALATORS!!! lolz!! if i were some character in shadow hearts and equipped with a pedometer, i would surely have won some ultimate weapon by the end of the trip. we managed to walk endlessly for 4 days! in days of old, we might have climbed mountains and forded rivers already :p
it's also fascinating in tat it's quite a religious country, but for once, it's not muslim, but buddhist! and to a certain extent, one sees the way it's reflected in the ways ppl behave. there're traffic jams, endless throngs of ppl but no one seems to be really in a rush to get anywhere. ppl QUEUE UP to board the train, if a driver gets edged out by another vehicle, there's no venomous cussing. apart from a few bad eggs, the thai ppl are very polite, helpful, and generally frenly :)
plus they have great respect for their monarch, who was hospitalised while we were there - it took us a while, but we finally figured out that the yellow t-shirts at least half the population was wearing was in dedication of the king and queen, who were both in hospital, to pray for their swift and safe recovery. truly, the king is like the BIGGEST idoru in thailand - we counted more than 10 billboards or skyscraper-sized posters of the king on our way from bangkok to the airport, and tat's like the merest of the merest tip of the iceberg...
and the last thing tat never seems to change, no matter WAT city one goes to in the world, it seems, is chinatown! the neon signs stacked on top of one another, the shops selling the exotic herbs, weird delicacies and preserved foods, and the chinese characters!! lolz! there was bird's nest for 100 baht - and shark's fin + sea cucumber selling at every other stall. it's also an instance where i'd take pride in the strength of chinese culture and tradition - 5000 years strong - so tat regardless of which corner of the world one is at, there'll still be a little niche tat maybe kinda feels like home :)
当然去一趟旅行难免会有性格上的磨擦，尤其是和在工作上就已经有过分歧的人一起旅行更不用说。这应该是我的曼谷游唯一的污点吧。。。 不过，经一致，长一智 （不知道写得对不对...) 我只能承认跟某些人是无法长时间相处，无法和她的作风取得协调，所以偶尔我一句，她一句，便砰出了‘火花’。 还好这是三人行，中间有 yw 做缓和，不然我早就海扁她了！ 所以 yw, 这次旅行有点难为你了，得包容我们的 ego，真的是佩服佩服！ 可以成佛了！ lolz!! 如果我那时说过作过什么得罪你的东西，要多多包涵，ok? 我还想再和你去旅游的哦！ ;)
more than a week after i got back, my memories of tat siamese city grow fonder and fonder. lolz, i've become a great ambassador of the place, or at least, it's shopping establishments ;) it's a place tat grows on u, and the more i look back on it and describe it to others, the more i realise tat one day i would like to go again - cuz there're many other areas and facets of the city i have yet to see.
shopping in bangkok is an entirely different experience from shopping at home. for one, thai ppl love their colour, so the stuff on display is so much more vibrant, like jewels glinting in the sun. one sees more the thai culture reflected in their fashion and interior designs as well.
we went thru the whole gamut of shopping establishments, from the posh-ness of siam paragon and the discovery centre to the middle-class-ness of mabungkorn and silom complex to the class eradicator of patpong, suan-lum and chatuchak. and such an enjoyable downward spiral it was... ;)
of course, the essence of thai shopping enjoyment is tat it's SO DAMN CHEAP - it's truly a place where the poor singaporean/malaysian can be king, pardon my non-PCness :p for the amount i spent at chatuchak and suan lum, i got more things, of better quality, compared to the few paltry items i could afford for the same price back home, where the standard of living in singapore and malaysia has gone beyond tat.
i also learned the power of bargaining - where i got a pair of shorts originally priced at an outrageous 850 baht for 150 baht at the patpong night market. tat was a one-hit wonder, i never achieved tat level of accomplishment anywhere else :p but i def came away from thailand a better bargainer - act indifferent, and never ever want anything too damn much ;p
another constant while i was in bangkok was the walking - which must be the thai ppl's secret to staying slim. on day one, we discovered tat NOT ALL OF THE TRAIN STATIONS WERE EQUIPPED WITH ESCALATORS!!! lolz!! if i were some character in shadow hearts and equipped with a pedometer, i would surely have won some ultimate weapon by the end of the trip. we managed to walk endlessly for 4 days! in days of old, we might have climbed mountains and forded rivers already :p
it's also fascinating in tat it's quite a religious country, but for once, it's not muslim, but buddhist! and to a certain extent, one sees the way it's reflected in the ways ppl behave. there're traffic jams, endless throngs of ppl but no one seems to be really in a rush to get anywhere. ppl QUEUE UP to board the train, if a driver gets edged out by another vehicle, there's no venomous cussing. apart from a few bad eggs, the thai ppl are very polite, helpful, and generally frenly :)
plus they have great respect for their monarch, who was hospitalised while we were there - it took us a while, but we finally figured out that the yellow t-shirts at least half the population was wearing was in dedication of the king and queen, who were both in hospital, to pray for their swift and safe recovery. truly, the king is like the BIGGEST idoru in thailand - we counted more than 10 billboards or skyscraper-sized posters of the king on our way from bangkok to the airport, and tat's like the merest of the merest tip of the iceberg...
and the last thing tat never seems to change, no matter WAT city one goes to in the world, it seems, is chinatown! the neon signs stacked on top of one another, the shops selling the exotic herbs, weird delicacies and preserved foods, and the chinese characters!! lolz! there was bird's nest for 100 baht - and shark's fin + sea cucumber selling at every other stall. it's also an instance where i'd take pride in the strength of chinese culture and tradition - 5000 years strong - so tat regardless of which corner of the world one is at, there'll still be a little niche tat maybe kinda feels like home :)
当然去一趟旅行难免会有性格上的磨擦，尤其是和在工作上就已经有过分歧的人一起旅行更不用说。这应该是我的曼谷游唯一的污点吧。。。 不过，经一致，长一智 （不知道写得对不对...) 我只能承认跟某些人是无法长时间相处，无法和她的作风取得协调，所以偶尔我一句，她一句，便砰出了‘火花’。 还好这是三人行，中间有 yw 做缓和，不然我早就海扁她了！ 所以 yw, 这次旅行有点难为你了，得包容我们的 ego，真的是佩服佩服！ 可以成佛了！ lolz!! 如果我那时说过作过什么得罪你的东西，要多多包涵，ok? 我还想再和你去旅游的哦！ ;)
:)
(Anonymous) 2006-08-14 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)hehehe
Re: hehehe
no subject
(Anonymous) 2006-08-16 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)no subject