Tag: Bangkok

Travel: The fun filled weekend at Koh Si Chang, Thailand – Part 1

Travel: The fun filled weekend at Koh Si Chang, Thailand – Part 1

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment

This weekend, we planned for a trip to Koh Si Chang. Actually, our plan was to go to Hua Hin, another island, but it was too big to cover in one day. So we decided for Koh Si Chang. I may have mentioned in my Koh Chang post too, Koh means Island, Chang means Elephant. They are famous for their shape as an elephant. Si means small and as the name suggests, it really is very small – around 17 km in length. Seems easy to cover in one day on foot, right? We thought so too.

Also, this time, I’ll cover the places we visited on the island one by one. So it will be a 4-5 part series probably.

Now, let’s start. We had plans to reach SriRacha to catch the ferry to Koh Si Chang in the night, but unfortunately, due to traffic, we couldn’t reach on time and the last ferry left. We had to stay in SriRacha and we’re glad we had to.

We took van from Victory Monument (also called Anu Savari) in Bangkok for Sri Racha. It is the place from where you get the ferry for not only Koh Si Chang but for very famous Pattaya also. The van took 120 Baht per person and about one and a half hour (without traffic) to reach the destination. They dropped us at Robinson and from there only you can get Tuk Tuk to take you to the pier. It was still 10 minutes to 8 (8 PM is the time for the last ferry to the island) but Tuk Tuk drivers refused to take us saying that it was too late. We later came to know the reason.

Anyways, upset, we entered Robinson to roam around but we were too disappointed and nothing was cheering us up. It had ruined our whole plan. Only one thing was in our mind, “How will we cover the whole island in half a day?” We were hungry too. This mall had our favourite veg pizza place – The Pizza Company. But by the time we finished the mall, every shop got closed too including the pizza shop (Bad day, I know). Again I decided, I would go for veg cup noodles (che mama) from Seven Eleven, but I don’t now why, my friends wanted to eat in a restaurant. The biggest tragedy was – more or less, all the restaurants were Japanese and I wasn’t expecting Veg food anywhere.

We hadn’t booked any hotel too neither at Koh Si Chang nor at Sri Racha (we were in adventurous mode). Devoid of any info, we were still looking for a place to have dinner and rest for sometime. We asked at many places and nowhere, there was veg available. This particular shop (Oops! I didn’t notice it’s name. How bad I am!) agreed to cook us veg food specially and the lady found us a hotel too. I saw on Google Earth and I found out the name – Bangkok Grill.

After filling ourselves, we started to look for accommodation. Now the hotels can be real expensive for students like me. They generally start from 1000 Baht. The first hotel we were suggested was SriChai hotel. We didn’t find that one but did come across SamChai hotel. She was offering us an AC room in 900 Baht and we were getting two rooms in 1500 Baht. Not a bad deal I guess. But we kept looking and this SriChai hotel was already full. Ultimately, we came back to Samchai and got the room in 1400 Baht! Satisfied!

It was already 10:30 in the night and we were tired. But the explorer inside wasn’t ready to keep quiet. So we went out and this huge Loi Krathong fair was going on. Loi Krathong is Thailand’s light festival. Many many lanterns in the sky, and candles afloat the water. Read more about Loi Krathong here. There were many shops ranging from clothes to accessories to eatables to shooting games to even pets and there were small rides also. And there was a concert going on too but since my two friends weren’t interested in listening to the songs they didn’t understand, they didn’t bother to take even a look. Dude! That was such cool music. Do you always understand rock songs when you listen them for the first time?

We clicked a lot of pics, played games, took rides and had lots of fun. When the people started closing the stalls, we had to leave too 😦

But it was super-fun. On the bridge over sea, calm waves, festive atmosphere, loud music. What else to enjoy the evening? (Ok, drinks may be? But unfortunately, I don’t drink so that’s it for me.) And thus ended an unforgettable night. Here are some pics from the festival. Enjoy!

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Oh, and next time, I’ll tell about irritating Tuk Tuk drivers and motor bike renters and the really beautiful Chinese Temple.

