Land of 微笑 ~ 吃喝按摩，远处观草

 

真的是好一段日子没跟吾里猫大嫂和吴金鱼去街街了。而且，续去年7月后，也没回去过曼谷了。对我来说，应该是回去向四面佛还愿的时候了。自去年泰国将大麻草服用合法化后，我们一直都很关心，很担心，很关注这一来会对泰国社会产生什么负面的影响。大麻服用合法化，会照成什么样的滥用不在话下，对社会原本应该具有高度生产力的年轻一代，所带来精神颓靡的恶风，将是续美国11个州在同时也把大麻服用合法化后的世风日下另一个亚洲的雏形。

罢了。人家的事情我们管不得。咱们自己的事情已经够琐碎麻烦了。

Table of Content 目录

[Click on the 'Day' to go to the day] 

Day 1~ Wah, really can see 'Weed'signs, here and there...

Day 2~ 拜拜四面佛, suck the aircon in Terminal 21, Gentle-ing the Woman in Siam Square, and Jodd Fair...

Day 3~ Escaping the heat in Platinum Mall and Big C, and Checking out Iconsiam

Day 4~ 拜拜 Bangkok!

Day 1

11 May 2023

These girls hor, they are serious when it comes to work - Kat and Gina never have enough of scolding suppliers, laboratory service people, etc. etc.. but when it comes to play, wah, they are really see-beh 爱玩。Especially when I put Serene into their hands, they really all go cray together.  Actually the moment they planted their butts on the plane, they already started playing!

Scoot was really quite something. Our flight departing Singapore was delayed for one hour. Why? Nnot because of any engine fault, but for some strange reasons: there were three passengers who boarded the flight, but that created a commotion at the back of the plane because apparently they weren't supposed to be on this flight. And because they were here, there were other passengers who didn't get to sit down. And the security officers had to come out several times and finally didn't know how they did it, but they escorted that three passengers down, and FINALLY we could fly, after a one hour delay that was not necessary.

Due to that, all the passenbers on board this flight had our dinner plans in Bangkok all messed up.

"Sigh, we never were successful in trying to have dinner in Central World whenever we touched down," I shared with Kat and Gina, after we unsuccessfully tried to find restaurants and eateries in the mega-mall that would still take in diners.

 

"Let's go eat at that Beer Cafe just next to Hotel Intercontinenal," insisted Serene, and rightfully so. Because not only were we able to get drinks, we could order steak, pork knuckles deep-fried, cabonara and Pad Thai, Gina style.

 

Weed, anywhere?

Of course. Even while on the taxi from Suvarnabhumi airport, we already could see the huge advertisement board along the Highway advertising 'Dr. CBD', a cannabis 'healthcare' company.  And Serene was quick to point out a cannabis neon sign on the wall of one of the shopping buildings just off the Sky Bridge on which we were walking to our hotel.

Video

First nights must always be like this one. Touch down blur blur, don't know what to do... then try to walk here and try to go there and then hit a few brick walls, then finally find somewhere to fill our stomachs...

And nothing beats finally being able to check in and to have slots for a one and a half hour Traditional Thai Massage next door at Ai Sa Wan massage...

Table of Content 目录

[Click on the 'Day' to go to the day] 

Day 1~ Wah, really can see 'Weed'signs, here and there...

Day 2~ 拜拜四面佛, suck the aircon in Terminal 21, Gentle-ing the Woman in Siam Square, and Jodd Fair...

Day 3~ Escaping the heat in Platinum Mall and Big C, and Checking out Iconsiam

Day 4~ 拜拜 Bangkok!

Day 2

12 May 2023

"Wei, this trip you all zhar fit where to go shopping where to go eat, but I must go 拜拜四面佛 first then I will follow you all wherever you all decide..."

So they guai guai followed me to Erawan Shrine on this morning of the second day.  Despite my urging Gina to make her wish, she simply refused.  Why? Because if her wishes come true, she needs to come back to 还愿 one, she said. So she would only 拜拜 but she will not 许愿. Aiyah, she ah.. 笑的啦，她!

"哇佬，死伯热呀!" kao-beh-ed Kat.

It was true. Bangkok was really hot. I think Bangkok was hotter than Singapore. Actually on the third day of our trip, Bangkok registered a 40 degree Celsius on midday, when Singapore was registering at 25-year high of 37 degrees at the same time! No wonder we were all melting when we were walking on the streets.

"Wah lau.. your sweat is shiny shiny one layer on your skin, you see your arms!" Kao-beh-ed Serene.

Terminal 21 

"We quickly get into Asok Station's Terminal 21," urged Gina. "Come, I bring you all there."

