Sunday, December 17, 2006
Wah... i so long never post, no wonder people complain
I just realised, this is my first post this month, actually there were a few more post which i didn't complete or i censored it off because its too nerdy, so it never made it to public. can't be helped though, spent the bulk of the last month mugging for exams and trying to pull of some miracles, which didn't happen (actually, i did manage to pull up my grades overall, but not as much as i thought i could). perhaps, its time to accept i am a has been. i may be still good, but not as good as i was before.
over the course of last week, i was in bangkok... here's the planned trip before we set off.
Stimulation of Bangkok trip
Day 1: Arrival at / Suvarnahumi Airport at 9:30am (GMT + 7:00)
Not sure of both the arrival time and the airport. There is train at Don Huang Airport direct to Ayutthaya, if not, we will take a cab from the airport into Bangkok City Area. Hua Lamphong Train Station. From there, it is another 90minutes journey into Ayutthaya.
Upon arrival, first thing to do is to check into the hotel and grab some lunch (expecting to reach Ayutthaya lastest by 1pm). From then on, there are a few things to do. a) rent a bike round the place to explore its ruins (quite a lot), b)Dig out the best elephant rider stall. (there are some in the heart of the city but they go mundane route, there are some which offer baby elephants… NO… we want the want that gives up the best and I had no idea where there is, so we have to explore. c) we are in luck. Dec 13,1991 marks the day where Ayutthaya is being designated as a World Heritage Site by UNSECO. Basically there will be quite some ongoing activities. So, yes, we shall stay there for a night.
Day 2: Ayutthaya-- Bangkok
Depending on the time we have, the next day we either continue with exploration or just do some souvenir shopping. Will leave Ayutthaya for our “main course”—Bangkok latest by afternoon.
Don’t really think we can achieve much by then, so the best we can do is some shopping for the time being. For a start, we will explore Chi Lom/ Sala Daeng Area and we will end off with some a trip to Patpong--- bangkok’s sin city with transversite and whatever you name it. Of course, if we do reach early, we can consider going to Chinatown.
Day 3: Bangkok
Being the day with a trip to Lumphini Park for a boat ride in the lake. Not too long, as the main itinery of the day is shopping in MBK and Siam center. Once we are done with that, we’ll go Suan Lum Night Bazaar, and if our budget allows—puppet show… if not… a taste of thai movie… the one where everyone stands to the national anthemn
Day 4: Bangkok
River trail day… Spend the day going up and down the chao praya river coast. I haven’t really thought of the order yet as there are a lot of things to be done at the river. Not sure, if we can complete it in one day. Morning, we will visit the 2 palace--- grand palace and vimanek palace. There is also shopping at Thanon Khao Sen. We should also stop by the west coast—Thonburi and Nonthaburi for a while for the suburban lifestyle of Bangkok.
Day 5: Bangkok- Sg
Day 5 is basically shopping. we’ll visit only 2 place. Chatuchat and Pratunam.
in reality:
Day 1: Arrive at airport at 10:30, and took cab to the train station. had lunch at the train station. travelled to ayutthaya. didn't rent bike as the bike ain't bicycle but motor bike. ride elephant on that day itself, and do night shopping at the bazaar. had dinner at roadside stalls and a wimp taste of extreme gourmet: mealworms... other creepy crawler were out of the equation (yes, that is how nerdy i have evolved over the year, instead of saying out of the question, i say out of the equation)
Day 2: Mortal Kombat scene hunting in Ayutthaya. Then check out and leave for Bangkok. Upon reaching the hotel, we shopped around pratunam area. (realise the difference from the original plan?)
Day 3: Lumphini Park in the morning, MBK, Siam Centre in the afternoon followed by night movie. (still pretty much the same as the original plan, surprisingly).
Day 4: The plan was changed to 2 river ride which was reduced to 1 on that day itself, still very sure that i got cheated by the hotel staff. I EXPLICITLY SAW TOURISTS in the canal boat that day. Anyway, the plan b back then was to take the canal boat to bobae market and visit wat ratchatnam and take a sky view of the bangkok from the wat, go khao sen too see its hyped, take river boat ride back to sala daeng area and visit patpong night market.
what happen on that day is this: visit khaosen (scrap the river ride). take river ride to Nonthaburi (by mistake) take river boat back to Saphak Thasin and to Sala Daeng, and visit the Patpong district.
Day 5: Chatuchak and Pratunam (as planned).
For some reason, many things came to mind when i see the planned and the actual. geez, too much of school work, and too much diversity in subject. There is a layman work to look at actual vs plan. there is also economics perspective and accounting perspective. how academic can i get? well, very. especially after i look through the unposted entry i have. in short, looking at the 2 plan, a)not bad, managed to stick to plan, at least for the bulk of it. b)ad-hoc decisions are important too... (which many people don't get it, there is no such thing as failure to plan early=plan to fail.) That is the ego tripping part, did some thinking on the whole trip. of course, i won't give myself too high a rating. this is my 2nd trip, i expect things differently for myself, which is in contrast to what my travel mates wants (and of course, further aggravated by gender differences). when i first plan this, i didn't look at things from their perspective enough, ie, i didn't try to remember how i was like during my first trip. and of course, i can be accused of hypocriscy, cos being the master mind of the original plan, i didn't know the ground enough. didn't know the location of the ayutthaya hotel, didn't realli know how to get from one place to another or where is exactly is the next destination. in terms of personality management, i was surprisingly weak.
in all, did a weak post of the "management" perspective of the trip. will post more crap... speaking of which, for some reason, i realise i am indeed schizo. i can never seem to be able to translate my crapping prowess online. damn.
posted @ 3:58 PM ||