Studying Japanese from Genki + Time management

Studying Japanese from Genki + Time management

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So, I managed to grab an e-copy of Genki Integrated Elementary Japanese I and II from a friend and I’m glad I did. I probably haven’t given any time to a textbook like I’m giving to this one in my four years. It is a good practice for me. The workbook covers everything taught in the book extensively apart from the exercises in the book itself. I am printing and practicing everyday. Thus my reading, writing and listening skills are getting better.

The best thing is, it is providing a definite shape to my Japanese studies. I had always been clueless as to where to start from, after Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji has always been an obstacle for me. But now I’m finally starting to grasp the things. Loving the book totally!

I wish to get a Korean book like this too. Although I do own a lot of e-books and I’m doing what I can from Basic Korean – A Grammar and Workbook, I don’t have much to practice my writing with. I need some workbooks for that but I’m broke nowadays to buy any book. Ah! I need some money or some source of free e-books.

Now, the time management thingie. I’m pretty much satisfied with the pace my Korean and Japanese are going on. I’m at least giving time to them daily (excluding Sundays since very less time is left for me to give to Thailand). Now that my mentor has gone to Japan and I don’t have many projects at hand, I have a lot more time. But sometimes, I feel that the time is just flowing by and I’m not able to do much productive work. I’ve been neglecting my blog too.

Only one month more to go and I’ll be in India. My stay in Thailand is coming to an end and I think I am getting depressed about that. If only I had the books, my new phone for awesome apps and GoGo Korean Beginners course from Pegasus Society and very inspiring fellow bloggers who are learning languages themselves earlier, I would’ve been one level up by now in both the languages. But I don’t want to regret and fret over the things, hence I’m trying to accomplish more in the given time. But even then, the time is flying too fast. In a blink of an eye, it is lunch time!

***After Lunch***

Ah! Why do we need to eat food? Why was this thing called stomach given to us? If only, we had the power to make food from sunlight like plants. Wastes a lot of time! This is going to happen again – I’ll become sleepy – then sleep for probably half an hour and it will be 3! Then in last two hours, I’ll study some Korean and waste some more time considering the body becomes so sluggish. I don’t have concept like Power Nap – a big tragedy in my life. Better chug down some coffee again and not sleep at all. I wonder, what I will do in my college if I get addicted again here…….

Side Story 1 – Day before yesterday, we went to the Platinum Fashion mall (This particular mall in Bangkok is just full of clothes and anything you name. I call it heaven for girls) again for probably 5th-6th time. There was a shop with traditional Chinese dresses that I saw for the first time yesterday. Those red and black beautiful dresses! I wanted to buy but I was running low on cash, so I had to postpone it. ㅠ_ㅠ

Side Story 2 – I’m sure, from my talks about money in this or other posts, you may think I’m stingy. I admit to the fact, I am. I tend to be very careful while spending money. But my friend here managed to convince me that, this whole trip of mine is being sponsored by me myself (credits to the company of course). Hence I should not think much. Moreover the clothes and accessories have far greater variety here than in India and are cheaper too. I have collected a lot now.

Side Story 3 – Now that I’ve mentioned in above story, clothes and accessories, I feel like writing about the fact that I’ve completely changed with regards to shopping attitude. I was never even interested in accessories, let alone buying them. But my friend has made me such a shopaholic that I want to take whatever I like including bags, earrings, lockets etc. etc. I shouldn’t become that spendthrift but when she says – In India, these are very expensive and you’ll need them when you start your office, even if you can’t use them in the deserted isolated college – BITS Pilani, of yours – I get allured by it.

