I just went on a 4D3N trip to bangkok. My main target was to relax (with good and cheap massage and food!). Though my friends and i are not typical shoppers (ie we will be tired after 2hrs of shopping), we spend almost half the trip in shopping. A few hours was spent at Chatuchak weekend market but I did not really enjoy shopping at this area mainly due to the hot weather (outdoors) and stuffy/squeezy conditions (indoors). That is a pity cos you can get really cheap products at that area. I bought a set of earrings which match the bracelet i bought in a market in Sydney! Guess what, the bracelet costs SGD 7-8 but the earrings cost SGD 1 only. We tried a coconut but we were not given a spoon to eat the flesh. Anyway i think the coconut we were given had flesh that is too hard to be eaten.

We did drop by MBK, World Trade Center, Siam Centre / Discovery, but my personal favourite is Platinum fashion mall. Though you can get similar and cheaper products elsewhere, i favour this shopping mall for the air conditioning and clean washrooms. I bought 2 bags, a jacket and a skirt there and these made up my main shopping items from Bangkok! My friends bought a bag each. I am not into shopping for clothes in this mall as there are no changing rooms. I think a better shopping mall for clothes would be Pratunam City Complex? I don't remember from my bangkok trip 2 years ago :p

We also spent a day going to Grand Palace and Wat Pho. We hail a cab via hotel porters but the cab driver kept insisting that the roads were blocked and suggested to drive us to another shopping area. We refused and got down the cab. We went back to hotel and asked the reception about the road blocks. The ladies thought of possible monk ceremonies and told us to take the MRT and boat ride. Upon reaching the jetty, we did not know how to buy single trip ticket and bought the unlimited boat rides ticket at 150 baht per person (since we thought of alighting at 2 piers along the route). In the end, we did not manage to go to Temple of Dawn or other areas. Here's something to take note, i think you can purchase the single trip ticket on boat at 30 Baht per person (not sure if this is the standard rate or varies according to the distance). There are private boats available but i dun think it is enjoyable (though it is less crowded / squeezy) as it is more shaky and much much more expensive. The overall experience to Grand Palace is quite okay except that we overpaid the boat expenses (we could have save 90 Baht haha). However I do find the entrance fee of 350 Baht (300 to Grand Palace and 50 to Wat Pho) to be pretty expensive. You can consider dropping by if you like such architecture. There is a massage school inside Wat Pho but i think the charges are expensive considering it is a school? I forgot the charges but it is close to 300 Baht.

We had massage 3 times at the same place - Paradise Massage, along the stretch of shops on the left hand side of Asia Hotel's main entrance. I went to this massage place 2 years ago, upon a friend's recommendation. The foot massage costs 150 Baht (promotional rate, original price 2 years ago was 200 Baht) and the traditional body massage costs 200 Baht for an hour. Besides a particular massager who seems to be less friendly and offers full 1 hour massage, we generally find the rest to be quite good.

According to our agenda, it is a pity that we did not manage to go to Golden Mount, 4 face buddha and have dinner at Chinatown in the end. We did have 4 "sumptuous" meals. I like the thai restuarant (Bling) at World Trade Centre. The fried squids (175 Baht)  and asparagus with prawns (135 Baht) are delicious! The mango is not as sweet and fragrant as i have tasted before in Sydney. Hence I do not give as high marks for the mango sticky rice (200 Baht). But i am glad we manage to try that dessert. We did not manage to try red ruby and the minced pork noodles on a street (which was recommended by a taxi driver).

We had buffet dinner at Baiyoke Sky restaurant (68th storey) and we do not think the price is reasonable for the quality. There is a variety of food but we find the food to be so-so (even at 470 Baht after 50% discount we got cos we were staying at a "sister" hotel) . The salmon sashimi, tom yum soup and pha thai is tasty. The lime sorbet and coconut ice cream is nice. Other than that, most of the dishes tasted normal, the steamed big prawns are not fresh and sweet, the desserts are not tempting, the watermelon is over ripe, the papaya has a weird taste of insecticide, and the list goes on.

We had 2 meals at the japanese restuarants and they are cheap and nice! Generally I find the jap food to be cheaper and just as good. Other meals are settled for fast food and hotel cafe due to timing issues. (And i said earlier, we are trying to relax in this trip? haha but then we did try to have 8 hours of sleep every day!) In average, the 4 sumptuous meals cost more than 300 Baht each, and the lower end meals cost 120 Baht on average.

I think half the Thais I met are pretty friendly, though most of the salespersons would give a black face if you had asked about the price and then decided not to buy the good. Well, if I walked away after asking about the price, i would think that is too expensive for the quality / good i was browsing at and I was not waiting for them to call me back! In fact, i only ask for the price if i like the good, i am not the kind who falls into the trap of shopping spree, purchasing cheap goods which i did not like that much / are not useful to me. :p (at least 80% of the time haha)

There is another interesting fact to share. We reach the airport early, ie before 6pm, for departure flight which is scheduled at 8.10pm. The booth / gate is supposed to open at 6.10pm but there are 3 long queues (of 10 passengers in each queue) waiting behind the booth already. (What does that tell you about 60-80% of the passengers? hahaha) Anyway the waiting time is pretty long as it is manual processing and not system processing. I think we waited for 40mins or more just to reach our turn. Perhaps Tiger Airways should consider having a dedicated queue for those who are not checking in luggage, so that this group of passengers need not wait too long! The allowed weight for cabin luggage is 7kg and checked in luggage is 15kg. I think real shoppers can easily buy things which weigh beyond 23kg!

We stayed in Baiyoke Boutique hotel and the design is pretty weird as in, you need to climb about 6 steps of stairs to reach the lifts. There is something puzzling me. It is a smell of a food, which I don't know what it is. I find it pungent and it is definitely not durian. It is served in 1 of the jap resturants we went to and in the local foodcourt at top of Platinum fashion mall. Perhaps now I understand why people find durians pungent :)

The following information can help to guide us on what to look for when buying sunscreens.

1. Look out for a sunscreen which shields the skin from both UVA and UVB rays. UVA rays cause skin cancer and premature aging of the skin whereas UVB rays cause sunburn.