Land of Smiles, Thailand; Money, Root of all evil.

The holiday was coming to an end, it was our final day in Thailand.

Before heading out to the streets for the final time, we took photographs, lots of it. 

Waiting, like a boss (not), for the familia to get ready.

Family shot #1

Family shot #2

How the view is like in the morning

Mom and pops

Sis(Alice), with the parents.

Sis(Audrey), with the parents.

Out we went, by cab, to Chatuchak. It was freakin huge, and the things were freaking cheap too. We didn't have enough time to buy the things that we wanted to, because my dad was rushing us to get back to the hotel. I swear he can be quite a bitch at times, with the amount of times that he had complained of backaches and how we were not going to get a cab back to the hotel in time. And all these while, he kept telling us of how he was tough and so on and so forth. 

Okay, I'm going to show you guys a footage I shot while I was in the market. It's of two HUGE dogs kept in tiny ass cages that were for sale. I wanted to set them free so badly. My heart ached the whole time we were at that section of the market. So many animals were for sale and they were kept, in huge quantities, in small cages. 

Money make people do inhumane stuffs. Like stuffing 25 chinchillas into a cage meant for ONE hamster. It's the first time I've witnessed such things, therefore I was rather appalled. How can anyone bear to keep any creature in such horrible conditions and not feel a thing? My dad was petting the dog in the cage, and a guy stopped him. He said and I quote "Don't touch him, he will get affectionate.". My dad sighed so many times when we were there. Money make people do inhumane stuffs, therefore it's the root of all evil. 

After finishing up our final purchases of the trip, we took a cab, that we got under 3 minutes, back to the hotel. Went down to have lunch at the restaurant.

Coconut drink

Audrey's ... glass noodles.

Mom's tom yum soup

My beef burger

Alice's fish n chips

Pop's steak

Soft shell crab

The only significant thing I bought for myself, a pair of fake shades.

Nothing much happened that day. Oh, plane rides at night can be pretty scary and boring because you can't see anything out the window. So that's pretty much it for the Thailand trip. It was one hell of a holiday. One I will never forget anytime soon.

Was trying to get a shot of the view outside. Instead, I got this shot. Quite artistic I must say. 

Thank you Bangkok, kapunka. 

Related posts:
Land of Smiles, Thailand; Breaking the chain, Day 1
Land of Smiles, Thailand; Good and Bad, Day 2

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

Land of Smiles, Thailand; Breaking the chain.

It was a lifelong dream, to be able to travel as a family, by plane, to foreign countries. It went unfulfilled for many, many years. It was finally dream come true, last Friday, 16th March 2012.

Beaming with excitement early in the morning

The farewell committee.

Knowing him for 13 years, and being friends for 7, this was the first time we took a picture together.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my best friend, Lim Xuan Da (or Roderick).

This post was written by hand, on the first day, in the hotel room. Not all of it was written then, and it goes like this :

Sitting on this office chair, in my newly bought akido-lookalike-pants, in this comfy hotel room in the middle of this Land Of Smiles, I write this with a lot of emotions. Never in a million years would I have imagined the whole family traveling together, walking down the streets of Bangkok, with great big smiles on everyone's face.

Among the clouds

Overly excited mom.

Malaysia

Couldn't believe that we actually soared higher than the clouds we see from ground level.

Arriving in Thailand

 Just a couple of hours ago, I had just boarded my very first airplane, ready to fly off to an unknown land. We've finally experienced, the 'ear and eye popping' ride of the plane, walking down the streets of Bangkok buzzing with nightlife, and I also consider myself to have 'seen it all'. And as my sister say, as we were walking along the streets, "Anyone innocent who comes here, won't be after this trip.". It's true though, there were dildos, fleshlights, and pornographic DVDs for sale everywhere. There were men holding out illegal pornographic DVDs, prompting every passerby to buy them, regardless of their sex. My eldest sister, 24, is sadly no longer innocent. 



Sleazy Streets
The streets were filled with pubs, and every single one of them offered table top pole dancers, clad in skimpy outfits, mostly lingerie. The dancers were shooting seductive glances at everyone who passes them by, as they swayed their bodies along with the music playing in the pubs. The streets were NSFC(Not Safe For Children), or any women really. It was sleazy to no end, even my dad didn't want to enter the pubs.

Night view of Sathorn, Bangkok

When we finally returned back to our hotel room, after walking through miles of streets for hours, we were greeted by a night view Singapore can't compare to.

Amazing isn't it?

Iphone quality. 

Standing on the balcony of the room, 29 storeys high, the view was breath taking. And as we simultaneously dropped the bags filled with the day's loot, we heaved a sigh of relief. I sat down and took a moment to think about what was happening. It felt really great to have spent the day happily, as a family, away from home and away from all the stress and unhappy stuffs going on in Singapore.

I eagerly tried on the pants I had gotten myself from the night market, and it felt great!

I don't always take pictures when I'm in my home clothes. But when I do, I take them with my parents.

As the evening passes on, it was time to tuck in. My bed was positioned at an angel that made it really hard to fall asleep in. I had to turn my back against the window to avoid the beautiful night view the hotel room offered. 

Goodnight.

It was an amazing first day, not exactly perfect, but it was great enough. My eyelids never felt heavier as I slowly fell asleep. 

The amazing day filled with many life's first ended with a silent bang.


Related Posts:
Land of Smiles, Thailand; Good and Bad, Day 2.
Land of Smiles, Thailand; Money, Root of all evil. Day 3