Wat Pho - Bangkok

Reaching for heaven

The vast complex

 

 
Grand Palace and Wat Pho were the only historical places that I put into our itenary. Considering the values hold by Thais on both those places, I managed to make my girls agree to visit these places. However, when the day came, the sun decided to give its best, shining brightly until it hurted our eyes and burned our skin. It was 37degrees when it was only 10am in the morning...geez. I wondered how hot it would be when midday. Finally, considering the unfriendly wheather, we decided to visit the famous Pratunam area during the midday and left for the palace in the afternoon.

The humble pier

The crowd of Chao Phraya express boat

The small alley

However, until we left Pratunam using taxi to Saphan Taksin statan station around 2pm, the sun was still blazing unforgivingly. We reached the pier after 45mins drive (though it wasn't much traffic at that time). It felt short since the taxi driver was very friendly, with his limited English, he engaged us in a funny conversation. The taxi only costed us B100 and after 5mins of walk, we arrived at pier. We purchased the boat fare which costed us B40 (they counted 4 of us as 2.5 of the normal fare). Few mins of waiting, then we all were boarded into half-full boat which sped along the Chao Phraya river. It stopped several times at certain pier until it reached pier #9 which was our destination. We were alighted on a very humble pier, small wooden dark alley connecting the pier to the main street. Souvenir and hawker stalls filled up the sides of the road, ignoring the fishy dried fish smell that attacked our nose without mercy.

The sleeping Budha

 

Back to the blazing sun, we noticed it was 3.30pm. Too late for visiting Grand Palace since it was officially closed at 3pm. We diverted our way to the right (Grand Palace was on our left), following the throng of people going to Wat Pho. One thing to remember, you should dress properly for Wat Pho, including № sleevesless top, mini pants and too-revealing dress. They do provide cover cloth (like beach cloth - with a little price) outside Wat Pho for those who don't dress up to their standard. As foreigner, we had to buy our tickets B100/person (free for Thais). The place had a solemn atmosphere, while we walk through the corridor with beautifully craved doors and windows. Stone warrior statues were standing cautiously, as if guarding each door agaisnt the current human malice. From close distance, I noticed several similar attributes of the statues to the Chinese's famous warrior figures. However it was the buildings...the roof style...the temples...the stupas that fascinated us. It was magnificently beautiful, with colourful tiny tiles forms various shapes. I tried to imagine they build this one by one, by manual labor. It was definitely a place worth your time

Row of donation pots

The unique roof decoration

After indulging ourselves on the surrounding, we moved to the place where they put the famous reclining Budha (sleeping Budha). We had to take off our shoes (but they provided a shoe bag to keep ours. Mindful of the sacred ambiance inside, we nudged our way and stole a brief chance to take our pic with the Budha. It was huge in gold, with playful gold and red kind of shades around the building depicting some sort of the stories...probably (we didn't hire the guide though they were available). Circling the Budha, we saw neat row of donation pots on one side of the wall. Thais and several people put a coin into each one of those pots...with clanging sound, they murmured a silent prayer.

  

Tired after walking a whole day, we decided to try the (to-be-said) authentic Thai massage at the back garden of the complex. Several people were waiting for their turns already. We chose the 30mins treatment for B260 (B420 for an hour treatment). After 30mins, we were called and led to our place. Since I was wearing a dress, the masseuse gave me a knee-length pants to use and asked me to store my stuff at the small compartment above the bed. She started the massage by rubbing and kneading hardly into the knotted muscle of mine. With low voice, she asked trivial things with her limited English, probably trying to put me relax. It felt good at first until she hit the most sore spots on my shoulder...my oh my...I wanted to scream at her...asking her to stop torturing me. But I managed to keep quiet (geez...even I didn't hear a squeak from my girls) and tried my best to relax my strained body. I endured the 30mins of torture with terrifying bone-cracking sounds at the end of the session (ehm...am I a maso?). But afterward, a cold relieve spread onto my body and I felt lighter...perhaps I could go for another session *grinning* Even my girls Ŀ♡√Ɛ it...they kept saying that it wasn't hurt and all.

The queue for massage

With lighter body, we continue our walk by exploring the outer gate of the Grand Palace. Seeing some hawker sellers were tidying up their stalls while another were just preparing theirs. Enjoying our leisure walk in fading sunlight, we hailed a taxi for a ride home. Reflecting sunset on the golden rooftop of the Grand Palace was the last view I caught before the taxi brought us back to the hotel.

