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.
Foreigners overstaying in Thailand is so common that overstayers are routinely banned from returning for a number of years
It’s from counters like this where tourists can get the cash refund as per the VAT scheme
The VAT refund scheme for foreign tourists shopping in Thailand is a 2-step process. First go to the counter before checking-in, declare the items and get the VAT form from the shop stamped, and then after immigration go to the above VAT refund counter to receive the cash refund.
Suvarnabhumi airport got an interior makeover during COVID19
I had nothing to buy from the Duty Free, so I made my way to the lounge
Since I was flying IndiGo, a budget airline with poor meal choices, I decided to check which lounge I could access near my gate using Priority Pass.
Oman Air’s lounge was in the Priority Pass list for concourse E
I faced no issues at entry
The lounge isn’t the biggest or anything but there were enough chairs available for the number of guests I saw
The buffet comprised of both Arabian and Thai dishes
Enough choices for liquor and soft drinks
Check out the video below for a brief tour of the Oman Air lounge at Suvarnabhumi (BKK) airport:
I ate very well and realized this is a much better meal than I would get in an airplane’s economy class
When it was time, I made way to my boarding gate
This is all new
Indigo 6E76 was delayed by 30mins
The flight was mostly full
Bye bye Bangkok
One can see the layer of smog as you depart Bangkok
Bangkok is not a coastal city
The outskirts of Bangkok are largely industrial and agricultural land
We were now flying over Myanmar
I don’t know where in Myanmar we were flying over
But it wasn’t far from Myanmar’s coast
One of the reasons for booking this IndiGo daytime flight was that fact we would flying over the Andaman Islands.
An island off Myanmar’s coast
An hour into our flight, I could see Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Here’s a brief video I made while we flew over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands:
Andaman and Nicobar Islands are actually closer to Thailand than they are to Tamil Nadu/India
2.5 hours later, we were near Bengaluru
Nandi Hills?
And that’s it. A brief stopover in Bangkok on the way back from my month-long stay in the Philippines. I never get tired of Bangkok and Thailand in general, and I cannot wait to visit the Land of Smiles again.
After a great first day in Langkawi, today morning we were up and ready for our island hopping tour.
For breakfast, I had ‘roti canai’ which is similar to Kerala parota, but fluffier. To drink, Milo, which is waaaay more popular in Malaysia than it is in India.
We were picked up by the tour operator at 8am and dropped off at a pier where other tourists were gathered as well.
These were the kind of boats we were going to be driven around inIt was a lovely sunny day to be out on a boat tripAll the tourists were divided into groups and we got into our boat
Given my past experience going on a similar trip in Krabi, I was more careful this time in protecting my camera equipment
Our first stop on the tour was to get a glimpse of the Pregnant Maiden Island, called so because it looks like a lady lying down with a pregnant tummy.
Took me a while to make out where the ‘pregnant maiden’ wasThis is a panorama comprised of 6 shots. See if you can find her. (Hint: Head is on the right)We moved on
Soon after, we arrived at our first major stop on the tour
We were at the Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Park, which is located inside the Island of the Pregnant Maiden.
Our welcoming party. The monkeys, not the old guy.
Needless to say, there were going to be a lot of monkeys here
The stop was for us to check out a lake inside.
But I was more amused watching monkeys
The lake inside is famous because despite being in an island located in the sea, the lake’s water isn’t as saltyYou can also swim here… or jump in, like Loi didThere are also paddle boats for hire
They also have one of those “fish spas” here with small catfish ever ready to nibble away at your feet’s germs.
Plus it’s freeThe water is cool, but the nibbling at your feet can be ticklish… and slimyBut when people throw bread crumbs near your feet…. it can get a *little* too much!We had nearly an hour to spend hereThey have changing rooms for men and women here itself… but it kinda helps to know English
45 minutes in, we made our way back to the pier
Like I said, lots of monkeys here
You have to be a bit careful though. Yes, they are more afraid of you than your are of the monkeys. But if they see anything enticing in your hands — like juice bottles or food packets — sometimes they will come at you and just grab it. Also, I saw some idiots throw things at them. Please don’t do that.
2 seconds ago, that Coke bottle was in that old man’s hands. He didn’t fight for it back… because that would make human race look inferior.
We got into our boats and moved on
Our next stop was a short trip away.
Next up was a fish feeding farm…… which was also a restaurant. Hmmm.
