BKK trip + 11 useful BKK tips

I'm 18 and I grew wings. I say that because I finally get to fly with my friends without the "supervision" of my parents.

Flew to Bangkok last Sunday with one of my secondary school friends Xuan. This trip was actually pretty much a what-I-call the 'impulse trip' because I actually posted on Facebook that I wanna travel so much and so the next day, Xuan contacted me to ask where I wanna go. My reply was "BKK. I wanna buy clothes." So, within the next day, we booked our flight with Air Asia without doing any research about BKK/their markets/shopping opening hours because Air Asia had a promotion and a to-and-fro ticket to BKK costs only $140 approx.

We booked a Singapore/BKK flight on Sunday (12 Feb) and BKK/Singapore flight on Wednesday.

We only met up to do the itinerary weeks later. To my horror, I realise those big markets like Jatujak (Chatuchak) and Rot Fat markets are only open from Thurs-Sun. But I was extremely thankful to be lucky that the flight we booked on Sunday (12 Feb) from SG to BKK will touch down @ about 1pm to 2pm. So we managed to squeeze the weekend markets to that Sunday.

Day 1

Before I start talking about anything, let me share with you our itinerary for Day 1.


Itinerary for Day 1

1. Chatuchak (2pm-8.30pm)
2. Artbox (9pm-11pm)
3. Talad Rot Fai (11pm-1am)

Was a little disappointed with the self check-in boarding pass because I was expecting a nicer boarding pass with coloured Air Asia logo LOL.

Thank you passerby for the very nice photo~ :D

On the airplane~

Landed safely~

BTS/MRT map

Token for BTS. Works like our Ezlink card

To Huai Khwang BTS~

Chose CMYK hotel because it's cheap, has good reviews and is only 300m from Huai Khwang BTS, which makes traveling without a cab more convenient

Hotel room has different shades and colours

Off to Chatuchak Market~

Reached~

First local dish we ate. Mango Sticky rice :p

Couldn't control my hunger so I took the picture after having a few mouthful of it XD

Thai ice popsicle to quench thirst on the hot sunny noon

Thai Iced Milk Tea to quench thirst. This is really good, but relatively pricier

Still thirsty afterward. Thai Iced Green Milk Tea

Snack on random street food. Hotdogs.

Very very circular and orange-y sun as we walked to Artbox

Artbox

Blue lemonade to quench thirst. Free of charge refills available to

on the way to Rot Fai market

Randomly ordered their wantonmee just to allow ourselves to sit down on the chair actually  but somehow, it tasted extremely goodddd. 

DAMN TIRED

I think my legs kinda gave up at the BTS

Fashion Parade

Apparently, we didn't exactly follow our initially planned itinerary because somehow we were tired (?). We finished Chatuchak at about 6pm. Then walked to Artbox from Chatuchak which took about 15-20mins. Artbox was actually quite small and not as big as expected. Finished shopping Artbox in about 1 hour. 

Next, Rot Fai was DABOMB!!! Most things they sell there are really nice, cheap and trendy. Furthermore, Rot Fai is very neat in terms of their food and clothing sections. 

If I were to rate the 3 markets, it would be: Rot Fai, Chatuchak and then Artbox. 

Artbox being last because the stuff there are slightly pricier and more limited as it was rather small. I think the number of shops in Artbox is like 1/20 the number of shops in Chatuchak LOL. But Artbox has this area where there's lots of beautiful lights so I think it would be great for people who wants to take instagram-worthy photos~

However, although Rot Fai is the best, please, especially ladies with long hair, remember to tie up your hair/wear a cap if you were to visit Rot Fai at night. Because, for whatever unknown reasons, the Rot Fai's light bulb is filled with this lamp flies (?) at every damn stall. LOL. They just fly everywhere and its irritating and gross tbh.

Spent close to 150SGD on the first day itself buying all the clothes + food & transport. But it was a good buy especially at Rot Fai because a lot of nice clothes were priced at $4. Even more expensive clothes at Rot Fai are usually <$8.

Never miss Rot Fai/Chatuchak weekend markets if you were to visit BKK for shopping purposes. They are the best!!!

Day 2

Itinerary for Day 2

1. On Luk Yun (8am-10am)
2.  Terminal 21 (10am-3.30pm)
3. Union Mall (4pm-5.30pm)
4. Hua mum night market (6pm-12pm)

Above was our initially planned itinerary. However, both my colleague and my cousins told me that Hua Mum night market doesn't seemed to be opened back when they visited it so we decided to not risk the trip to that market. So, below is our edited itinerary. 