Asiatique - Bangkok

Welcome to Asiatique

Line of fancy restos

The cruise boat on Chao Phraya

Asiatique currently is the most hip and happening shopping cum dining spot in Bangkok. But if you are just in for sightseeing, Asiatique is also the right place for you to spend time...leisurely watching the boats cruise up and down the hectic river. Prominently located in front of Chao Phraya river (the famous river in Bangkok), Asiatique can be reach by river or by land. By people' recommendation (we met UK citizen who works and has been staying in Bangkok for a year...we talked a lot about what to eat...where to go...etc), we travelled by boat. We went there after the sunset, since it was said, the perfect timing. We used BTS until Saphan Taksin (Sathorn pier) station, a 5mins walk from the pier. Then we boarded on Asiatique boat for free (Asiatique provides free return shuttle until about 10pm). There were quite a line, especially during weekend and sunset. But just be patient, since the boat (with 100pax max capacity) has 15mins interval of arrival. During the waiting moment, just enjoy the view of river cruise boats basking in the nite's lights. The 15mins of time will pass in a blink of eyes...betcha *winking

The free shuttle boat

Line of shops

The foodcourt

The trip by boat will take about less than 10mins. Docking at Asiatique's pier, we were welcomed by the brightly lit ferris wheel. Newly established, this ferris wheel (also called Bangkok eye) has become one of the must-do-activity in Bangkok. Facing the pier, lines of restaurant, from fancy to the hip one, from classic to traditional one, as well as from top-notch resto to the crowded foodstall...all are there, side by side. Beside dining places, Asiatique is separated by small alleys with rows of shop. Thai's designer clothes lines to shoes, decoration ornaments to souvenir, jewerly to gadgets, cute original and fancy knick knack, all are in one place. My recommendation: take your time in browsing the shops, you might find unexpected stuff with bargained price *grinning. Awesome isn't it?

Durian anyone?

The Juliet Tower where you could buy your own love-lock

Although most of the places are air-conditioned, but the food court spot was pretty humid (I didn't know whether the air-con wasn't functioning properly or whether there were too many people or other reason) but we found ourselves sweating a lot after completing our dinner. Anyway, it didn't spoil our good mood to enjoy ourselves here. There were so many option to choose, whatever you wanna eat, just name it. I bet you would find it here. After dinner, we went browsing several lines of shop...buying some goodies for my girls...we headed up to the ferris wheel. It was quite a magnificient view...seeing the giant ferris wheel from the ground. But the view was more spectacular from a top of it...cool! There was a birthday celebration as well when we rode our train - complete with the song, cute candle lit up cake, and champange...awesome.

Our ferris wheel tickets

Awesome isn't it?

view from atop

Afraid to miss the last boat departing from the Asiatique pier, we hurriedly rushed to the the pier. After waited for few mins, we were boarded into the boat. Seeing the ferris wheel on our journey back felt like our time on Asiatique was a lifetime ago instead of merely few mins. Such a memorable place :-) 

Dream World - Bangkok

Welcome to Dream World

The lake with cable car hanging across

The ticketing office

On the 2nd day of our holiday to Bangkok recently, we went to Dream World. One among few famous amusement park in Thailand. We bought our tickets online from Hotel2Thailand which included the return shuttle (we found out that the place was quite difficult to reach using BTS or public transportation), entrance continuing ticket (all ride excludes the snow world) and all-you-can-eat luncheon. You could buy the ticket on the spot and there were non-continuing ticket as well (means you only buy the entrance ticket but you have to purchase another ticket for the rides inside the park). If you are going to try all of the rides, then continuing ticket is the most economic one. However, if you are bringing kids under 110cm, probably it would be best to buy ticket per ride (since some of the rides require the minimum height).

Sky coaster

Bumper boat

 

According to our voucher, we would be picked up at the hotel by 8.30am however the shuttle was late for almost an hour. I didn't know whether the delay happened due to the morning traffic (beats Jkt's traffic as well LOL) or because the other group wasn't ready during the pick-up time (there were a family of 4 from India who stayed at Holiday Inn - a 5mins drive from our hotel). Anyway, we started our trip on 9.15am and after an hour of drive (including a 10mins stop on the side of the road since the van suddenly encountered some mechanical problem), we arrived at the destination. We were told to be at the meeting point at 3.30pm for the shuttle to drive us back to the hotel. With entrance and lunch tickets on hand, we started to explore the park.

The haunted mansion

Rapter...just seeing made me dizzy

Flying carpet

At the very first sight, it reminded me of Shenzhen's Window of the World (while my hubby said - it reminded him of Cikupa World of Wonders which were basically the same). Playful colours on the shop galleries on both sides of the pathway leads us to the main open area with round water fountain in the middle of it. Another step showed a lovely garden with big round lake as the backdrop. Long-neck swans and heart shapes in pink were almost everywhere on the garden, it earns the name of Ŀ♡√Ɛ Garden. Surely it didn't feel strange seeing few couples were taking their pre-wed pics here...made me reminisced the lovey-dovey-moment with my hubby. After posed for the umptenth times, we moved forward to the rides area.

