Thailand, the Land of Smiles

5 of my officemates and I went to Thailand over the weekend. The original plan was for Boracay. But it was already starting to rain a lot since we were entering the rainy season, so we changed it to Hong Kong. But a lot of people say that there's not much to see there except for Disneyland, so we opted to go to Thailand instead.

Day 1. Our scheduled flight to Thailand was moved from 10:35am to 11:50am. We only knew about it when we checked their site and confirmed it on the phone. Haaay! PAL (Plane Always Late) talaga. If we haven't confirmed the flight schedule we would be waiting in the airport for 5 hours. Anyway, we still met early at Terminal 2, PAL's the new terminal, just to be sure we're on time. We planned to meet at 8:00am, but I arrived in the airport around 7:30. No traffic. From Ortigas to the airport, it took only about 20 minutes. :) One by one, people arrived in the airport. When we were complete, we checked in and went inside to wait for our flight. To pass the time, we ate our brunch and played the card game Lizzie brought. Soon, we were on our way to the land of smiles. :D

Trivia: Did you know why Thailand is called the Land of Smiles? It's because when you talk to them, they always answer you back with a smile. Our tour guide told us that even if they don't know what we mean because of the language barrier, they would just answer with a smile. Thus, Thailand is called the Land of Smiles. Hehehe! :D

After 3 hours, touchdown! We were in Thailand. A driver picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at our hotel. As soon as we checked in and unpacked a little, we went for a walk around Bangkok. We went to The Platinum Fashion Mall, World Trade Center and Siam Paragon. We saw a baby elephant along the way. Very cute! :D Around 6:30pm, we took the train (similar to our MRT) to go to the resto where we were supposed to meet my brother for dinner. We ate at Curries & More, a fine dining Thai restaurant. My brother treated us to dinner. Thanks, Wewe! :D I highly recommend the soft shell crab. Yummy! :d

Day 2. It was an early day for all of us. We were going to Ayutthaya (Thailand's 2nd capital) to tour the place. Our pick-up time was 7:00am, so we had our breakfast at 6:00am at the Sky Lounge (complimentary at the Baiyoke Suite Hotel). We finished early so we thought we had enough time to freshen up and brush our teeth before leaving. But we thought wrong. We got stuck in the elevator for about 15 minutes. The elevator door closed but it never left the 43rd floor. We thought our tour guide would leave us. It's a good thing that he was also a bit late. Apparently, he looked for us at the wrong hotel. He went to Baiyoke Sky instead of Baiyoke Suite. While we were stuck inside the elevator, we used the emergency phone to call for help. Someone said that an engineer will come to open the door, but 15 minutes had passed but nobody still came. We became desperate because we thought our guide might leave us. Liz sang the tune of Superman and Barry decided to force open the elevator door. Hehehe! Barry, as Superman. :)) We were able to get out and took a different elevator. Soon we met our tour guide for the day and left for Ayutthaya.

Our first stop was the Summer Palace (Bang Pa-In Palace). We were only allowed to go around the area, not inside the residences, but we still enjoyed the scenery and took lots of pictures. Next were the different temples and ruins in Ayutthaya. It has been a tiring day because of all the walking, plus the very hot and humid weather. But we enjoyed every place we went to. :) Before going back to Bangkok, we were asked if we wanted to ride the elephant. Just for the experience, we agreed to do so. After all, when are we ever going to have this opportunity again? :D When we got back to Bangkok, our last stop for the day was the Gem Stone Factory where jewelries made from different stones (mostly rubies) were made. Pearl and I got ourselves some nice rings. :D We were done by 4pm. So we decided to do our souvenir shopping at MBK before having dinner. The MBK Mall was a lot like Greenhills Shopping Center. One area was full of 'tiangge' type stalls where you can bargain for items you want to buy.

Day 3. On our third day, we went to The Grand Palace. Inside the palace, you will also find the famous Emerald Buddha. Actually, the Buddha is not made from emerald. It is really made from jade. Maybe, they should rename it to The Jade Buddha. Just a thought... ;) The Grand Palace is REALLY beautiful. Every building is either made of gold or some colored stones strategically placed and designed on each architectured structure. Very, very beautiful. I can't describe in words how beautiful it is inside. Just check out our pictures, but I think it still doesn't capture everything. I wonder how it feels like to live inside a palace.

After the tour to The Grand Palace was the city tour that came together with our hotel and plane package. Since we went to The Grand Palace first and have been to temples the previous day, the temples we went to which were included in our city tour didn't seem to appeal to us that much anymore. But it was still great to see the 2 biggest Buddha's in Bangkok, the leaning Buddha and the standing Buddha. After the city tour, we went to the Gem Store Factory again. I was told that it was really part of the tour and we can't skip it because the agency gets a commission if we bought something. So we had to go in again, watch the short film and check out the jewelries inside. I didn't buy a jewelry, but I did buy a stingray wallet. Hehehe! :D After our the last stop of our city tour, we went to The Platinum Fashion Mall for our last shopping before heading back to the hotel. We still had one agenda before we end our trip. We were going to watch a Cabaret show that evening where the performers were gay men who looked like real ladies.

While waiting for our driver to pick us up, we played a game that Lizzie brought which is like Win, Lose or Draw. Pearl, the best pa rin talaga yung drawing mo. Hehehe! :D 9pm was our pick-up time, and the show we were going to watch starts at 10pm. It was about 20 minutes to our destination, so we still had to wait a while. We had great seats for the show. It was a good thing, our guide, Wida, had great connections and was able to get us good seats. Hehehe! :D Those guys, or should I say gays, really look like women. And some are really beautiful. Just don't make them talk because that will give them away. It was a great experience to see a show like that. Just ask Barry. ;)

Day 4. Our last day in Bangkok. We just spent the day packing and getting lots of sleep. We didn't have to wake up as early as day 2 and 3 because our pick up time for the airport was still 11am. So we took our time getting ready then had breakfast around 9am. We checked out of the hotel then headed for the airport. Our flight back home was on time, thank goodness. It was a really tiring but well worth it weekend. It was a good thing that I still had a vacation from my vacation. So I still had time to rest before going back to work. :D

Check out our pictures in this site.