Today’s song – Since, in my last post I said, I was listening to OSTs, I’ll post one again. In my school related dramas post I mentioned this anime and I just love such a peppy song. Again there are TV size and full size versions. Hope you enjoy this one –

Travel: The Museum of Floral Culture, Thailand

Travel: The Museum of Floral Culture, Thailand

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Today, I’ll take you to this small beautiful unknown place called The Museum of Floral Culture. Situated in very inner parts of the area Bang Kra Bu, just outside of Bangkok, it is very easy to reach there. Many buses go to Bang Kra Bu and drop you on the main road. Beware! There would be bike taxi people who will offer you to take at the place but they themselves don’t know the place or pretend to do so. Ours one agreed to take us there in minimal charges of 20 Baht and then got lost, went somewhere else and then asked for 40 Baht per person. The place is very near the main road at a walking distance.

The museum of floral culture

Ok, now the place. It would have been a house with people living in them at some point of time. Now it has been converted to a museum. The outside arouses one’s curiosity as to what would be inside. Flowers, as the name suggests? Nopes. The museum shows the history of flowers, how they and the art of flower arrangement in vases, garlands and such travelled in Asia. Very beautiful art and decoration. There is a minimal fee of 150 Baht if you just want to see the floral museum. There is something called tea set museum (which we didn’t see btw) with additional fee.

Biggest regret, they don’t let you click inside the museum. You can enjoy the outside sceneries here though:

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This place is not for biology people nor for those who wish to see botanical garden kind of thing. It’s for history enthusiasts who like to know the connections between cultures of various countries. The tour hardly takes 45 minutes to complete and then they allow you to take as many photographs as you want in the outside premises.

Great time pass if you are left with some 2-3 hours and don’t have anywhere else to go. Not very far from Siam Paragon. Highly recommended!

My Second Korean Experience – My Faith has been Restored!

My Second Korean Experience – My Faith has been Restored!

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Just one week after the last incident, I had my second encounter and I’m very happy that I met that ahjusshi…. Yesterday I went to the Museum of Floral Culture (look forward to my next post reviewing this place). It had been past the lunch time and me and my friend were very hungry. We stopped by this mall which had many many Korean shops from cosmetics and clothes to restaurants and book shops.

And there was this pair of shoes I liked so much and they were on sale. I would have got those kind of shoes in India very expensive. Too bad, my size was not available. Then we went to this shop named Korean DD. It was a cosmetics shop. Although I’m not interested in such stuff and my friend was not sure about the brands from South Korea (she is learning a little though under my influence starting with K-Pop), we still entered the shop. What caught my eyes were the posters of K-pop idols all over. And without thinking over I just went inside the shop. The lady inside was a Thai but when I was naming the idols aloud, she and the guy sitting outside started laughing. Nevertheless, I asked if she was Korean and she replied, the ahjusshi standing behind was.

Ah! So excited >.<  Then my friend asked me to talk to him in Korean and suddenly I froze (갑자기, 왜?). She then explained him that I was learning Korean and then trivial questions like where do we come from and such followed (but in English. Too bad again). We left the shop and suddenly I thought I would ask something about Korean. He didn’t understand what I was saying. Guess he knew only Korean and Thai (Ah! Too bad. Don’t know how many ‘TOO BAD’ moments I had yesterday). But he was a cheerful ahjusshi who tried to help me however he could (Ok, I could have thought that he was a shopkeeper and hence did all that. Marketing strategy? Even so, I want to trust his help). And thus my faith was restored. Then we went on shopping spree with clothes in another shop selling Korean goods at 80-90% discount. There were K-pop songs playing in background and there were Korean movies posters in the shop too. There also whatever piece I was liking was not available in right sizes. Sigh!

But in the end I got a packet of Jjajangmyeon and on the packet there was nothing non-veg. I’m still doubtful about it and will be translating the ingredients although they are written in Korean as well as English. If anyone of you could tell me whether the noodles themselves are non-veg or not, I’ll be very grateful.

And today’s song is – 

Falling in love with the dance…….

