February 21st - Day 9 - The End is a New Beginning

Day 9, a Sunday, the last day for this vacation. And the parents and the younger had to book a 08:30 flight back to Sarawak. I woke up at 06:30 to drive them to the airport. Then I drove back to the hotel. On the way I had to stop at the side and have a 15 minutes snooze because I was really sleepy and it was dangerous to drive like that.

At about 09:00, I left the elder still in bed to go back home. I have to attend Yoges' wedding in Bangsar. I went to the wedding with CK and Song Hua and met Chui Yoke, Douglas and Jo-ann there. The wedding is my first Indian wedding and it was interesting. Although I didn't really understand what was going on exactly, but it looked like there was a lot of blessing throughout the ceremony and the couple exchanges blessing and then accepting blessing and gifts from everybody.

And then, I slept the rest of the day off.

The end of my vacation, it became a new beginning for the newly weds. It also became the new beginning to my work in the New Year when I get back to work tomorrow.

February 20th - Day 8 - Ahoy, Homeland!

Day 8, and we are going back home today. The flight's early, at 09:25. We left the hotel at 06:30 on a taxi so we could arrive at the airport on time.

After check in, we had breakfast at Mr. Lee's Restaurant. The elder ordered another Mango Sticky Rice, and Pa had Rice Noodles Soup while the elder had a Pork Porridge.

Ma and the elder did some more shopping at the duty free shops in the airport before boarding. They were late arriving at the gate, but at least not before the gate was closed. So all was fine and we were on our way back home.

The flight back seem to have been longer than the flight to Bangkok. We arrive LCCT at a little after noon. We had lunch at the airport before taking the bus down to KL Central. There was an American old man sitting behind me in the bus who was yapping on and on about how his son booked the wrong Tunes Hotel. He booked rooms for his father and his friends rooms at the downtown Tunes Hotel instead of the LCCT Tunes Hotel.

The story was that his friends and he arrived in KL and will be flying again the next morning, so he was really pissed about how he had to take the one-hour bus ride down to the city and doing the reverse again early in the morning. I cut him off in the middle of his conversation by telling him that there's a Skyvan that might help them shorten the journey. He was quite happy somebody was being helpful. Later, they were curious about the oil palm tree and he asked me about it. I was quite amused with the whole process. It was really really cute that the man actually have an audio travel log and he repeated everything he complained about and everything I told him into a recorder or something.

After we got to KL central, the family waited for me while I picked up the car at my friend's place. We then  drove straight back to Kajang.

There was a squabble in Kajang. I was tired of being tolerant and blew up a little while. But, being family, we got through it. That evening, we went to have Satay Kajang, then we drove to Putrajaya for second serving of dinner and a movie. I had a chance to photograph the Chinese New Year decoration at Alamanda, Putrajaya.

All in all, we're happy to be back in Homeland!

February 19th - Day 7 - Shopping Spree

Day 7, this day is the only day that we had nothing planned for. Except, we have to check out of the hotel and change hotel because iResidence was full.

On the morning near 10:00, we walked around the hotel before checking out. There was a little market just around the corner, where we saw some pretty interesting things, including the pretty colourful flowers, Thai cakes and crackers.

After that we took a taxi, well, actually two taxis, because our bags couldn't fit into one, and moved into the Citadines Apart'Hotel on Sukhumvit Road. It's called an Apart'Hotel because it was partly apartment and partly hotel. Each room had separate bathroom, wash area, kitchen, living area and bedroom. After resting for a while we went out for lunch at the Old German Beer House just downstairs. It was interesting to see a whole pig roasting outside the shop.

The parents both ordered Cappuccino while the rest of us had water (if I remembered correctly). I ordered Grilled Pork Leg, the elder had Pork Steak, Pa had Pork Chop, Ma had Curry with Chicken and the younger had a different Pork dish.

It rained after lunch. So we went back to the room and had a rest. At about 18:00, we went out again for a last look at Bangkok. We decided to go back to MBK because we all hadn't done our souvenir shopping. At the MBK, a sat through the family having dinner at a Japanese restaurant because I was still stuffed from the Pork Leg at lunch. We then went around shopping while Pa went to the bookstore. We shopped till almost all shops were closing and went back to the hotel. There, we had a photo taken of the things we bought in Bangkok because it was spectacular. The most prized purchase are the four Thailand scarves, three I got for my friends and one the elder bought for herself.