1. On Luk Yun (8am-10am)
2.  Terminal 21 (10am-3.30pm)
3. Khao San night market

Had some breakfast that the hotel provided before going to On Luk Yun.

On the way to take a train

After we reached Phrom Phong station, we headed for the taxi because apparently the staff who works at the station told us that On Luk Yun is not even close to the station.

That taxi ride was horror. Firstly, we couldn't communicate properly with the taxi driver. Secondly, we sat in the cab for 20 minutes and yet, he wanted to drop us at a place which wasn't even our destination. I think the reason why he wanted to drop us there was because he heard the word "police" just before that as I was talking to my friend LOL. That makes me wonder if he's really blur about his directions or he just wanna earn more bucks. 

After that we decided to on the GPS and lead him to the right directions. When we reached the place, we couldn't find small notes to pay for the cab fee. So when my friend gave him a 1000THB, he tried to return us 45THB, thinking that we will mistake 1000THB for 100THB. Thankfully we noticed it. :/

Seriously a waste of our time. But that taxi ride led us to a lesson learnt. I will share more later at the 11 useful BKK tips. 

We were really hungry by then. A hungry woman makes an angry woman. Tsk.

Finally reached

There was a queue when we reached

The breakfast was good~

Thank goodness the breakfast was good. If not we would have wasted our time sitting in that cab. I highly recommend this destination for those who want to try their bread and toast! The price is reasonable and their food has this old school taste. The only downside to this place is that it's not close to the BTS/MRT so you might have to take a cab.

After the good breakfast, we decided not to take a cab to Terminal 21 since the taxi driver kinda made us pekchek early in the morning. HAHA. We decided to WALK to terminal 21. Guess what? It's a 10km walk. LOL. But we still decided to make walking our ultimate choice.

While walking, we passed by some very artistic wall and so, our photo shoot begins there xD

Checkpoint 1: SOHO shopping centre

Checkpoint 2: TESCO shopping centre

Although it was a 10km walk, I think it was still worthwhile because we entered many shopping malls which we didn't planned for and bought some useful stuff there.

After like 1hr+, we finally reached Terminal 21!

Terminal 21's toilet was quite kewl because it is themed based on different country.

After a 10km 'road march', we decided to chill @ a café called "Daniel's". The food is actually quite pricy lol. But we decided to splurge since the food looks nice aesthetically and we needed a much needed rest for our legs. 

$13 café food 

My review: The food looks nice but it didn't tasted that nice. xD The cookie was a little too sweet and so was the nutella drink.

Airport themed shopping  mall

After Terminal 21, we headed for KhaoSan night market. According to the internet, Khaosan night market is not near to the BTS but the nearest BTS will be Hua Lamphong station. 

It was about another 4km walk from Hua Lamphong station to Khaosan Night Market. 

Pork Floss that smells really nice, just outside Hua Lamphong station

 Asked the Pork Floss boss for directions to Khaosan Night Market. He was shocked when we said we wanna walk there. XD

After about 45min-1hour, we finally reached...

Pad Thai dinner was great~ 

To be honest, the things Khao San night market sell are pricier than both Chatuchak/Rot Fai and the things they sell there seems different. 

While both Chatuchak/Rot Fai sells cheap and trendy clothings, Khaosan seems to sell those more Thai-styled clothes, mostly tribal design, like the one we wore in the picture below.

Khaosan also sells fake brands items too, from Kanken to more atas brands like Prada/Michael Kors.

Luggage is available too @ Khaosan but it is slightly pricier. Remember to bargain if u want to buy the luggage at Khaosan because they tend to give high initial prices. Although I bargained, I kinda regret buying there because cheaper luggage can be found outside of Khaosan, such as Pratunum. So if you are thinking of getting a luggage too, try not to get it at Khaosan. I learnt my lesson.

Every night, we will have 'fashion parade' at the hotel because every single day, we never fail to buy at least one clothing.

Day 3

Our last night in BKK

Itinerary for Day 3

1. Pratunum morning market (5am-9am)
2. Platinum Fashion Mall 
3. After You dessert café
4. Pratunum night market

Pratunum morning market

In my opinion, Pratunum morning market do have cheap simple tees and clothings but most of the shop's clothings are more old-fashioned compared to Chatuchak/Rot Fai. 

