Shop Til You Drop - Our Bangkok Adventure Day 2

Since we were going to be picked up at 8AM, Leo set our alarms at 6AM. Not contented with our two alarms, he had the front desk give us a wake up call as well. When the alarms went off, he woke me up and told me to take a shower first. I don't know why I had to go first but I didn't argue (after all, I was so cranky with him the night before).

After a hearty breakfast, we were still early so we walked out a bit. This was what we saw:



CentralWorld, according to Wikipedia, is the largest shopping center in Southeast Asia (was this written prior to the opening of Mall of Asia?). I would agree on it being big though. Lots of brands too (Leo went gaga over the Arsenal merchandise shop. More on that later).

As promised, Ping Pong picked us up at 815. Reason for him being late was that he had to pick up another Filipino family checked in at the Amari Hotel who will join us in our half day city tour.

Our first top was the Wat Hua Lam Phong temple (I think). Nothing special about it except it's really beautiful.

The red platform behind us is where the monks  meditate. In fact, no one is allowed on that platform except for the monks.

It's very spacious outside.  There are buddha images outside as well as bells which will bring you luck if you ring them (which I did).


After this temple, we went to Wai Trimit where the Golden Buddha is located.  This buddha image was constructed during the Sukothai period and weighs 5 1/2 tons of pure gold. It used to be encased in cement but during the 1950's when it was being moved, a chunk fell off and they saw that it was gold underneath. It was said that the image was coated with cement to prevent the invaders from stealing it from the temple.

There were a lot of European tourists in the area. Heck, there were a lot of tourists.Period.

From this temple, we went to a jewelry factory where Leo bought me a pair of earrings (blue topaz, amethyst and citrine) and after that, we went to a leather factory where I bought a wallet for Leo.

After the very exhausting tour, we went to a Thai restaurant (Chon Ngern Chon Thong) where we had lunch. It's where I realized that I'm not really partial to Thai food (I just don't get the spicy sour soup). Leo loves it though.

We then asked that we be dropped off at MBK (Mah Boon Krong) Shopping Centre. It's one of Bangkok's famous malls. Actually, I see it as one big bazaar. 7 big floors of merchandise. Leo bought jeans, rubber shoes and shirts on our first foray.

By mid-afternoon, I was beginning to feel the lack of sleep and was getting all grumpy. I asked Leo that we take a cab back to the hotel as my feet was killing me too. We readily found a cab but when it encountered traffic, he let us off at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club and said that we can walk the rest of the way. We thought that it was nearby but apparently, it's quite far. I don't know how far it was in meters but it felt like we were walking for 30 minutes.

By the time we got to the hotel, my feet have died. I quickly changed into my Havaianas (muwah muwah muwah) and after resting for an hour, we went to CentralWorld. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant up at the grocery and I found the rice cracker wrapped in seaweed snack that I'm so fond of (low cal! baked not fried!).

I also had my 1st cup of Haagen Dazs (at 2 scoops each!) Dulce de Leche ice cream at Central World. Prior to that, I had a Blizzard at Dairy Queen while we were at MBK. Speaking of which, I noticed that Thais love spicy food. Maybe to offset the spice, they have ice cream at every corner. They have so many Haagen Dazs, Swensen, Dairy Queen and Baskin and Robbins branches! I just had to taste them all. :)

Since we both lacked sleep, we went back to the hotel at around 8PM. I soaked in the tub for around 15-30 minutes and was asleep by 930PM.