Bangkok-Pattaya Trip

I just got back from a Bangkok trip not long ago. Without having my laptop with me, I'm quite bored at home. Other than baking and reading Cecelia's novel, I don't seem to have any better thing to do.

I guess I'm just going to do a quick blog writing on my Bangkok trip. Here's an itinerary which I hope will benefit people who would like to visit Bangkok.

Bangkok-Pattaya Trip 
Duration: 8 July 2014 - 14 July 2014 (7 days 6 nights trip)
Airline: Air Asia
Accommodation: Hope Land Executive Residence Sukhumvit
Transportation: Taxi, Rented MPV and BTS (their MRT train)
Places Visited: 

• Sriracha Tiger Zoo
• Talat Nam Si Park (Floating market)
• Buddha Mountain Pattaya
• Silverlake (Grape vineyard) 
• Wat Phra Kaew
• Wat Pho
• Khlong (River boat)
• China town
• Klong Tom Night Market
• Asiatique 
• Terminal 21 Shopping Mall 
• Siam Paragon Shopping Mall
• Central World Shopping Mall

Headcount: 5 - 6 people trip 

Total expenditure (including air flight, accommodation, food and entertainment fees for per person): 

RM1500 - 1700 approximately 

  

We left home at Malaysian time 12 noon to my aunt's house at Nilai. We reached there in 2 hours time. We reached KLIA 2 airport quite early to prevent any unnecessary problems. After all, none of us is familiar with that airport yet. 

Our flight supposed to start at Malaysian time 6:45 p.m. However, it was delayed for like 15 minutes and only started at Malaysian time 7:00 p.m. The time zone for Malaysia and Thailand differ. Thailand is 1 hour behind us. We reached Don Mueang Bangkok at approximately Thailand time 8:00 p.m. The flight took about 2 hours. 

We headed for hotel check-in using a cab that could accommodate 5 passengers at 1 fetch. That's the beauty of the cab service in Bangkok and Bali. They wouldn't mind fetching extra passenger which is strictly prohibited in Singapore. Sigh. 

Hope Land Executive Residence Sukhumvit Review

Location: (9/10)  

It is quite near to the Phra Khanong BTS station. You can walk to there by foot for approximately 10 minutes. Otherwise, take a cab which will cost you 35 Baht. They have morning wet markets which you can buy cheap fresh fruits like rambutan, duku langsat and mangosteens.

Price: (8/10) 

The price that we got is from the Internet booking agency. For everything that we got (the room quality and facilities), I think the price is fair enough. Reasonable. Affordable for family trip. It's good to spend some money in exchange with comfort during a trip.  

Hospitality: (2/10) 

They have a Caucasian working at the reception counter. I think this is because they need somebody who can converse in English to be there in case the Thai workers bump into an incident like what happened to us. I would like to spend some time telling this. It got onto my nerves. 

Due to our flight arrival time, we reached Bangkok quite late. We did book our tickets online before we check-in. Everything was fine until the receptionist handed us the vouchers and hotel card keys for both rooms that we booked. We were initially given rooms of the same floor (4th floor) which were quite near to the lift. However, when we arrived to the hotel to check-in, the room numbers were changed. One to 450 (the last room at the end of the corridor of the 4th floor) and 7XX (I can't remember but I'm telling you, it's at the 7th floor). It is not convenient at all for a family to stay separately this way. The thing that made me frustrated was what said by the cocky Caucasian man. 

We confronted him on the second day of our trip. We felt exploited, cheated and not being treated very fairly for we suspected the hotel management had changed our rooms before we check-in. They probably gave our initial rooms to somebody else who check-in earlier. Thus, what's the point of us paying in full sum prior to check-in? Whether we check-in or not, the hotel rooms were booked and paid fully. The excuse of us turning in late to check-in and giving our rooms to other customers were irresponsible and taking things for granted actions to me. I tried to talk to the receptionist and asked for compensation. They refused. They insisted they were right. Horrible. They could smile all day to you, very friendly, however not honest. 

You would wonder why were we so sure of this. This was simply because the room numbers written no the pocket card were not the rooms we were given later. They just crossed the initial room numbers with pen and write a new number on it when we arrived. It sounded so silly when they explained that two two pocket cards including all the breakfast vouchers were written for other customers and so happened they wanted to recycle. Thus, we were seeing the stroked off numbers there. This did not make any sense at all. If they belonged to other customers, why were the dates so similar? It could not be so coincidence that other customers which coincidentally booked two rooms like us planned to stay for the same time period as us and ended up not checking-in. This was the worst lame explanation I ever heard. To give credits - this was what said by the silly Caucasian man who thought that he had a good command of English communication skill. I doubt it. His accent was weird. He did not sound like American or English. I'm not insulting his accent or what-so-ever but what pissed me off is his doubt towards my English comprehensive ability. He thought I could not understand him. Screw you. 

All in all, they did not give us any compensation. The first hotel room given on the 7th floor initially was bad. It was so near to the BTS railway and every morning, you could hear the noises caused by the frequent train trips. They were so loud until they disturbed my parents' sleep. They changed their room to the 5th floor after that. Still, it was not an ideal room because it was so far away from the lift (not as far as mine though - the last room, we had to walk for 20 - 30 seconds before reaching). 

I wouldn't give good rating for this hotel's ignorance and taking-things for granted attitude for late check-in customers. The excuse that Caucasian man gave was, "we gave you the rooms that you ordered. 1 double deluxe and 1 double superior. We did not owe you anything". What the - shit! You lied. You were helping to frame up your colleague's mistakes and irresponsible attitude. I could not stand to even think back his silly expression which was so irritating. The kind of expression you could picture - a face that tells you, "oh, we are not wrong at all girl. It's all written black and white, we are right in every aspect. You should not be running to us and complain something which we did not do anything wrong". Bwerr - disgusted expression. I hope not to ever bump into you again. 

Breakfast Buffet: (5/10)  

I wouldn't give a very high rating as I think the food served is quite.. hmm, not that impressive. They serve almost the same menu every morning. They only changed one or two things. I don't quite like their menu in that sense - lack of a variety. I only ate a few favourite food of mine every morning as regular. 

Facilities: (8/10)  

They have good facilities like the gym, sauna room and swimming pool. You can enjoy diet and exercise while having a trip. This is a good idea. We had fun in the sauna room which has a faulty Jacuzzi. The water is "dead" because they have disabled the massage knob. Thus, it was just a pool to soak your legs in before/after getting out from the sauna. Nobody would ever soak their bodies as instructed in the label I guess. I wondered how frequent they change the water.

We had our lunch at Ekkamai's Balai Cafe. It was a nice environment to dine in. They had a live band there. They sang quite well. The food were served not-that fast though. However, they tasted pretty good (the sea bass and morning glory stir-fry). I don't quite the so-called som-tam though. It tasted.. too exotic and I cannot really suite my taste bud to it.

The next day, we went to a morning market. I'm not quite sure where. They have delicious fried bananas. My favourite. You should try if you happen to see anybody selling this. They sell many plants at this morning market. 

We went for birds feeding at a park on the way home to our hotel. It's always fun to buy some food for the birds and feed them. Great experience. It rained for a while after we finished feeding. The time was just right to leave.

We also went to Terminal 21 for shopping and lunch at a Japanese restaurant (ramen). They have really cool lavatory. I have never experienced one before. Haha - 

We used BTS and taxi for our transportation.  

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I'm getting lazy to write this. Hahaha - I think all the places that we visited were listed as shown above. You could refer to them if you plan to visit.