We went to bed after partially packing, so we can jump right up at about 06:00 in the morning to go to the airport.

February 18th - Day 6 - Relaxing (Tiring) Stroll

Day 6 at 17:59 hours. I'm lying in bed while the parents and the elder went out for a stroll shopping for fruits and snacks downstairs.

This is the first day in Bangkok we get to sleep in till almost noon. The past two days have been so tiring, I even remembered having leg cramps last night. At noon, we started for to Chinatown by MRT. On the way we visited Wat Tri Mit Wit Thayaram, which holds the 1991 Guiness book of record holder for the most valuable Buddha statue, the Golden Buddha.

The same temple holds a little exhibition centre for the Thai Chinese heritage. We had a Chinese-style lunch of steamed sea bass, fried prawns, stir-fried vegetables and sweet sour bamboo shoots at one of the Chinese Restaurants in Chinatown. After that we walked around Chinatown towards the pier.

We took a ferry along Chao Praya River to visit the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. The Reclining Buddha was huge, a lot bigger than I could ever imagine,which makes it very hard to photograph in the confined small space. Then we went back to the hotel because we're feeling too tired.

We lazed till about 20:00 hours watching movie on the TV before going to dinner. The elder decided to have dinner just nearby. So we had tom yum soup, Thai-style chicken, stir-fried vegetables, stir-fried seafood tofu, grilled pork papaya salad, and deep fried shrimp cakes at a restaurant nearby, called Four Leaf Clover.

After a good dinner with loads of conversation, we called it a day and came back to the hotel at 21:47 hours for more TV. LOL~~

Good night for now.

February 17th - Day 5 - A Cultural Shock

Day 5 at 18:16 hours. We're lazin' and snoozin' at the hotel after a whole day's walk.

We started the morning with a trip to the Floating Market. It was a two-hour's drive to and fro, and a one-plus hour boat ride from the port to the coconut sugar farm to the Market to the port. Ma took the Market as quite disappointing because she imagined the Market as a huge floating plank on the river.

The river was kind of narrow. And at the Market central, there was so many boats there was a jam. The Market did not have much to offer, mostly the same old same old keychains, hats and such. There were a lot of bright coloured fruits, including coconut, rambutans, mangos and small mango-like fruits. All in all, it was a monotonous 500THB boat ride, although the last part of the ride was quite rough.

We got the driver to drop us at the MBK complex, which the elder introduced as the Sg. Wang of Bangkok. We then visited the complex next door, which was equivalent to The Gardens Mid Valley. The parents and I browsed the bookstore while the sisters went to walk the other two complexes, one being compared to the Pavillion while the other described as Queen's Bay Mall.

Lunch at MBK was delicious. We went to the food court on the top floor, where we had to exchange cash for coupons. All purchases were paid by coupons only. And just in case we had extra coupons left after the meal, we can redeem the cash back. Yeah, the trouble, right? It's maybe so for some hygienic reasons, which the Scientific part of my brain can break in two, maybe three logical steps. But whatever, right? We're in their territory and let's just play it their way. We ordered a Mango Sticky Rice (80THB) to share, Pa had Kuey-Chap which is rice noodle squares with internal organs, Ma had a Barbecued Pork Rice, I had a Braised Pork Limb Rice, and both sisters had Pad Thai which is Thai-style Fried Rice Noodles. The elder initially ordered a Chinese Vermicelli/Glass Noodles in Clear Soup which she assumed to be clear tom yam soup, but she was disappointed with it so she ordered another Pad Thai and we shared the Clear Soup between us. We spent a total of about 400THB.

Dinner was McDonald's burgers at approximately 19:30 hours. McDonald's here have pork burgers! Woohoo~~ Pa, the younger and I ordered the Samurai Pork Burger which was sublimed in sweet and sour sauce while Ma and the elder ordered the Double Cheese Burger which I think is popular in McDonald's all over the world.

We then went for a walk towards the Bai Yoke Sky Hotel's observation deck for a look at the night view, which was extraordinary. The Hotel is known to be the tallest hotel in Bangkok. I shot a video of the night scene for a full rotation of the deck, which is about 12 minutes. Then we went down to the bar at 23rd floor and enjoyed our complimentary drinks while playing with the camera.

It's now almost 01:00 hours. And I am sleepy. Good night, travel log.