Asok Station's Terminal 21 was such a welcoming breath of fresh cold aircon-air for us. And we really ended up being inside for a long few hours.

This time round only when I was able to spend a few hours in Terminal 21 did I realise that hey this Terminal 21 was full of Koreans! 

Why?

Because there was a 'Korea Town' residential area just across the street opposite Terminal 21 where the Koreans who are working or living in Bangkok gather and congregate and live in the condos and apartments there. No wonder in Korea Town, there was also a shopping mall full of Korean restaurant and supermarkets.

So, it was no wonder that Terminal 21 had its fair share of Koreans roaming there. Even one of the shop bosses who was selling dresses was a Korean man, when we asked him.

Robinson buy bra...

These girls hor.. they were damn good. Even before setting foot on the Land of SMiles, Gina was already briefing them where to go to buy their favourite brand of brassieres at way cheaper price than Singapore.  It was at Robinson, just next door to Terminal 21. 

GENTLE WOMAN at Siam Square

The ladies decided as the evening drew nearer, that they wanted to go to Siam Square's Home-grown local brand called 'GentleWoman' to see their merchandise. And a simple 4 stops BTS ride took us from Asok to CEN (Siam Square) Station to walk through Siam Square right to the steep steps of GentleWoman boutique. Wah, I was so impressed.  Thailand was really good with home-grown boutiques and this GentleWoman was such a successful chain that women from all over the world came to flock this multi-storey shop just to grab their items.

What was also impressive was how Siam Square has become the 'HongDae' of Bangkok, where young artistes-wannabes performed on the pavements to the enjoyment of equally young audiences. The vibes are in the right direction.

Video

Jodd Fair Night Market

Jodd Fair night market was the nearer one to head towards on this evening. But it was really not as well-merchandised as we though. We were expecting 1000 stalls with plenty of stuff that we were expecting to grab off the stalls - like shirts and tumblers and such.  But the dinner was disappointing, the merchandise were not cheap and hadn't the range that we were looking out for.

The snack stalls were great, though. And we really enjoyed ourselves.

Table of Content 目录

[Click on the 'Day' to go to the day] 

Day 1~ Wah, really can see 'Weed'signs, here and there...

Day 2~ 拜拜四面佛, suck the aircon in Terminal 21, Gentle-ing the Woman in Siam Square, and Jodd Fair...

Day 3~ Escaping the heat in Platinum Mall and Big C, and Checking out Iconsiam

Day 4~ 拜拜 Bangkok!

Day 3

13 May 2023

Platinum Mall

"不可以，一定得早集合，因为我们要去很多地方！“ said Gina.

"Mai lah, mai lah... cannot. 10am! I don't want to wake up so early!" insisted Serene.

"Ok, 9:30am. 九点半集合，然后我们走路去 Platinum Mall," finally Kat made the decision.

I was glad we got together and started walking along the Sky Bridge and R-Walk through Ratchaprasong, past Big C and finally to Zone 3 and subsequently Zone 2 of Platinum Mall.  In the past our explorations of Platinum Mall were never successful, lasting the most 15 minutes. But this time around, with '6 eyes looking, instead of 2 eyes only," according to Kat, the expedition was a great success.

The ladies simply whacked every single floor from fifth floor downwards.  Gina even complained when we missed certain sectors, certain alleys... so Kat had to bring her back up again. And we over-spent time on certain floor and Gina complained that we need to extend the time allocation for the lower floors.. that was so funny.  I enjoyed seeing them shop and see things.  How Gina kept walking in and out to look for her fighting-clothes - her combat-wear lingerie.  And how Kat searched high and low for all the blink-blink logo T-shirts for her old boys at home.  

We spent didn't know how long in Platinum Mall.  But we were glad because the aircon sheltered us from what was to be the hottest day in Bangkok at 40 degrees, midday.  The ladies realised, as we had lunch, that the food in the Platinum 5th floor food court was much more expensive than the previous day's Asok Terminal 21 food court (Pier 21).   But the KSB Bank on the fifth floor of Platinum Mall Zone 2 offered eres us a good rate for S$ (24.98 Baht, compared to some outside money changers) so we changed more money here.

Big C

Big C was as usual, a Big jam and a Big grab for all the Big Big packets of seaweeds and cuttlefish and what-nots. Plenty of Singaporeans, and PRC here.  But not as many PRC as it used to see pre-Covid.  However, whatever PRC young tall, slim girls who came were, according to Gina, very sexily-dressed with bare-backs and vacuum inside. Too bad, I didn't see any of these. I must have too busy doing my job as a security guard for the three girls.

Iconsiam

I was glad we came to Iconsiam.  