As we walked, we came by this air-conditioned 'mall' which sells clothings at Wholesale prices. I think its called Pratunum wholesale market. Actually, without wholesale prices, their skinny jeans would have already been considered cheap because of the good quality -- $12 without wholesale price. However, if you purchase 3 pieces and up, they will sell you their skinny jeans, each @ $10 only. So I bought 2 while my friend bought 1. The only downside is that you are not allowed to try on their jeans. But I think its okay to buy the jeans and try it in the toilet nearby. And if it doesn't fit, you can do a size-exchange with them. :)

Platinum fashion mall

Clothes in Platinum fashion mall are definitely pricier than any of the markets that we went to. We didn't buy any clothing there but brought some really cute stickers at post-it notes which costs <$2 each.

Tea Break

Went to After You Dessert Café afterwards. I realised everywhere we go, there will be at least one Singaporean. How we know? It's through the Singaporean Accent ;)

Shibuya Matcha Toast. Costs $10. Not exactly very cheap but it was quite nice :)

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to drop our stuff first because it was really too heavy. Both our backs and legs almost cannot take it anymore.

Then went back to Pratunum to have our dinner and continue our shopping.

Dinner

But we wasn't really sure the night market we went in Pratunum was the right one... It was actually quite small and all I bought was a sling bag? When we researched on the net, apparently there is one newly open night market in Pratunum as well, called Talad Neon. But sadly, it was a Tuesday that day and Talad neon closes on both Monday and Tuesday. We had to give that a miss.

Went to Big C supermarket to buy some food souvenirs instead.

Big C supermarket is really big and if you're looking for Thai snacks/food products, be sure to visit this supermarket!!

Day 3 Fashion Parade~

My luggage was so full that I almost can't fit in everything. Had to squeeze and open the luggage compressor zip.

Itinerary for Day 4

1. True Love café 

Trué Love café is actually a Husky café where you get to interact close up with the huskies. Entrance is 350Baht ($14SGD approx) where you get one free drink and one free cake. 

It was our only itinerary for the day because we had to reach airport by 4pm.

The huskies are all really cute!!!

Momo is the in-charge there

After the husky café, we took a TukTuk to Chatuchak park so that we can take bus #A1 back to Don Mueang airport. Tuktuk fare costs 150Baht ($6 SGD approx)

But again, due to language barrier, we were dropped off at some random place. Sighpie. I kinda gave up on trying to communicate with the drivers. We decided to walk from there.

There were only few stalls opened that afternoon @ Chatuchak. Thankfully there was a street food stall opened cuz we were really hungry already.

Had their omelette fried rice :)

Headed for the airport afterwards. We only bought 10kg baggage weight each. Our combined baggage weight was initially 23kg!! OVERWEIGHT.

Had to take out 4kg worth of rice milk soap + jeans from the check-in baggage and hand carry it on board. FINALLY 18.5KG~ Glad we maximised the best out of the available weight given to us.

2 people, many bags

GOODBYE BKK~ It was a great trip with many many shopping and buys!! I really like most of the clothes I bought and I'll be sure to visit BKK for cheap loots again!! :D As of now, I'll be back to work life till I earn enough money. Currently planning for Korea trip in July maybe? :)

Before I end my blog, I think I learnt quite a few BKK lessons from this trip. So I might as well share some BKK tips here now :)

CLICK NEXT BELOW FOR TIPS

BKK TIP #1

Book a Thursday morning flight to BKK & Monday flight back

The best flight to book for BKK if you're there to shop is Thursday morning. Most of the night markets are opened on all days except mondays. As for the bigger markets like Chatuchak and Rot Fai, they are open from only Thursdays-Sunday. In fact, Monday is the least shopping-in-market day in BKK because most of the markets will be closed. So a Monday flight back will be great because you get to spend all 4 days (Thurs-Sun) at different markets in BKK.

BKK TIP #2

Always have 1 person on the GPS and sit next to the damn driver

One problem Singaporeans will face in BKK is language barrier. Most cab drivers can understand very limited english words. Thus, most of the time, you will need to use actions to communicate with them. Another problem is that although you might have already showed them the Thai address that you're going to visit, they might still get their directions wrong, be it on purpose (to earn more money) or cuz they're not very sure of their directions. At least with the GPS, you are able to track whether their general direction is right. 3 important words to learn in Thai when taking a cab -- Thom-Pai, Liu-Hua, Liu-Sai.