The thing was, you had to pay to feed the fishes. This isn’t exactly included in the package.
But we didn’t go for it
We didn’t opt to feed the fishes because, 1) all 3 of us weren’t interested 2) the concept of paying to feed fishes, fatten them up and who then (possibly) end up on the restaurant menu didn’t sound right to me.
Boring huh?Fortunately it was only a 30 minute stop, so I continued clicking
We moved onOur boat driver, smoking
We rode up to what looked like a mangrove forest, where we would witness an eagle feeding session.
Langkawi gets its name from eagles. Malay word ‘lang’ = eagle, kawi = reddish brown colourThe island is inhabited with a lot of eagles of that colour
The eagle feeding session works as such. The boats all float apart from each other and the drivers/guides throw some eagle feed (bread bits or some meat) into the waters, and the birds of prey come sweeping in with their beaks ready to eat.
Problem was, I didn’t have the right lens for this part of the tour. The most zoom I had was with my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8, which as a macro lens is great, but isn’t much when it comes to photographing fast moving birds.
Here are a few shots Ramesh got using his Canon 55-250mm telephoto lens.
(Photograph by Ramesh Iyer)(Photograph by Ramesh Iyer)
After the eagle feeding session, we moved on to our next and final stop on this tour.
Beras Basah islandIf you wanted to swim in the sea or just hang around on the beach, here is where you are allowed to do itWe were all keen to hit the water!But I didn’t feel like leaving my camera on the beachSo I took it with me into the water! But I trod very carefully so as not to get a drop of water on the lens.Loi and Ramesh found broken coralsSo I asked them to make use of them and pretend to be reindeers!Because you know, reindeers in water are… ermm… Couldn’t help but turn this into an ad Attempting the ‘head floating in water’ shotAfter some time, we made our way back to shoreOvercast skies in the distance
Not sure if this was a hotel or notAfter drying ourselves up, we headed back to the pier
Monkeys inhabit this island tooAmazing how they survive on the island, considering there are no human residents here.
We left Beras Basah island
We got a bit of rain as we neared the pier from where we set off in the morningPretty cool looking resort
The rain was mostly a drizzle once we got back. They were selling memorabilia plates of everybody who went for these boat trips and since they were only RM10, we all picked up our respective plates.
This was a half-day island hopping tour and it only cost us RM30 (Rs. 450 approx.) per person. I’ve done a similar tour like this last year in South Thailand. Of course, that trip didn’t start of well, with my camera getting wet and all, but I doubt I’ll ever get sick of seeing clear blue water and less crowded beaches far away from civilization.
As we were walking to our vans, Ramesh and I were talking about visiting the Langkawi Underwater World, just when one of the Sri Lankans who was on our boat overheard us. He turned back and advised us against it, saying that the Aquaria KLCC in Kuala Lumpur is “much better”. So we decided to take his word for it and dropped the idea of going to Langkawi Underwater World.
The lobby downstairs at Sweet Inn MotelOne of the many cats that visit Sweet InnIt had just finished raining
We stepped out again, this time for lunch.
We stopped by a restaurant to quench our throats first with some chilled beer. I tried SKOL which I never had before. It was average in taste.
Unfortunately, looking at the menu, it offered very little in terms of vegetarian for Ramesh. So after beer, we sought some other restaurant.
So we went further down Pantai Cenang road to check out other restaurantsThis is Underwater World LangkawiWe sat down at a restaurant in front of Underwater World after Ramesh found something he could eatBut the food wasn’t particularly good. I didn’t like my chicken curry rice.
Post lunch, we checked out some Duty Free stores. Langkawi is a Duty Free shopping destination, so one would assume you would find some great bargains. But as we hopped from one shop to another, that wasn’t the case. Especially with electronics. We walked into the Canon store at a mall adjacent to Underwater World and found the prices to be far higher than that of Singapore. We were aware Malaysia isn’t as cheap as Singapore when it comes to electronics, but still, the prices we came across were a bit exorbitant. Some even higher than prices back in India.
I feel Langkawi businesses were taking advantage of the “Duty Free” label and jacking up the prices because you never know, some less-informed tourist would buy into the whole gimmick and assume they got a good deal here.
At this point, Ramesh and Loiyumba wanted to head back to our hotel in Langkawi for some rest. This being our last day on Langkawi, I didn’t feel like resting, so I told them I wanted to roam around a bit more.