Travel: What I could’ve only dreamt of – Japan Festa in Bangkok

Travel: What I could’ve only dreamt of – Japan Festa in Bangkok

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

So today, my day started very bad coz everybody in my friends circle refused to go to Bangkok due to one reason or other. I mean, each and every single one of them backed out! But i dared today – to go alone to Bangkok. And guess what! I got the model of the mobile phone which I wanted to buy and was out of stock till yesterday afternoon. And…….. And I got to see Japan Festa in Bangkok 2013, being held outside Central World Mall. There were a lot of cosplayers and there were a lot of random outlets. There were Japanese food stalls too; but I’m a veg so I couldn’t taste that. :-/

Some gen pics –

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Here are some cosplay pics of the characters I know :

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Then I went to KoreaTown situated on Sukhumvit 12. I went there by BTS train (just like metros) and the place was some three stations away from the above place. And to tell you the truth, it was a huge disappointment. After the pleasant surprise of attending an unexpected cosplay event, I was excited what the day was to unfold for me and I was really upset after seeing a deserted place with only Korean food shops and dental clinics and hair salons. What would have I done there? I thought I could buy some books for my Korean learning there. But there wasn’t even one book shop in KoreaTown (at least I didn’t find any). I did find one book shop a little far away but all it had was Korean books for Thai people 😦

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The I went back to the event again and had more clicks. This time, since it was around 4:30 in the evening, the weather was pleasant. So I had some more fun. By 5:00 p.m. I had to reach the headquarters to take the company’s van, so I had to leave this awesome and fantastic place, much to my regret. Why did I waste time going to Sukhumvit. If only had I attended this festival properly, I could have a chance to finally try a kimono TT_TT

Some more pics with cosplays I don’t know or don’t seem to recall –

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But truly. The people were there from the morning to the evening. Must have been sooo tiring. Hats off to the cosplayers! Getting clicked by so many strangers, posing for each one of them differently……. truly amazing.

With this, I’ll end my post today. I hope you enjoy the pics 🙂

Travel: Discovering Ko-Chang, Day-1

Travel: Discovering Ko-Chang, Day-1

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Alright, time to complete the task which I have been procrastinating from long time (one week, that is). Yup, it’s been week since I travelled to this faraway land and I’m not able to forget the serenity and beauty of this place (not that I haven’t travelled to any seaside place before but this has been a particularly memorable one). And, this post is gonna be a long one!

Ko-Chang (meaning Elephants Island) is a district in Trat province located around 310 km from Bangkok and second largest island of the country (Source – Wikipedia……. Who goes on a fun trip and asks for geographical data?………Well, at least, I don’t)

Since, I’m living in Saraburi, I’ll describe my journey from here only. We went to Bangkok from our company taxi (which, obviously, cost me nothing). Reached Bangkok, roamed around, visited some malls and blah, blah, blah……..

Random Roaming and Clicking in Bangkok
Random Roaming and Clicking in Bangkok

Bus time! We took 11:30 p.m. VIP bus from Ekamai bus station to Trat. Awesome and comfortable journey. Good condition seats and AC. Best part, you have got toilets on board!!! (For Indians, it is a new thing). Four and a half hours and we reached Trat bus station (must have been the closest district to Ko Chang island but I forgot to see the name……. anyway, it will drop you at the right place, if you are in right bus, so don’t worry). Our ferry to Ko Chang was around 6 in the morning, so we decided to wait at the bus station itself, but the driver who was supposed to take us to ferrypoint kept pestering us to hurry up, hence, we had to leave the place earlier. It took us about half hour and we made a stop at the ferry ticket counter (which was about 15min away from actual pier). This lady, who was booking tickets, was very helpful (and real business-minded, I must warn). She not only booked ferry but convinced us to book ‘open’ tickets for returning bus from Trat to Bangkok, since 12th, Monday (the day we were supposed to return home) was holiday all over Thailand in honor of The Honorable Queen’s Birthday and many people would be going back. Since the ferry and bus tickets were both open, we weighed our options and decided to go with it. We just needed to inform the lady when we would board the ferry while coming back so that she would confirm our bus tickets. Not bad. Now, no tension and no hassle of buying tickets to our way back.

We were taken to the pier and we were lucky enough to see the sunrise (bumper bonus!). See for yourself. Although it was cloudy, sun came out for enough time to get clicked by us.

The sun is also a fan of being photographed!
The sun is also a fan of being photographed!