Thom-Pai: Go straight

Liu-Hua: Turn Right

Liu-Sai: Turn left

We learnt this from one of the nicer drivers we met in this trip hehe. :D

BKK TIP #3

Request for the cab driver to on taxi-meter 

Some of the taxi drivers may discuss with you about the cab fee before you even board his cab. Just tell them you want the meter to be on because the discussed price they state may be higher than what's shown on the taxi-meter.

BKK TIP #4

Take budget airlines and book early to save $$$

You don't need SQ excellent service for a 2 hours flight because before you can even fall into deep sleep, you'd have already reached BKK's airport. Book about 1 and a half months earlier to enjoy early bird promotion. As for us, we booked around 2 months in advanced so our to-and-fro trip to Bangkok costs only $140. As for insurance, you can get the premium one from NTUC Income @ only $9.10

BKK TIP #5

Choose a budget hotel with good review and near BTS/MRT

Budget hotel because BKK does have budget hotel with pretty good service. Furthermore, their budget hotel is not expensive so you can spend additional money @ night markets! Choose one near the BTS because i'm sure if you're a crazy shopper, you wouldn't want to carry heavy bags back to the hotel if you're not taking the cab to avoid jams. 

The one we stayed in was CMYK @ Ratchada. It was a pretty good hotel in terms of cleanliness and pricing. $64 for 3 nights, inclusive of breakfast. Breakfast provided is not exactly sumptuous but it's reasonable considering the cheap hotel price. Furthermore, it's only a 0.3km walk from Huai Khwang BTS and about 100m walk to the nearby 7-11 convenient stall. 

BKK TIP #6

Don't bring too many clothes to change 

Traveling to BKK is exceptional because even a 4 days stay doesn't require you to bring 3 days worth of clothes to change. All you need is to wear one set on the day you fly to BKK and bring a set of sleeping clothes. You can buy the remaining days worth of TRENDY clothes at any night markets @ cheap prices, as cheap as $4.

For me, that's exactly what happened. The only set of clothes that I wore from home was the first day when I fly to BKK. My clothings for the other 3 days were all bought from the night markets.

BKK TIP #7

Don't buy a luggage specially for the trip if you need one

The night markets in BKK do sell cheap luggages at good quality. Hard covered luggage @ as low as $30 with nice colours somemore. Just bring handcarry bag to BKK will do because I'm pretty sure your handcarry bag wouldn't be heavy with just one set of sleeping clothes and other necessities ;)

Or if you're just lazy to bring a luggage to BKK to hold your loots, you can always buy those 中国大陆包. They even have those with wheels just like luggage @ only 399THB ($16.20 SGD approx)

Cr: google

BKK TIP #8

Exchange for more Thai Baht if you're there for shopping loots

Exchange rate in Singapore -- 1SGD = 24.6THB

Exchange rate in BKK -- 1SGD = 24.1THB

This exchange rate is based on the days I were in BKK (12-15Feb)

As you can see, its much more worth it if you exchange in SG. It's okay to change more and have remaining money back because I'm sure you'll visit this fashion city again.

As for me, I wanted to exchange only $400. But I found some extra THB at home so I brought extra 4000THB there. I'm thankful I brought extra because my friend had to exchange for some THB which would have been less worth it if she were to exchange there.

I spent a total of about $500 there on clothings, soap, luggage, bags, food, transport and souvenirs. Inclusive of air tickets, insurance and hotel accommodation, I spent a total of $700 approx for a 4Days 3Nights in BKK.

BKK TIP #9

Try their street food

My friend and I tried both restaurant food and street food. Although restaurant food isn't very expensive either, we can firmly say street food is cheaper and nicer. Eat as you walk. And be sure to try their Mango sticky rice and Iced Thai Milk Tea!!

BKK TIP #10

Buy in bulk and bargain

If you're buying souvenirs for your friends/colleagues, be sure to buy in bulk because they will give more discounts when you bargain. I'm sure if your bargain is reasonable, the transaction will succeed and you'll get what you want at the end of the day :)

BKK TIP #11

Bring some salty Thai snacks along when café hopping

Why do I say this? Too much sweet stuff can get sickening. But if you bring some salty snacks along, your sweet tooth will be activated and you'll enjoy your sweet desserts more ;)

Buy snacks at Big C shopping mall because its one of the biggest marts which sells a lot of Thai snack which are really nice!!

Hope you have learnt some tips here and be sure to visit BKK some day! :)