Hua Hin, Thailand - Day 2 (Part 2)

It looks like a scene describe in a childhood fairytale story with walking poker cards but it isn't. It looks like a fun fair but it's not. Sharp eyes will spot the words 'Santorini Park' attached on the ferris wheel. YES! We went to Santorini Park located in Hua Hin, Thailand. 

The highly acclaimed Santorini Park is roughly 2 and a half hours away from Bangkok, Thailand. Entering the beautiful requires a small amount of fee - 50 Baht (RM5), which is worth each penny considering its reasonable price. It also has nicely designed entrance ticket too!

It was super colourful at the inside! Vibrant colours cheer people up and there were plenty of photogenic spots for photography lovers. It's not quite similar to the real deal in Greece, but yeah, it will suffice for now!

Even the washroom was nicely decorated! LOL!

Too bad it was drizzling on and off during our visit at Santorini Park. We had our lunch in one of the cafes to wait for the drizzle to stop and ate something like a local-made laksa. Not really filing and tasty, and not to mention too spicy and pricey. Well, it's a tourist spot anyway.  

After taking tons of photos to our hearts' content, we left Santorini Park and drop by the entrance of Swiss Sheep Farm which is located just 5 minutes away from the former. Surprisingly the entrance fee of the Swiss Sheep Farm is much dearer than Santorini Park, and we chose not to enter the sheep farm in the end as it doesn't look attractive enough for us. Took few photos at the entrance and off we go again.

20 minutes away from Swiss Sheep Farm lies The Venezia. It's a small place which resembles Venice, Italy. Yes, the gondola and canals definitely reminded me of the real Venice! It was a quiet day in the weekday, number of tourists were low, thus a boon for us to take photos in The Venezia. By the way, entrance fee is 50 Baht. 

Besides of Venice, that's a mini Rome inside The Venezia too! The Venezia a small place, basically you can explore the whole place in an hour and leave...

Our last stop was Plearn Wan shopping village. We wanted to go to a Hua Hin night market for dinner, but too bad it was raining. In the end, we spent more time in Plearn Wan before we head back to Bangkok. There were super many food stalls in Plearn Wan, perfect to cure our grumbling stomach! 

Tried the mango sticky rice here. The mango was sweet eventhough its skin is not yellowish at the outside! The rice were milky and sweet, perfecto!

Egg waffle or 鸡蛋仔 is a famous delicacy in Hong Kong, also found in Plearn Wan.Choose two flavours to mix them together. We chose chocolate and hot dog as our combination, weird but doesn't taste bad! 

After savouring different kind of food in Plearn Wan, it's time to say goodbye to Hua Hin. 3200 Baht is the fee for our driver-cum-'tour guide'. Albeit a little expensive, definitely no regrets hiring him to bring us from Bangkok to Hua Hin and back for a day. We also had a comfortable ride in his Altis, and we rested well in the long journey back to Bangkok.

Next - Bangkok, Thailand - Day 3

Hua Hin, Thailand - Day 2 (Part 1)

Scrumptious breakfast! It's the most important meal of the day. It can change your mood from bad to good. It fuels you with the energy needed to explore the day, like mine. A filling breakfast helped me explored Hua Hin happily! Hua Hin is a seaside city of Thailand located 3 hours away (travel with car) from Bangkok, where we visited few of its attractions during our visit in Thailand. 

Mode Sathorn Hotel provided a delicious buffet breakfast in a comfortable restaurant. You can have Western and Eastern food here, depending on your liking. The setting was so cozy, I feel like having my breakfast in there forever!

Bacon!!! Super crispy on the right!

We reluctantly left the restaurant and move on with our exploration, where we went to Hua Hin on our second day in Thailand. We took a hire & ride cab (costed us 3200 Baht, but it was worth it) where the driver picked us up at our hotel lobby. A dark skinned local, with tall-ish built, whose name is Mr. Eak was our cab driver of the day.

We hopped into his green Corolla Altis 1.6 and immediately he handed us a bottle of mineral water each, so nice of him! Thankfully our days in Thailand weren't that hot as it were raining almost everyday. We made a detour to Maeklong Railway Market while on our way to Hua Hin. As its name suggests, there's a railway which runs in the middle of a market! No, the railway is not abandoned. There is a train which travel everyday on that particular track! 

While waiting for the train to arrive, we explored the market a little bit. It was a pretty long market, I didn't manage to walk till the end of the market due to inadequate time (got to rush back to the entry point of the market to snap photos of the train arrival). If you have extra time, can try to spend a little more time here because the food and other merchandises here were pretty reasonably priced! 

Tried all kinds of local delicacies... I don't even know what are their names! Mr. Eak recommended us almost all kind of local food available in the market! 

Taste similar to daging salai + nasi pulut

Then, we heard a commotion. Whistles were blowing, the main road was blocked by local authorities, preventing the traffic from entering further into the area of the train track. Stalls' owners rushed to retract their goods and tents to make way for the train. Tourists stood by the rail with cameras in their hands, including mine, to try to capture the best picture of the rare moment.

Here comes the train! At a rather slow, walking speed to my surprise. Well, safety first, isn't it?

After witnessing the incredible moment, we moved on to our next stop, Santorini Park in Hua Hin with a 'mango flower' in our hands. The locals tend to consume it by peeling the flesh one by one like peeling the petals of a flower. A new way to eat a mango!

