I had bought this banana cream doughnut from the Lawson convenience store downstairs
I didn’t eat much of a breakfast as I had plans to eat at an airport lounge before my flight.
I liked the area I stayed at this time. I might come back to this side, near Phrom Phong BTS station.
I booked a Grab taxi to take me to Suvarnabhumi airport
It was a Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid — a popular crossover here. I really like its simple design!
My flight was with IndiGo Airlines, whose counters were at the far right end of the terminal
The VAT refund counter for tourists is here — right opposite the IndiGo counters
Remember, you need to show the filled out VAT refund form from the shop you purchased the goods, show the inspector the purchased goods at the VAT refund counter, and then get the papers stamped from here before you pass through security. The actual cash refund you get in hand is from another counter after immigration and security.
After a span of 9 months, and after writing about all my past travels, I had the itch to see the world again. I had to. I had nothing else to write about for this website besides the usual K-pop reviews! The past few months I contemplated where to go next. I really wanted to be in Europe for the Euro Cup and the Olympics, but with the Indian Rupee getting clobbered in value against the British Pound and the Euro, I soon let go of that dream.
I then thought about Vietnam. I would fly to Singapore as my visa is yet to expire, then take Tiger Airways to Ho Chi Minh, ride all the way up to Hanoi and fly back to Singapore. But upon researching, I realized whatever I would see in Vietnam would not have been that much more ‘new’ having already been to Thailand and Philippines. Also, the truth about Halong Bay is that it looks amazing when you get an aerial view — which is not how most tourists see it when they get there.
So then I thought about China, a country I have wanted to explore for years. Just like India, China has an ancient and much revered history. It’s also a large country, with lots to see and amazing geography. But China also has a government hell bent on restricting your freedom within its boundaries. So when I read foreigners wouldn’t be allowed to visit Tibet unless they went with a guide, I changed my mind. Taking the Lhasa express ranked highly in my list of “to-do” things in China. And the way I travel, I don’t want someone telling me I can’t go there or don’t take photographs the government doesn’t want you taking.
I initially thought of using Hong Kong as an entry point to China, but in the end I decided to just visit Hong Kong and Macau for now. After all, I got a pretty sweet deal on the flight ticket from Cleartrip. For around Rs. 27k ($505/€407), I would be flying Thai Airways via Bangkok to Hong Kong. My return journey had a 22-hour layover in Bangkok too, meaning I had a day to spend in Bangkok as well.
I left Bangalore on June 27th and arrived at Suvarnabhumi around 6am.
Hello Suvarnabhumi! Haven’t seen you since 2010It was a bit of a ‘trek’ (as always with Suvarnabhumi) but I eventually found my transfer gateMy connecting flight to Hong Kong was scheduled to leave at 8:35am
My final day in Thailand… and I still made most of the time I had before flying out.
Even though I still had an entry ticket to DreamWorld theme park which I got for free via Cleartrip, I decided to chuck that and opted instead to do something I couldn’t do last year.
I booked myself for a floating market tour via the lady who owns Thai House Inn and she got it for me for ฿600 (Rs. 890/$20/€14).
Left Bangkok at around 6am; headed to the neighbouring district of Ratchaburi, a 100km drivePassed by a lot of shrimp farms. Turns out Thailand is largest exporter of such shrimps. (That explains the abundance of prawn crackers)
After an hour long drive, the van reached a canal where there were other tour groups gathered near some boats.
We would then be split up into groups for each boatI grabbed the spot in front
No roads from here on out, just canals all the way to the ‘floating’ market
It was a lovely morning ride
It was a charming sight to see houses and entire villages live by these canalsKind of appears as though the ‘roads’ are flooded
That’s where we were heading
Once we reached the market, we got out of our boats and were informed by our guide that we had nearly an hour here. But, if we wanted to boat ride around the market, we would have to pay ฿50 (Rs. 75/$1.6/€1.16) and it was not included in the tour package. Obviously, none of us wanted to simply walk around the ‘floating’ market, so I paid up.
I sat right in front again
Mind you, there are many boats carrying tourists around the market all morning. The market closes by afternoon.Plenty of hawkers (on boats of course) pull your boat over to try and sell you their wares
A lot of the stuff for sale are souvenirs and other Thailand memorabilia
No shortage of eateries as usual
And as usual, you can haggle for a much lower price than what they initially quote
Even under a bridge there was no shortage of hawkers
From preserved animals….. to even getting photographs with a massive snake. All available under the bridge.
Nicely shaven coconut
After much pandering, I ended up buying two of these hats for my nieces. The hats can be folded into fans as well. Paid around ฿100 each.Best advised to keep your hands inside at all time. The boats do ram into each other.It was time to turn around and go back
This is what a floating market traffic jam looks like
And this is what it sounds like
Durian. Ugh.Yes, lots of hats
After riding for around half an hour, we were dropped back on to the platform.
Continued taking photos on foot
The floating market is one of those ‘must see’ places in ThailandYes, you can get a massage just about anywhere in Thailand
How paddle boats are ‘parked’I would have liked to have gone through there
How heavy must the boats be to hold the weight of two gas cylinders?
I walked back to the designated meeting point for our tour group. It was time to leave, so we all got back to our respective vans.
I was under the impression the floating market tour was over and that we would be on our long drive back. But no, instead, the van took us to a nearby Elephant Village.
It’s ฿600 for an elephant ride -_-I wasn’t interestedInstead, I sat at the cafe and read up trivia
After waiting for nearly half an hour for the few from my tour group who wanted to go for the elephant ride, we finally got moving again. Next up, the Cobra Show.
