Thailand again? Oh, don't worry. Having gone to the northern part, Chiang Mai in February and Bangkok in the center in April, this time I went to the southern part. This time I went to Cha Am, Petchaburi Province. It's quite near Hua Hin city. It takes about 2 hour drive from Bangkok. Having gone with my friends on an official mission, I discovered another part of Bangkok that I would like to share with you.

Sala Daeng, Bangkok

We had a 3-day meeting to attend on 15 July, but we made the travel on 13 July to spend an overnight in Bangkok, before continuing the journey to Cha Am on the next day. Since we arrived not very late in the evening on13 July, we spent our evening by going to have ourselves massaged with Thai massage. We indulged ourselves with the soothing aroma therapy that came with the package. If you are conservative, don't worry. You can choose who's going to do the massage for you. If you're a lady, you can choose lady massager. And, if you must know, I had a male massager. And afterwards, all of us had a refreshing experience, being Thai massaged. And it's all for only 590 Baht.

MBK, Bangkok

This is the place we went to on the day of my short journey to Cha Am. I've never had a chance to find out what MBK stands for, but it's one of those shopping place in Bangkok. To me, there's not much to see here. Anyway, being one of busy places in Bangkok, this is the one where you can buy interesting things. But, I wouldn't recommend you to go shopping here. And I guess it's because I didn't spend much time here, anyway. So instead, I went to Siam Paragon which is nearby MBK, and eventually the place I went to on the day before my departure day. There's an interesting store that sells uniquely designed office stuff and other utensils, called Loft. I'll tell you later about this because I didn't buy many things on the day I departed to Cha Am.

Dusit Thani, Cha Am

We had a very out of ordinary opportunity to stay in a 5 star Hotel resort, Dusit Thani, near the beach in a beautiful Thailand. I don't want to sound like I am the sales manager of the hotel, but this place offers magnificent beach view and excellent service to the guests. Being located on the east coast, the beach in Cha Am offers beautiful sunrise scene. But, don't expect you'd experience strong wind and high wave. The beach is quite hot during the day and the wave is just like a lion that has been tamed. In the morning, you can enjoy hot weather and warm white sand on your feet. The Dusit Thani laid out the exterior design in such a luxurious way. No wonder it's a 5 star hotel with magnificent services.

Royal Barge Museum

Having left Cha Am after 3-day stay, and as we have like the whole day to spend in Bangkok after the meeting, my friend and I planned to visit some places of interest. Royal Barge Museum was one of the places. To reach this place, we got off the BTS (Bangkok skytrain) in Saphan Taksin. Then, we continued our journey by crousing the Chao Praya river with a boat. It costed us quite cheap, only 17 Baht for a single trip. Along the river, you get to see many interesting buildings and, of course, the slumber area. But, it's worth it. The safety of this boat may not meet international standard. One could fall off to the river if he/ she cannot manage to balance his/her self when getting off the boat. Once in a while, I saw some passangers almost lost his/ her balance. There was also a family who bring their little one on baby carriage, they managed to get on and off the boat. Thank God for that.

Well, anyway, the Royal Barge Museum is located quite unusual place. I said to my travel buddy, we must've been the only foreigner who got to visit this place. We had this handy pocket book on how to get to the museum. Using the instruction, we got off the boat at Pier 10, then walked, like 300m or 500m along the dusty road. Then, we just realised that we had to walk into alleys that seemed like slumber area. It was quite okay. We didn't meet bad guys. It's just that it was not the thing we would expect from getting into tourist destination. When we arrived we had to pay 20 Baht each with no receipt. I said to myself, so okay, nothing is perfect. This is the kind of thing I would experience back in my hometowm: you have to pay for something with no receipt for it.

The Royal Barge Museum contains ancient royal barges (duh). If you're not that keen on ancient stuff, you may not want to go here. It's quite far. You have to walk along dusty road with cars and trucks passing by. And the hillarious thing is that you have to pay more for taking pictures inside the museum, which we didn't. But, we played bad tourists and taking pictures inside the museum.

Lumpini Park

It's getting late in the afternoon, but it's not dinner time yet. So, we went to Lumpini Park. Located in the middle of Bangkok, this venue is full of people doing many activities. I saw people jogged, walked, or just enjoyed the lake in the middle of the park. Like in my hometown, this place also has beggar. During our chatting, some would approach us and talked in Thai. We didn't really understand what they were saying, but I'm pretty sure they're asking for some money.

So, if you are in the city of Bangkok, and looking for a place to sit down and just enjoy the late afternoon, this is the place to go to.

Loft, Siam Paragon, Bangkok

Having rested our feet in Lumpini Park, we then took a BTS to Siam. Siam Paragon is just like a great mall. But, we went to this specific store which sells uniquely designed useful stuff. For example, they have USB port. But it comes with useful and unique function, like fan, digital clock and warmer. I couldn't resist myself in buying a wireless mouse despite the other USB port with unique design. There's also office stationery. It's not just bookmark. It's not just paper clip. It's not just binder. It's not just stapler. It's been designed with contemporary design. The choice of the color is also indulging if you are a person who's young at heart. I guess, in short I can say, if you are looking for business utensil, but do not want to look business-like, this is the place you should go to.

I bought myself a wireless mouse for 750 Baht, a cute-looking notepad with contemporary design for 200 Baht, a name card holder for 400 Baht, a beautifully designed bag for my beautiful beloved on for 1,650 Baht. It costed me 2950 Baht for this shopping. But, this is Thailand. As a tourist, I got a 10% VAT discount. So, I got to pay only 2,600 Baht. Such a nice country with such a nice policy for its tourist.

It was about 9 o'click at night when we're done shopping. Alas, it was raining outside and we didn't have umbrella. During the rain, like in any other big cities, taxis would be hard to find. So, we ended up chatting in Siam Paragon for about 1 hour when the rain stopped. Hungry, we searched for a place where we can dine in. Apparently, at 10 o'clock, it's hard to find any opened restaurant. There was McDonald's. But, it was quite crowded. So I talked my friend to find another convenient place. And yet, again, this is Bangkok. Not far from there we found a nice little Mexican grill restaurant. So, we stuffed our stomach there with delicious and large portion of Mexican cuisine in Thailand.

Chatuchak Park

Looking for cheap souvenirs that you can bargain? This is the place. You only need to take BTS to get there. When you get off, just follow where the crowds go. They'll surely head for this place. If you are looking for smooth Thai silk, Thai food, or just simple shirts, this will be your destination. And just so happen, while we were there, we met a couple of fellow Indonesians. What a small world. We were miles from home and got to meet people from our own homecountry. I didn't buy many things at the market because I already spent quite a lot the day before.

So, will I go to Thailand again in the future? I don't know. But, having been there 3 times in less than 6 months, I already felt like I know the town. English is very foreign language here. Being an Asian and look like Asian, most of the time, the hotel people, the airport people would approach and talk to us in Thai. Hey, you know what, the next time I am assigned to go on a mission to Thai, maybe I'll learn some of useful phrases. This is a nice country. Exotic yet modern. Developing but still maintain Asian values. So, I bid thee, once again, Sawasdee krub, Thailand. Kob Krun Krub!

MajoSoft

Blogs

• Agus - Ujung Jariku
• Agus Syafii
• Akmal
• JombLoLiCiOus
• LRSCafe
• Mandrake, The - The Blog where this blog comes from
• MyGunadarma - MyBlog@Gunadarma
• Reti - Lady in Red
• SanKee - Sanity Keeper
• Yulie
• mitha - It's raining and i feel so cold...