Grand canyon

Antique car

Speedy mouse

Started with bicycle boat on the lake with cute and pretty setting around it, we continued with the cable car. Seeing the whole park from atop sure gave different feeling than simply strolling by. Some areas were fascinating from the above, such as the Jack and Jill's giant which was buried halfbody. Then the fairy tales areas with its cute house. The cable ride itself was quite rough especially when turning around. The same happened when we rode the sightseeing train, mini roller coaster, space mountain ride and monorail too.

Dreamy garden

Topiary

 

For the space mountain ride, that was one scary spontaneous ride. We entered without knowing what kind of ride it was, until the train shot into a dark tunnel n hiked up slowly. Then we realized, this was a bad option. My oldest girl was trembling and looked down...I tried to calm her though I didn't feel calm at all (geez...I am no fan of extreme ride...even carrousel has me dizzy). Then the train lurched down and up, left and right until it was going on a very slope curve (felt like falling loosely). I felt I lost my balance (I felt being turned upside down) and my stomach felt funny then arrghhh...couldn't help myself from screaming. Before I managed to calm myself, the train halted. Even my fingers were still trembling when I was typing this part (we sit outside after the ride coz my girl was terribly terrified). I hate ride like this one ‎​=.=! pheω...‎​⊙﹏⊙ The haunted house was another scary attraction. We went inside...seeing only normal picture frames hang onto the mansion's wall. But when we trully stepped into the main lobby, the light was suddenly went off and my girls screamed. Since I am a sceredy cat, I guessed it would be better for my mental health to call a quit.

Love garden

Super splash

View from cable car

According to my hubby, it was quite scary, especially the mansion was pitch dark with only glow-in-the-dark-footstep guiding him along. Many sudden things were appeared or dropped from the ceiling during the tracing the footstep until he reached the shoulder-to-shoulder-small-alley (it was so spooky since he knew nobody was entering the alley with him yet he bumped with lots of (dead?) bodies. If you like Thai's horror movie then you will definitely love this. The screaming from inside the mansion was aired thru the loud speaker so we (me and the girls) who were waiting outside could hear the non-stop-throat-screaming). Definitely not the best way to spend my afternoon :-)

Inside the giant's castle

The sunflower garden...and those are real

The panorama of giant's house

Next was the 4D show (we loved the day we choose for this trip, a weekday with less queue line). The show was about an assistant to a scientist who broke the lab accidentally. Dangerous chemical mixed into one and turned the experiment animals into monster size ones. It was quite fun, with lots of water spray and fan blowing from the normal position across head and body, but also from the feet. My older girl was quite terrified, surprised to feel something was moving between her feet(geez...she is a lot like me 【ツ】ƗƗє²² ƗƗє²² ƗƗє²²【ツ】 ), she hid her face and rose her feet off the floor for the rest of the show. My youngest one only covered her eyes for several mins when the scary looking insects with huge eyes attacked the assistant. Pretty good and entertaining one.

Toddler' playhouse

Various house on fairy tales garden

 

Closing to 3.30pm, we went directly to the promised meeting point...however...again...the other family was late and had to be summoned using loudspeaker few times ‎​=.=! pheω...‎​⊙﹏⊙ . Geez...at this time I was pretty much ensured that they were the cause of us being picked up late earlier. It really wasted our time since we did have another plan in the afternoon. Anyway, if you are planning to visit the park, please bring your cap/hat, sunblock (though Dream World provides umbrella rental and canopied pathway but it was still sooo HOT), umbrella and raincoat (Thai does have shower occassionally, especially in the morning and dusk). Don't forget clothes for change too, especially if you are planning to ride the Super Splash and Grand
Canyon, both awesome rides that we didn't try it out coz we didn't wanna get wet. If lunch is included within your ticket, you could go to the Pavillion, a place reserved specifically for group. Don't expect a wide range of food like at the stars hotel but the dishes were pretty good. I was impressed seeing how effective and efficiently the waitress working together, cleaning up the table and refilling the dishes before it finished, despite the small number of them catering a large number of starving person.

On the most beautiful spot in dreamy garden

The restaurant

Some of the food

Though on some level, the attractions inside the park weren't as good as the ones that we visited before, but the service inside the park was absolutely top class. The restroom was big, clean with plenty tissue paper and running water. I thought Dream World indeed has earned its reputation of being the top amusement park in Bangkok. So, if you are here, sneak a day for the exhilarating rides.

Play port

Lines of shop

Snack corner

Address: 62 Rangsit - Ongkarak Rd (KM 7), Thanyaburi, Pathumthani 12130

How to get there: Bus no 188 Mochit - Ratchamongkol or Air Condition no 538 Victory Monument - Ratchamongkol or Air Condition no 559 - Suvarnabhumi Airport

One of 7 wonders of the world (in tiny size)

I loved the trashbin

Cute restroom sign