Again, they only drop you here, you still had the option to pay and enter
Even though I had seen videos from the ‘most exciting show in the world,’ I did not want to wait outside in the heat again. So I paid the ฿30 or ฿50 it was for the ticket and went in.
The arena inside (Panorama comprised of 6 shots)
They start off with the announcer welcoming everyone and explaining in fairly understandable English that the purpose of the facility is to ‘educate’ visitors that snakes are not all that dangerous as people make them out to be.
A badass-looking Thai staff member showing us how they extract snake’s venom
The also bring around snakes to you in case you want to take photos with one around your neck. And since I hate snakes…
I thought I’d give it a try They have all kinds of snakes, like huge pythons as well
The ‘exciting’ parts kick in when they demonstrate how the trained staff catch snakes. Which has to be seen in action:
The guy also caught three cobras, one by one, which was quite impressive.
The excitement continues when they bring out a snake’s worst enemy in the animal kingdom, the mongoose — and then make the two fight.
“Snake, meet mongoose”“Snake… meet mongoose!”“Snake… snake…snaaaaake!”*Introductions over I guess
Here’s a video of the mongoose fight some more:
Thirty minutes of, erm, animal cruelty, the show was over. The staff went around seeking donations from the visitors, and I tipped ฿100 to the guy who caught the snakes with his bare hands, because that’s quite some skill.
Outside, there have a mini-zoo with a few reptilian creatures.
If you want photos with much bigger snakes, you can take them hereBut I wanted to sit in the air-conditioned van as it was quite hot!
I asked our guide if the ‘tour’ was over, but he said there was one final stop. Ugh.
This was some handicrafts showroom where they specialize in wooden sculptures.
But I must say, quite impressive wood work (That sign seems a bit ironic btw)
Scratch that, some *very* impressive wood work!Wonder how many weeks it takes for such stunning works of artThey’re all for sale but it’s not like they’re easy to fit into a suitcase and take back with you
Needless to say, none of these wooden sculptures carved out of teak wood come cheap. Most of them were in the thousands of dollars (yes, dollars, not Thai baht)!
They have a showroom with some smaller pieces of wood work inside
After another half-an-hour spent here, we headed back into our vans. I was finally done with the ‘floating market’ tour. As touristy as the above sights may seem, I still feel a visit to the floating market is a ‘must-do’ in Thailand. Damnoen Suduak is the most popular floating market, thus the hordes of tourists. There are a few other floating markets across Thailand.
The journey back into the city took a lot longer for me as I was going to be the last one dropped. I eventually got down at MBK to have lunch… at KFC.
Last year, KFC Thailand introduced a sweet ‘n’ spicy variant of their chicken, and it was my last meal before leaving. This year, KFC introduced a seaweed infused variant. It was alright, better than last year’s sweet ‘n’ spicy.
With my final meal in Thailand complete…
Oh for god’s sake Thai people, there’s NOTHING special about Krispy Kreme!
Anyway… I headed back to Thai House Inn to pack up and check out. I sat down for a bit before stepping out again, but this time, without my camera bag for a change. I wanted to give my shoulders a rest after the nearly two weeks I strained them. I walked further down from Nana BTS to see whether there were better sub-฿1000 accommodation available so that next time if I do choose to stay in the Sukhumvit area, I don’t have to stay to at Thai House Inn.
Hopefully, next time I’m in Bangkok, if I don’t have much shopping to do, I’ll stay in Khao San road.
At around 5:30pm, I took the BTS to Phaya Thai station. They had only recently opened the new skytrain link directly to Suvarnabhumi airport, saving passengers both time and money.
The Phaya Thai airport link stationAnd as an introductory offer, the ticket to Suvarnabhumi was a cheap ฿15! I paid nearly ฿500 last year for taxi!
The journey took just 30 minutes. Clearly a better option for those with less luggage. I was early enough for my 9:20pm Thai Airways flight to Bangalore.
The entry into the airport from the BTS station is at the basement
Walking up to the departures section, I was quite stunned to see just about every Indian passenger heading back to Mumbai with a massive LCD/plasma TV in tow. It’s as though everybody knew how much to pay off the Mumbai customs officials upon arrival.
Quite ridiculous really, especially seeing many of them pleading with the check-in personnel not to impose excess baggage charges… because some of them were (unsurprisingly) way over the allowed limit!
After checking-in, I headed to the VAT (value added tax) refund office to declare my purchases and get my VAT refund forms stamped by the officials. Then came the rather long queue at immigration.
Passport stamped, I was through
I checked out the Duty Free, bought two bottles of liquor that my friends requested (prices and selection are fairly good here) and then went to the VAT refund counter to get my cash refund. Submitted my form and got 7% of the total value of my purchases back in cash. I mentioned this last year and I’ll mention it again: for the VAT refund, one needs to shop at stores that participate in the VAT refund scheme for tourists. Upon purchase, you will get a VAT refund form from the store and it’s only upon showing that same form at the airport will you be eligible for a refund. You can’t simply show a bunch of store receipts and expect a cash refund (‘cos I’ve seen people do that).
Sitting at my gate, I had plenty of time for a flashback. Another trip to Thailand that didn’t feel ‘complete’. Had I successfully covered the big lantern release in Mae Jo, Chiang Mai, I would have scratched North Thailand off my list and only focused on South Thailand for my next visit.
I wasn’t even in the best of health the first week, which sucked. Still… all I can say is that I did the best I could and I hope my readers enjoyed this series.
So until Thailand 201_, it’s back to India for now!