" 我在 TikTok 里面看到那个泰吧的女孩子介绍这个 Iconsiam 晚上到屋顶的  Starbucks 可以望过去远远地看风景，景色很美丽的。" said Kat.

And she was right! Iconsiam was no disappointment when it came to the Food department. It was not far from Chit Lom, about 8.7km. But the traffic took us about 40-45 minutes to arrive there on Grab. Still, the floating market-style Food Court and buzzling vibes more than made up for that.

We could find quite a lot of types of food to eat. And we could also find exotic 野味 like deep-fried house lizards, scorpions, silkworm pupae, and all kinds of creepy crawlies and insects.  

Of course we ended up eating more normal food.  Coming to Iconsiam was more for viewing than for buying.  The premium boutiques here were priced the usual steep prices, so there was really no impetus to procure.  

Video

Our booking for the 45minutes Body Scrub + 45minutes Aromatherapy Oil massage was pushed back early in the morning in case we overspent time in Iconsiam.  However, we decided to come back early, as the ladies found nothing much there.  I was disappointed that Gina walked into a boutique but came out empty-handed.

"她有一件她喜欢的..." said Kat.

"不过没有我的 size, " said Gina.  Again!

Clubhouse 407

The night before, Serene and I were too shagged after our massage that we flew Gina and Kat's aeroplane on the Clubhouse 407 thingy. But this night we just whacked whatever we could find at 7-Eleven and came back up to eat and drink.  After working as a Security Guard for the whole day, I was so thrilled to have the luxury of enjoying my Security Guard food in our Clubhouse.

Table of Content 目录

[Click on the 'Day' to go to the day] 

Day 1~ Wah, really can see 'Weed'signs, here and there...

Day 2~ 拜拜四面佛, suck the aircon in Terminal 21, Gentle-ing the Woman in Siam Square, and Jodd Fair...

Day 3~ Escaping the heat in Platinum Mall and Big C, and Checking out Iconsiam

Day 4~ 拜拜 Bangkok!

Day 4

14 May 2023

General Election 2023

The morning as we were waiting for the Grab taxi to take us to the airport at 7:50am, the city of Bangkok rose from her slumber to a sleepy and quiet morning.  Incidentally it was the day of the General Election  

The night before, all the convenience shop, the bars, the clubs, had to stop selling alcoholic drinks from 6pm onwards as the government banned the sales and distribution of alcohol the night before the General Election.

"是不是怕他们的人民喝醉酒，无法醒来投票？" asked Serene.

"才不是呢。他们禁酒，应该是政府不怕人民没投票，只怕醉民投错票！ " I explained

So as the electorates went to the polls on discussions of Lese-majeste regulations, legalisation of cannabis, and all these very sensitive social issues, the military-backed political parties took a great hit as the two major opposition parties, Move Forward Party and Pheu Thai Party (with links to the twice ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra, who is self-exiled overseas) won a massive victory over the incumbent. 

I look back at the road from where we came.

Thailand has come a long long way, from the days of the highly respected late King Bhumibol. The young generation has its aspiration, it has its own set of standards and likes, like the way the fashion chains carved out they own niches, and how the young performers did what their Korean counterparts did in street-performances.

" 泰国人他们很敢敢的。他们喜欢的话，他们会敢敢的去跟从，不像新加坡人这样，又要喜欢，又要自己的面子。摆大牌这样，" said Kat.

What she said was very true.

That's why I appreciate the young Thais for their enthusiasm.  But I am of the strong opinion that legalising cannabis is not the way to go.  It's a populist strategy.  One that will weaken the mental strength and tenacity of the young Thai people, and there is no place of cannabis in society, for recreation.

Video

It was a short short trip.

But because of the tenacity of Kat and Gina, and their enthusiasm couple with their physical and mental fitness, we managed to accomplish most of what we wanted to see and do on this trip.  Most. Except for.... what ah?

"Soi Cowboy lor!" complained Gina. "You all promised me to bring me see the naked go-go-bar dancers along Soi Cowboy. But ended up never bring me!"

Hahaha.. yah, yah, Gina.  Sorry sorry. This time around we kinda had no time slot for that.

Promise promise you, Gina, next time we not only bring you to see the naked Go-Go-Bar dancers, we will find you the high-heels and the attire for you to dance on the tables too. LOL!!

Until our next Bangkok trip!!

Table of Content 目录

[Click on the 'Day' to go to the day] 

Day 1~ Wah, really can see 'Weed'signs, here and there...

Day 2~ 拜拜四面佛, suck the aircon in Terminal 21, Gentle-ing the Woman in Siam Square, and Jodd Fair...

Day 3~ Escaping the heat in Platinum Mall and Big C, and Checking out Iconsiam

Day 4~ 拜拜 Bangkok!