Singapore and Thailand

 “Perjalanan itu bersifat pribadi. Kalaupun aku berjalan bersamamu, perjalananmu bukanlah perjalananku.” - Paul Theroux

Universal Studio

It has been a while since my last abroad trip to New Zealand, finally on July 24, right in the dawn of the day my new trip was started. Singapore is only 2hours and a half from Denpasar, Bali. We got our plane departed at 9 AM in the morning. Like I have told you before, it takes 2 hours and a half to get here, in Singapore, which made us arrived at 11 AM. Denpasar and Singapore have the same time zone, so you don't have to change your watch or phone's time. We lived in China Town, in a hostel called 5FootWayInn. On the first day, we went around the city,saw the landmark of Singapore, and of course to see the famous lion. It was a tired day, but I loved it, cause I tasted an ice cream that really tasty and smooth - eh. 

The second day we went to Universal Studios Singapore, we spent our day there. There was something happened in USS but I don't want to talk about it, let it be our story and history. After having a good time at Universal Studio, we continued our trip to Song of the Sea show. I wasn't really into this show, cause I wasn't in the right mood that moment, but if I was in the right mood, I knew it would be awesome. And the third day I slept, not really slept, cause I went to downtown, but then I decided to went home first cause my foot were tired of walking. Finally on the last day, we were shown the great firework and another thing that could amaze us. This time, I'm on Changi Airport, waiting for another flight to Bangkok, Thailand. I do love this trip, no trip is perfect, but if I had to say it was, maybe I would.

Thailand.

After having 2 and a half hours of flight from  Singapore, we arrived in Don Mueang Airport, Bangkok in the mid day, around 12 o'clock. Thailand's time is one hour behind Singapore. The airport - the arrival was really quiet, I felt like I was the only one there. After claiming our luggage, we met some unknown guy who helped us to get transport in Thailand. It took an hour or more maybe to arrive in our hotel in Siam from Airport. Holiday Inn Express, Siam, Bangkok we chose to be our home for the next three days after we arrived in Bangkok on August 28, 2013.

We have booked 4 rooms in that hotel, but two rooms had not ready yet when we arrived at the hotel. Our rooms are in level 16 and lucky I got room with Bangkok's city view.

We put our luggage in my room while waiting the other rooms ready. Didn't want to waste time by doing nothing in our room, we decided to go down stair and trying to find something to eat. Not really far from our hotel, well I can say it was in the front of our hotel, there was cadger that sell Thai's traditional noodles. So we decided to get our first lunch in Bangkok by eating Thai's traditional noodle. Surprisingly, the taste was good. The taste was okay on my tongue instead of the noodle that I found in Singapore.

Go next to our trip, destination : Cha am Thailand to Swiss Sheep Park. Like I told you, once again, I slept a lot.  Funny thing, our driver, Mr. Thana, didn't know the place that we wanted to visit. He passed the place, and lucky he wasn't passing so far, so he had to drive backward. And there we were, in Swiss Sheep Farm. That day was sunny bright day and hot. Really a good day to see "little Swiss" in Thailand. 

Once again, I slept again. As a wifi man, I loved to be here. I finally could connect to the internet and tell the world that I was there. The entrance ticket wasn't that expensive like we had before in Floating market. This place was so good, but the weather and the time when we got there, around 12 in the mid day, made it a bit hot. Spending around 2 hours in this farm, we decided to back hotel, and say good bye to our driver Mr. Thana. But before we headed to our hotel, he drove us to some store to buy Thai's snack, and finally at 6 PM we arrived  hotel. In hotel, we had our faces washed up and change my pants into short, shoes into sandal and the another trip was begun. We went to MBK which really close to our hotel, we had early dinner by eating steak, hmm yummy. Funny thing here, some money changer won't to change their money with Indonesia Rupiah, ugly truth. After visiting MBK, we went to Paragon and other shopping places. In the end of the day, Gundik was gone. Frankly we "left" him from one store to another store, we thought he knew we moved to the next store, but unfortunately he wasn't. It was around 10 PM and all the store was going to close. Another funny thing, we couldn't able to find the exit, hahahaha we were trying to use the lift and found that it wasn't the exit, and it happened again and again till we met some nice girl that helped us to find our exit. FYI, all the mall is closed at 10, except for the cinema, so we went thru the cinema to get to the exit. 

I should have told you right, what happened to my friend Gungdik. I thought he would never make it to the hotel by seeing the fact that I and the other friends couldn't find the exit way. I was wrong, the fact was Gundik arrived at the hotel first. That day was ended with happiness.

Now move to our third day in Bangkok, we went to The Grand Palace, but only Gundik, Odika, Hendry, Riri and I who entered to The Grand Palace. The rest decided to waiting outside instead of entering to the inside. I prayed to the Emerald Buddha, that place was beautiful. I have to tell you any sad thing, I just knew that Wat Pho and Wat Arun were close to the Grand Palace right when we were home in Indonesia.  We didn't visiting those places and Maddam Taussand. I have prayed to the Emerald Buddha, hoping that I could back and visit those places.

Finished our trip to the Grand Palace, then we moved to Terminal 21. But we had some problem, 5 taxis declined us in reason they didn't know where Terminal 21 is and they didn't speak English. After chasing taxis, finally we found one mini bus who want to drive us to Terminal 21. Another lucky, the driver could speak English. Before we headed to Terminal 21, we were taken to Pearl Shop, I had know idea why every people that visited The Grand Palace should visit this place. Again, on our way to Terminal 21, I slept again (it was a long trip for me). Terminal 21 was very nice, every floor has its own theme, the second floor is Rome and the toilet is very cool, looks like the ancient of Rome. I love this place. Like I told you I was tired, so I decided to back hotel first with Gundik and Arya, the rest, you know they kept shopping till night. It took not that long from Terminal 21 to our hotel, we paid 100 THB, though the meter only said 67 THB. The taxi driver could speak English, so we were helped though he lied to us about the meter. It was our last day in Bangkok, so sad realizing that this place is very nice. Sometimes, it crossed my mind that I should have spent my vacation longer here instead of Singapore. 

July 31st, our last day in Bangkok, we had 2 flight, one from Bangkok to Singapore, and Singapore to Denpasar Bali. We had our last breakfast in hotel and checked out. Once again, I met 'super' taxi driver, he just graduated 3 months ago, and have 3 jobs, he has books and read them in his taxi. From hotel to airport ain't took a long time like we had from airport to  hotel on our first day. I still have no the answer why, so I  let it be a question that  I probably could answer if I go back to Thailand. We arrived in Changi Airport at 5 PM and our next flight was in 9 PM. We arrived in Bali at 12 AM and we were officially ending our trip.

Thank you for reading my writing. I hope I could write another trip's story soon. Sorry it was all me on the pictures above. They were taken from my phone, the full team photo were in my friend's camera. See you soon on another trip. I really wish I have another one soon, very soon.

The Grand Palace