chatuchak

friday around 5 pm, i had the last of my scheduled appointments. since i decided to stay for another night in bangkok, my flight to manila was on a sunday morning. saturday morning, had my fill of the wonderful breakfast at centre point, packed my things and checked out. i hopped on a taxi to go to soi kasemsan 1, where i'd stay for a night. i chose the 450 baht per night white lodge, because the rest of my bahts should go to shopping in chatuchak and the night bazaar in siam center.

saturday morning and yet the traffic in ploenchit road seemed like another rush hour traffic. if not for my luggage, i could've taken the BTS to go to siam. when i got to white lodge, i didn't have enough money to pay the lady, so i told her that i'll pay her the night's cost when i come back from chatuchak. good thing, i didn't pay her yet because room 202 was not yet fixed when i came. no bed covers, pillows are nowhere to be found, no clean towels, bathroom had no tissue, unemptied ash tray, and so on. but i didn't bother asking the lady. i needed to go shopping.

i had a quick lunch of thai bagoong rice at siam paragon, had more pesos changed to baht and headed to BTS siam station to go to mo chit, where chatuchak market is located. it was raining pretty hard all afternoon, so the roads between pavilions in chatuchak looked like rice paddies... similar to what you'd expect in manila bangketas when it rains. even in some portions, wooden planks would be needed if you don't want your feet to be drenched in mud-colored water. chatuchak weekend market is a huge one - lots of people, tourists and locals alike. i noticed that most of the locals were of the younger crowd, looking for k-pop inspired apparel. i was prepared to get lost in that 35 acre - 5,000 stall market, so i walked, stopped to look, bought some, walked, and walked some more. with roselle juice in hand, i was able to find some nice t-shirts and some christmas presents. although i failed to get a nice pair of sneakers and opted not to buy any jeans, i was able to buy ate rose and ate she a pair of earrings - 22k and i got 40% discount! thanks to a trio of pinays who were already buying when i got to that stall. they told the chinese-thai owner to give me the same discount she gave them. and i got it. too bad, i run out of enough baht to get ate rose another necklace. after an almost 5-hour non-stop walking, my lower back showed its age. i needed to sit so i had an early dinner of thai fried rice, plus a very nice longgan juice!

off i went to BTS station to go back to siam. i bought some more street food for snacks and i went back to white lodge. to my surprise, my room was already fixed, had two clean towels, bed was kept, bathroom already had tissue roll and two bars of soap. but the unemptied ash tray was still there. oh well, not much to expect from a cheap hostel.

after an hour of rest, i went out again. this time to check out MBK, siam paragon and the rest of the adjoining malls in siam center. of course, i didn't get any because i can find those in manila. what i got was a nice black hoodie, worth 150 baht, somewhere in the bangketas of siam center. around 11 pm, i walked back to white lodge. night bazaar was already winding down but traffic was still the same.

what a week in bangkok! i'd definitely come back, hopefully with my sisters. food is great. shopping is nice. lots of cheap thrills. nice people. lots of surprises. khorb khun!