Ferry took around half an hour to reach the actual island! Although slow, it was a fun ride, giving us a chance to feast our eyes on beautiful sceneries, never seen before.

Oh finally
Oh finally

Oh, prices…. I’ll make sure to ask coz till now everything was paid by one of my friends and I just received the cumulative bill in the end (Oops! that reminded me, i still haven’t paid her). From now on, I can tell you. After climbing down the ferry, we took a taxi who’s driver was charging 100 Baht per person from foreigners till our hotel (which was quite far, I must admit).

And trust me, that was one hell of a ride. Why, you ask? If you want a roller coaster ride without an amusement park, this is the place. The roads are so steep, so steep, that at some places, you are literally at a perpendicular plane to that of the sea you can see from there (Sorry if you are bad at maths, but this is the only way I can say that). Since we were moving, we couldn’t click the exact thing but I hope that these give you some idea.

The downward slanted road as can be seen from side wall
The angle !
The dangerous turn
Is it same as second one?

So, somehow we arrived at the hotel “Bai Lan Beach Resort” at 8 in the morning but our check in was at 11. And while my friends were talking to the receptionist, asking for information, I had a look over the place and it was really breathtaking scene.

Ok, so the resort was good. We had already booked the rooms since we were afraid of holiday season. We relaxed a little bit and rented motorbikes (scooties actually) and tried to find veg food. Now, it’s not like we were not getting veg food in the resort but it was a little expensive for people like me. Again, the roads are really up and down, so until and unless you have confidence to drive on such roads (where you can barely control the speed of the vehicle while going down), I would suggest you sit behind some expert. Keeping this in mind, I opted to be the passenger rather than driver. There are a lot of marts out there where you can buy various kinds of bread (without egg too) and frozen food. Meanwhile, we stopped in between to have a look on other small waterfalls and beaches (our resort’s was a rocky one). Here-

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A little more masti, some more clicks and we went to the resort again. Oops! 11a.m. was check out time for previous customer and check in time was 12 noon. One more hour we waited.

Rooms were good, clean bathrooms, mini fridge (equipped with beer which is NOT included in your room rent), TV, AC etc. Our room was with garden view and a double bed, so the price was around 1000 Baht for one night and it included one time breakfast and all the service taxes. Time to freshen up and leave all the tiredness of the whole night journey behind, to enjoy the day’s endeavours. And then we went for kayaking, since it was free and available at that time. Other sports were far away and their time was in morning. We had nothing to do so we went kayaking. And the whole team – amateurs! (Since there were no trainers or anyone like that….. you were free to go by yourself, which we did). It’s easy to see someone and analyze how they do the things they do but very difficult to do it by self, which was the case here too. We turned the kayak upside down a hundred times (a little exaggeration) but still had loads of fun. Then we went to a beautiful whitesand and clear beach called ‘The Lonely Beach’ (and it was exact opposite to it’s name). The tides are a little high in the afternoon. There are massage parlors too (genuine ones please, not those kinds). So while having a good view, you can have a good massage too. Lunch at 5 and then we took our motorbikes to explore more. A little unfortunate accident stopped our little expedition then and there, but you can still find lagoons, small streams and waterfalls to visit by the road itself. Many people were taking a bath too, in these fresh water streams. Went back and had dinner at some peaceful place. The place was a little empty, so it was nicer atmosphere. The prices were reasonable too, not very expensive but not very cheap either. Came back and relaxed on lounge chairs by the seaside till midnight. Had some drinks and the day finished. The accident did upset us a lot and how we wished, we could go further up ahead but, oh well.

Now, my dear vegetarian friends, if you are worried about your food, I suggest you don’t. When we were planning our trip, many people told me, I won’t get anything since I’m a person who doesn’t take egg even in cake. But, I did get fantastic food there, that too pure veg. Thai people call “no egg, no meat” food as “che”. All you have to do is, use this word, if they don’t understand, while ordering food and they will prepare it for you or tell you what are the dishes suitable for you on the menu.

Next part – Elephant Jungle trekking….. Coming soon