Day 3 was prolly the most dramatic day ever, in Bangkok. For the past few days, my family has been exploring the places around hotel by foot. In order to get them travel in comfort, I came up with the idea on getting a full-day taxi ride for us. To get started, we approached our hotel receptionist to book a MPV for us.
- For a cab till 4PM, it'll cost you 1,300 THB (approx. S$55)
- Anytime after 4PM, it'll cost you 2,000 THB (approx. S$80)
On first thought, we felt it was quite a good deal. A whole day cab till 10PM only cost you S$16/pax, relatively worthy compared to a MPV from my house to Changi Airport (S$55 + S$12 surcharge). However, all good things would have to come to an end. Ours came pretty quickly.
Upon arrival, the taxi driver introduced us to one of the workers at the Oriental Pier. He told my family that each person needs to pay 800 THB (S$32) just to board the boat to Wat Arun. We were all shocked, as it didn't dawn on us that it would be THAT expensive to just get a boat to our destination. Rejecting the offer wasn't the first option in our mind, hence we agreed and paid the said amount.
We waited for about 15 minutes for the boat's arrival. More and more tourists came to the pier, so we thought this should be a legit boat ride. Maybe we're just expecting way too low for the boat fees.
It seems like there were some sort of a "boat tour" as we were made to wait for very long time, travelling to places we didn't know. Wat Arun should be very near us, but we took way more than the expected travelling timing to reach our destination. We had to wait for some gate to open, then went along those kampong houses and back to the main river again. Our faces and arms were already quite wet with the boat travelling at such fast speed and the water splashing us.
The ride made everyone of us very pissed off already, as we've no idea where are we heading to. We asked the people behind us, and this couple said they paid only 650 THB per person! At this moment, we knew we got hacked already.
After 30 minutes or so, we FINALLY arrived at Wat Arun. HOWEVER, we were told to pay 30 THB. It was quite ridiculous; we weren't told to pay upon reaching, and why are we even paying that 30 THB? It was for this lady which wasn't even on our boat ride. For 5 of us, we paid 30 THB but for those behind us (4 of them), they also paid 30 THB! If we've known earlier, 9 of us could've paid 30 THB too. Apart from the 30 THB, we also have to pay another fee for the entry ticket! That's pretty lame. Did I also mention that those locals were not even helpful in getting us off the boat?
The person in charge also told us that we only have 15 minutes to tour around Wat Arun?! How is 15 minutes even enough? Furthermore, Wat Arun is under renovation. That made everything REALLY NOT WORTH IT.
When waiting for our boat to return, a guy working at the pier told us that for a solo traveler, you'll need to pay 800 THB, but for ONE HOUR. However, if you travel in a group of 4-6 people, it will be 350 THB PER PERSON. This means that we've paid more than double the price for each pax! TOTAL RIP OFF.
That guy also told us not to take tuktuk or taxis, as they often charge way much higher so that they could cover their meals and petrol, as well as part of their commission. I mean, we wouldn't mind paying but we weren't told of any of these?
It was also until we reached the Wat Arun pier then we realized that our boat trips include the Khlong Boat River tour, which was why we took so long to reach Wat Arun and visited the totally not famous "floating market". What a waste of everyone's time!
After that horrible first stop, we marked it as the last stop for the day. Who knew if our taxi driver will continue to bring us to funny places and charge us very high rate? Thank goodness we've yet to pay our driver, we told him to send us to the nearest BTS, and he can go back from there. Surprised yet disappointed, he offered us 500 THB for the trip from our hotel to the pier for the 5 of us.
Since we barely did anything for that day, we took the BTS back to Siam and started shopping around the vicinity.
What I suggest:
Travelling around Bangkok by BTS is very convenient and cheap, so don't hesitate to take public transport instead of tuktuk and taxis! You wouldn't want to pay unreasonable prices to these dishonest people.
If you're staying around the Platinum Mall area, take Bus No. 2 from the bus stop in front of Grand Diamond Plaza.
What I suggest:
Travelling around Bangkok by BTS is very convenient and cheap, so don't hesitate to take public transport instead of tuktuk and taxis! You wouldn't want to pay unreasonable prices to these dishonest people.
If you're staying around the Platinum Mall area, take Bus No. 2 from the bus stop in front of Grand Diamond Plaza.
Siam is quite a popular place to the students, as there are cafes and malls everywhere. At a certain part of Siam, we noticed many students hanging out! Those small alleys with shops are quite similar to Bali Lane/Haji Lane, pretty chill.
As you can see from the map, there were sooo many alleys to walk about, my sister and I decided to take a break and have a good foot massage. I randomly googled for 'foot massage bangkok' and Ladyironchef's webpage popped up on the search list! Considering myself lucky, I found one massage parlor just right in front of us - Chang Foot Massage.
Chang Foot Massage offers quite basic services. For a 1-hr foot/shoulder massage, it'll be 300 THB (S$12). The same massage parlor can be found at BKK Airport as well. However, prices will increase a lot. It'll cost you 500 THB and even 700 THB for the same 1-hr foot massage service by Chang!
Anyhow, the massage was so good, I fell asleep throughout the whole treatment. Not forgetting to mention, there were a lot of people coming in 10 minutes after we were served (around 430PM). The patrons were all tourists, just like us!
Siam has got many shopping malls around the BTS - Siam Paragon and Siam Center. Both malls cater to foreigners best as they carry a lot of international brands such as Sephora and Forever 21 (aka XXI Forever). They're both linked, so don't worry about rainy days. As for me, I loved Siam Paragon the most. That's also where you can find the famous After You! I went the mall for two days, and there were long queues on both days.
We also shopped at Central World. Inside Central World, expect to find those international brands again, and also ISETAN. We're lucky to have visited the TGIF Market on both days! It's pretty much similar to *Scape Flea Market but it's slightly more of the 'local designer' feel, with very good quality products!
(Pssst, their stalls are all so pretty!)
One section sells apparels, while the other section sells food. They all looked very delicious, just too bad I either have had my dinner already or I was about to have my dinner, hence I didn't try any street stalls :(
Would love to come back again and hopefully the TGIF Market will be held during my stay!
x.