Cont. - Hua Hin, Thailand - Day 2 (Part 2)

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 1 (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1, we moved on to further explore the bustling city of Bangkok. Asiatique is one of the must-visit tourist destination in Bangkok. It can be reached easily after exiting from Saphan Taksin BTS station and hop on a free shuttle boat located just a stone throw away from the BTS station. 

No entrance fee required for this beautiful place, even more beautiful with all of the lights lit on at night. Asiatique is a pier with its own historical stories, thus explains the 90's architectural style. The whole area of Asiatique is not very huge, but it's filled with plenty of small alleys with clothes stalls at both sides. 

Walk around and you'll notice plenty of food stalls lying around in every corner of Asiatique. One of the good examples is the crispy crepe below, comes with different toppings such as coconut and mixed fruits. Bought some souvenirs from there too, especially in Naraya, a renowned Thai company selling purse, bags and stuff. 

Bumped into my secondary school friend, Chai Hooi here. I know that she was in Bangkok with her family and we didn't plan to have a short catching up session in Bangkok, we just bumped into each other unexpectedly! I regretted that I didn't take a photo with her in Asiatique that day...

After having all kind of snacks in Asiatique, we basically had our dinner there! We were supposed to visit Wat Arun after Asiatique in our itinerary, but the weather is not cooperating - it rained. So, we changed 'tempat', and decided to visit Terminal 21, a shopping mall with deco of various countries' landmark!

Each floor in Terminal 21 represents different countries. I remember there were UK, Japan and India, to name a few. As its name suggests, some areas of the mall is designed similarly to an airport too. 

Since our main purpose in Terminal 21 was just to take some photos, we left the mall quite swiftly. With much free time left, we utilised our BTS day-pass to its fullest and travelled to Thong Lo Station. Underneath the station is Sukhumvit Soi 38, a street with Thai's famous and delicious street food. 

You can find all sorts of food here, and all were pretty delicious! Desserts, mango sticky rice, fried kuey teow, bbq meat etc. Frankly I didn't have the chance to try all of them, but I got to say everything that I tried here (desserts, bbq meat...) tasted wonderfully! 

20-30 Baht per stick, what a bargain!

On the way back to our hotel, I spotted a McD kiosk located in a one of the BTS stations. I was flabbergasted, as I found bubble milk tea with McD ice cream float in Bangkok! As a bubble milk tea lover, without second thought, I bought one and sip it all the way back hotel! Of course, I acknowledged that drinking is prohibited in the train!  

Thailand Day 2 - Hua Hin

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 1 (Part 1)

Sawadee Kap~~ Greetings from Thailand! Truth be told, I'm currently back in Malaysia but I've spent 4 days and 3 nights in Bangkok, Thailand from 6 Oct - 10 Oct 2014. Thailand, the only neighbouring country of Malaysia which is physically attached to the latter, is a shopping heaven. Girls will go crazy here. 

Departed from the newly built KLIA2, me and a friend of mine arrived at Don Muang Airport after a 2 hours flight. Exit the airport and took a bus with 'A1' code to the nearest BTS train station called Mo Chit. Imagine carrying your luggage into a full-house bus and the need to look after it while the bus driver manoeuvre around the busy traffic in Bangkok. 

In Mo Chit station, we bought a day-pass which cost 130 Baht, equivalent to around RM13. Just slash a zero at the back of every pricing in Baht and you'll get its value in Ringgit Malaysia! From there, we travelled comfortably in the air-conditioned train to Surasak station, where our accommodation for our Bangkok trip is located at - Mode Sathorn Hotel. 

It's a 4-star hotel with a chic-ly styled lobby. You can see the elegance and contemporary once stepping into the hotel. Some friendly staff welcomed us by saying "Sawadee kap" to us, but we were too awkward to react to the gesture in the first place, where we just smile and bow a little to them. Wi-Fi is available at every corner of the hotel. We sat down immediately in the lobby to use its Wi-Fi to inform our families that we had landed and arrived safely.

There's an outdoor pool on the 10th floor, where you can swim to the edge of the pool to have a breathtaking view of the city!

The room itself is superb. Spacious and elegant. 4 lighting modes were available, but they are basically changes in brightness of the lights. 

Bath tub with view of the city! You can either flaunt your 'stuff' or pull the blinds down if you feel a tad uncomfortable.

After placing our luggage in the hotel, we headed back out to our first destination in Bangkok - lunch in Cabbages and Condoms. From Surasak Station, we have to travel to Asok Station, which involves changing line at Siam Station. We found this delicious vanilla waffle in Asok Station itself! Crispy on the outside and puffy on the inside. Somehow I noticed there were many snack stalls located in various BTS station were capable of producing nice food, ranging from bubble milk tea to waffle!

After a short distance of walking, we arrived at Cabbages and Condoms. We were greeted with plenty of decoration made up of, yup you've guessed it right, condoms! 

Thailand is very open about sex education and prevention from STD, so this is no big deal.

After admiring at some decos, it's high time to order some food for lunch. C&C provides a comfortable environment and delicious food too, albeit the price of the food is a little on the high side. 

Can you guess what kind of juice is this? The fruit is made up of many juice-laden, super-sized pulp. The answer is pomegranate! 40 Baht for a small bottle of pomegranate juice, overpriced but it is undeniably refreshing. 

Some of my friends asked me to get them some Bangkok's Starbucks tumbler, and we bought these just on the first day in Bangkok! A tumbler costs 420 Baht, and you can get a free (but nice looking) Starbucks denim bag if you spend more than 450 Baht in a single receipt!

NEXT - Bangkok, Thailand - Day 1 (Part 2)