Land of Smiles, Thailand; Good and Bad, Day 2.

The day started off brightly, with breakfast served in buffet style down at the hotel's restaurant.

Breakfast for champions.

After breakfast, my mom and dad were 'cordially invited' to have a chat with the hotel's owners or someone important somewhere in the hotel. Not sure about the details, because I fell asleep on the couch the moment they went out of the room. 2 hours later, they finally got back to the room and we were on our way out to the streets of Sathorn.

Con man; Temple guard
We were on our way to a place called "Platinum Mall" when we stopped by a 'teacher'. He claimed to be a 'teacher' in the temple and told us that it was a Buddha's day. Because my dad had to get something done for his friend, something regarding a Buddha's pendant, we were told to go to the second biggest temple in Bangkok. Not convinced, my dad led us into the temple and asked for more directions. Then came this temple guard. He told us the same thing the 'teacher' told us, and asked us to head over to the temple. The trip to the temple was by 2 special transportation. First, we had to travel by a Tuk-tuk and then transfer to a long tailed boat. The whole journey took 90 minutes to complete.

This is a tuk-tuk. All five of us managed to squeeze into it. We're a skinny family.

View of the ride.

Mom and sis (Alice)

Dad, sis(Audrey) and I.

View of the boat ride.

The boat driver whom we thought was a saint at first.

View of the boat ride.

Locals playing in the river. True happiness right here.

Catfishes we got to feed. Cost us 500 Baht(That's 20SGD for 5 packets of dried, dirty bread) instead of the 50 he told us. Mis-communication was to blame

The temple that did not offer the service the 'teacher' and temple guard promised. Disappointed.

What started as a joyous ride on the boat across the rivers of Bangkok, turned into a disaster. The least the boat rider could do was to return us the money and told us that we had overpaid. Tsk, and I thought they were honest Buddhists. So back we went to the heart of Sathorn. We were all soaked in sweat and we had to travel by train to the next destination. 

On our way to Platinum Mall.

The Temple guard told us that all the malls were closed from 230 to 530 due to the public holiday. That's why he told us to go to the Temple. And he said that the shops in Platinum mall closes at 12am. But when we got there, we were shocked to see the shops began closing at 730. By 8, only one shop was opened. SCAMMED.

Our moods suddenly got dampened. So we took a cab back to the hotel because my dad was complaining about his back. 

Once again, the night view was perfect.

Realizing that that was the last night of the trip, I saw down on the balcony floor for 30minutes and thought about stuffs. For those of you who are not fans of reading mushy emotional stuffs, skip ahead.

So I sat down on the floor, enjoying the moment. Thinking of what had happened over the past two days. My mom joined me and we chatted. I told her how happy I was because of all the things that have happened to me. I'm a fresh graduate from Temasek Polytechnic. Only a year ago, I was worrying that I might stay for another semester, but I was in Bangkok rather than being in school preparing for yet another supplementary paper.

And I told her that we are considered lucky. We have walked the streets of Bangkok and have seen people living in conditions not many Singaporeans would have to go through in their entire life. But yet, they seem happier than most of us. We lived literally a road away, yet the view and feel is all so different. On ground level, it was dirty, smelly, stuffy and noisy. But on the 29th storey, in the hotel room, it was clean, windy, the view was awesome, and it felt so peaceful.

I dropped her a question. Why can't we be happy like they are? We need to cherish the things that we take for granted, and realize that we are living the life not everyone can. We may not be the richest, but we are most definitely not the poorest. We were in Bangkok, out of Singapore. How long have that dream went unfulfilled? I looked at my mother, and she said she was proud of me. Because I was able to take back so many things from this trip. Things money can't buy.

I'm so glad that my family took time out from their busy schedules and travelled together. We were all so happy in Bangkok, but now that we're back in Singapore, everything is back to normal. We take things for granted, my sisters had a little spat not long after we returned home. My dad, whom promised to cut down on drinking, drank for three nights straight. My mother is back to her usual tired self, because of all the work she has to do. While I'm wasting my life away, day after day, just chilling and not doing anything significant.
Life, aren't you a mean cycle.

Happiness rich people will never understand.

Related Posts:
Land of Smile, Thailand; Day 1: Breaking The Chain

Land of Smile, Thailand; Money, Root of all evil. Day 3