I was contemplating heading to Kuah, Langkawi’s main town, just to see what that side of the island had to offer. But since we had already walked quite a bit, I decided to head further on and visit Pantai Tengah beach. In the process, also share some more beachfront hotel options on Pantai Cenang in case you wanted to know where to stay (I highlighted some places in the previous post).
Durian (similar to Jackfruit), is the national fruit of Malaysia (I think)
Head straight down this road to get to Pantai Tengah beach
This is Pantai Tengah beachIt isn’t as big as Pantai Cenang… and the sand isn’t as soft eitherIn fact, the sand was mostly broken shells. Not the best for walking barefoot then.At this point, it began to rainFortunately, I had my umbrella in my backpack. So I walked back instead of taking cover.This nice looking resort isn’t open to publicUpon research, it belongs to a bank and is meant only for its employees. Posh.Debbie’s Place Irish pub on Pantai Cenang
There’s a laundry shop very close to Sweet Inn, very reasonable rates for service
I went back to the room to drop off my laundry, and to see what the other two were up to. Ramesh and Loi were taking a nap and so, I decided to step out again.
I wanted to explore the area behind the motel
Some of the houses here have been turned into budget accommodation for tourists. Good income for villagers.
Apparently all water buffaloes do is stare at you
I had reached a main road at this point
I saw this market by the main road…… and since there was a lot of food on display, I had to check it out!I forget if these were fish balls or cheese balls… or fish balls with cheese powder coatingApom Balek, sweet stuff. I sampled a few of these. (‘apom’ sounds like India’s “appam”)
‘Nasi’ is Malay for rice and ‘Beriani’ is well, biriyani (RM 3.50 = Rs. 50)Seemed like this was some sort of weekend market, not a mainstay
Guess I knew where to bring Loi for dinner
Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables on offer
Dried fish… lots of it!‘Cempedak’ is a type of fruit, ‘goreng’ I’m guessing means friedNot sure what these wereAll these colourful juices made me thirstySo I had corn milk juice. Weird choice, I know. But I didn’t come all the way here to strawberry milkshake.
You got budget accommodation out here as well
After spending some time at the market, I knew I was coming back here for dinner. Great street food at very low prices — who am I to complain? I headed back to let the other two know about my ‘discovery’.
Once I got back to the room at around 6pm, Loi was still napping. So we forced him to get out of bed and get ready. We set out by 7:30pm.
It was pitch dark and there weren’t any street lights on this route
‘Susu’ is the Malay for milk (yup); ‘kelapa’ means coconut and ‘air’ is water (seriously)Wondering what this is?It’s potatoKeralites, looks familiar?Puttu! Albeit, a slight variationThis is how they make lots of itThis is fish apparentlyI ordered a seafood mini-pizza from hereMostly crab meat and prawns; RM 5 (Rs. 75) for one
A lot of the food was already sold outYou take the basket and tongs, pick up whatever you want and you will be charged accordinglyAfter you choose, you cook it in boiling water… even stuff like this (Yuck)
Picked up some chicken samosas and vegetable spring rolls (RM 2 = Rs. 30)Was tempted to get some fried chicken too but I didn’t want overeat Picked up a beef burger as well. ‘Daging’ = beef, ‘ayam’ = chicken, ‘benjo’ = egg (RM1 = Rs. 15)
The night market was a lot more crowded than earlier
Unfortunately, everybody except Ramesh got what we wanted. There was very little in terms of pure vegetarian on offer at the night market. So we headed back to the main road so that Ramesh could pick up his dinner from a proper restaurant.
Since this was our last night in Langkawi, we hit the beach to the feel wet sand on our feet one last time.
This is the restaurant from where we had lunch yesterday and breakfast today morning
After checking out a few restaurants, Ramesh ended up picking up a vegetarian pizza from Italian coffee chain illy Cafe, which cost as much as all the food myself and Loi picked up from the night market.
While we waited, Loi petted stray kittensAs it is this post has over 200 photos, might as well squeeze in one of me. (Photograph by Ramesh)Wonder what animal this cat fought withBack at our motel, this guy was hooked on Hindi moviesDinner!
And just when you thought we had seen enough cats for one day…
This came to our door. We had to share our food with it too.We kept referring to the cat as ‘it’. So, Loi felt the need to check. It was a ‘she’.
Dinner and drinks done, I ended the night satisfied with all that I saw today. Actually, I did want to head to Kuah town after we came back from our island hopping tour. But given that it ended up raining in the afternoon, it’s a good thing I stayed put in Pantai Cenang.
With 208 photos and over 2000 words, this is the largest post I’ve worked on. There were still some more photos I felt like using because they looked good, but in the end decided not to.
It was good day today, but tomorrow onwards, it’s four days in Malaysia’s capital — Kuala Lumpur.
Since I had to catch a 11:20am Nok Air flight from Phuket to Bangkok, I had to head back to Krabi first. I checked out of my hotel just past 5am and got a pick-up taxi that was heading to Krabi town.
Ao Nang at around 5:30AM; above photos taken on the Nokia E72
The taxi went around slowly (as usual) to collect more passengers before picking up speed. After a while, it was still me and an American girl (forgot her name) in the back. So we got talking.
She’s been by herself in Thailand for quite some time, originally with the Peace Corps and now teaching at a school in Trang, which is where she was headed. She told me about Trang and how I should come there as it was a lot less crowded than Krabi — but still offers pristine coastal beauty. Sooo, another destination for my next trip!
Left, the american girl; Right, possibly-on-drugs white bloke
The white dude in the “lungi” who joined the taxi ride kept twitching and stammering throughout the journey to Krabi bus terminal. He made me look rich.
I reached Krabi around 7am and got a bus to Phuket but asked that I be dropped near the airport. The American girl advised me to do this because the bus will pass the airport anyway. But if I headed straight to Phuket bus terminal, the ride back to the airport from Phuket town would have cost me half-an-hour. See kids, striking conversations with strangers isn’t all bad.
Since I woke up early, the lack of sleep caught up on me while on the journey — and I just couldn’t keep my eyes open fo long.
I was awoken at around 10am by the bus stewardess as we neared my stop. I got down and out into the bright sunshine still in a daze. I looked around and wondered where the airport was. I saw the bus push on and across the road stood two moped taxis calling out to me. There was nothing around besides a highway, a few farm houses and trees. Also, a small sign pointing to a road that leads to the airport.
I crossed the road and somehow managed to get on the moped with all my luggage.
Taken (very carefully) on my phone while on the bike
The short ride cost 50 baht or so (don’t quite remember exactly how much I paid). Anyway, after answering my dad who called me just as I had arrived, I took a trolley and went in. Checked in my luggage, got a window seat and my boarding pass. Twice. At the gate where we were supposed to wait for our flight, a machine that supposedly opens the door with the boarding pass managed to get mine stuck in it. So I went back to the Nok Air counter and quite embarrassingly got myself another boarding pass.
While my flight left on time, I sat by the window feeling quite sad that my stint on Thailand’s beaches had come to an ‘incomplete’ end. That feeling changed a bit a few minutes into the flight.
(This one was taken on the Nokia E72)Ko Panyee a.k.a “FLoating Village,” wanted to go there tooBeautiful, isn’t it?I love this photo
I felt a bit more satisfied after seeing all that.
By 12:30pm, we were above Bangkok.
(Taken on the Nokia E72)
We landed at Don Muang, Bangkok’s old International Airport, which is still being used by mostly budget carriers for local flights (hear that BIAL?). Took a metered taxi and headed to the highly commercial Sukhumvit area of Bangkok city. I didn’t have a hotel reservation or anything but I just looked at the city map and decided to stay in Soi 7 since it had a BTS station very close by. I had planned on taking the sky train this time to get around Bangkok.
I got down at the BTS station and just walked down Soi 7 (soi = street) in search of a room. Found a small sign for a family-run guesthouse called Thai House Inn pointing into an alley. Don’t be deceived into thinking you’re going to expect a down-rotten room in here. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you get for 700 baht (Rs. 970) a night (cheap for this area). The room and the toilet were clean and the only thing you will not find is a TV. (In case you want to know how to find it, I found a video by somebody who liked the place just as much.)
I checked in, unpacked, freshened up and went out for lunch. I was resisting eating Pad Thai (considered Thailand’s national dish) mostly because I’m not much a noodle person. But I caved thinking why come all the way here and not try it the way locals make it.
Sea food Pad Thai (badly taken on the Nokia E72)
It was okay. I still prefer my steamed rice and Thai curry combo
After lunch, it was straight to the BTS station (Nana stop on the map) for my next sightseeing destination. There was a reason I wanted to be back in Bangkok city by Sunday — Chatuchak Weekend Market.
