Into the land of Chatuchak and Platinum

When in Bangkok, I recommend you stay at Ds67 Suites, a small boutique hotel with an awesome coffee shop in the lobby. The rooms are well-furnished and affordable, the service is great, and it's about a minute away from the nearest BTS (Phra Khanong) station which makes it easy to go around the city.

For a cheap Php 70, when converted, you'll go gaga over their own special brew of iced coffee. In fact, I'm willing to head to Bangkok again just for another cup of that perfect strong blend!

Of course, Bangkok is a shopping mecca for girls like me who love clothes. Since we were there during the worst part of the red shirts rebellion, most of the malls were closed. We DID get to shop at the famous Jatujak--where they sell everything from puppies to clothes, and spent the whole day just exploring two sois (or streets). They sell really cheap dresses and tops and I went gaga over them. You have to be prepared for the heat, though. It can get hot and humid in there, since it's a dry market with no air-conditioning.

We also went to Siam Paragon and had a blast shopping for books at Kinokuniya. Bookworms will love this place. 

And right across the road from Paragon was an ongoing sale of high-end brands. We only checked it out. The prices were still too steep even at 80% off!

But hands down, my most favorite shopping spot at BKK will always be Platinum. Imagine a huge mall only housing tops, dresses, skirts, you name it, they've got it at affordable prices! I remember only paying Php 200 for tops and dresses. I must have replenished my entire wardrobe when we were there. We went back twice and would have gone every day if it weren't for our scheduled tours.

Which explains why I exceeded my baggage limit on the way home. Totally worth it.

Floating markets, elephant rides, and river Kwai of Thailand

This is actually a long-delayed blog post about our May 2010 trip to Thailand. However, I've been getting a lot of questions from friends who want to visit Thailand apart from the shopping mecca called Bangkok so I promised to share some tips with them. I previously blogged about the temples when there was an Amazing Thailand photo contest on Facebook but forgot to share the rest of our trip.

We were actually lucky to have a very friendly tour guide recommended by our place at DS67 Suites. His name is Poo, and is a taxi driver/tour guide/photographer all-in-one! He took us to all the tourists spots around BKK and even took the time to tour us around the provinces near Bangkok so we'll experience Thailand away from the beaten track. I took the liberty to email DS67 Suites for his latest number and they replied right away! So, next time you find yourself in Bangkok, call Khun Poo at 089-0102120 and I guarantee you'll make the most out of your trip. It's actually cheap to call mobile phones there, just look for a payphone and drop a coin (worth 5 or 10 pesos I think) and you're good to access the number above!

These are just some of the highlights of our trip, since he took us to a lot of places. We went to the Damnoen Saduak floating market 'cause we were inspired by the Canon commercials. Here, the Thai people show their warmth and hospitality and will gamely pose for photos while selling their wares from their small boats. The ride took about an hour or so and we saw the village by the river and the market where everything is sold from tea to dried up snakes. Don't plan on swimming there, though. The river's as filthy as ilog Pasig!

And of course, no trip to Thailand would be complete without meeting some elephants! Poo decided not to take us to the tourist-laden elephant centers near Bangkok. He took us to one where there are more elephants and plenty of jungle room where they can roam around. My sister and I got to ride Sikoo, a young female elephant, around the woods.

I love elephants! Such gentle creatures. The Elephant Village in Muang Sing allows the elephants to roam around unlike the ones near Bangkok where they don't have much space for walking. There was also a pregnant mom when we were there and she was a bit testy, they wouldn't let us near her.

She loved those bananas! :-)

Poo also decided not to take us straight away to the famous river Kwai bridge. He took us to this train station in Kanchanaburi instead which overlooks the river and is a semi-usable train rail going to Nam Tok. Trains pass here twice a day and we were lucky to chance upon it because the view was just unforgettable and no other tourists were around.

This place is actually called the Death Railway because it was built by the Japanese during World War 2 to secretly transfer war supplies from Thailand to Burma and many people died during its construction. 

If you have a fear of heights or doubt your balancing powers, I do not recommend walking along the train tracks. They are not in the best condition and you have to watch out for some cracks. The view was worth it, though. 

If you walk farther along the tracks, there's a cave-like makeshift temple which houses another golden miniature buddha. You have to be there to experience the serenity of the place. It's amazing how this place has been kept under the tourist radar.

Or you can also choose to walk on the tracks all the way to Burma! Kidding.

The famous river kwai bridge actually pales in comparison to the train tracks version. I'd rather go here again and maybe go for the river raft tour, these guys looked like they were having fun!

The Papier Tolé Shop of Intramuros

During the last Holy Week season, I was able to re-visit Intramuros and explore the place from a new perspective. This time, I opted for the typical turista point of view and tried to visit places that would attract a newbie's attention. The Papier Tolé Shop has been on my wish list of places to visit in Intramuros every time I pass by the place since I thought it was a paper and stationery shop--and there's nothing more a girl loves to collect than paper and stationery, right? Since we were waiting for the 6pm Easter mass at San Agustin, we decided to cross the street to finally check out the place.

Now, the only thing I know about the art of paper tolé  is how you cut and glue together a single illustration to make a 3D effect of the whole picture. This used to be a hobby of my tita and we have lots of paper tolé  creations framed around the house. I wasn't expecting though that the Papier Tolé  Shop would be filled with unique souvenir items from all over the world. It was like a treasure chest exploded all over the place!

One of my favorite finds, a secret book within a book! 

The sister was also thoroughly amused and can't get over the Russian dolls she found in one corner.

I also found some amazing or creepy (however you want to look at it) head bells upon further exploration of one shelf. I was itching to buy the Thai buddha bell--I'll definitely buy it if it's still there the next time I visit.

Since all the shelves are overflowing with trinkets, you'll never know what you will find. They don't seem to have a method of categorizing the items and it's actually fun to explore the whole place and find unusual souvenirs. They also display their paper tolé creations, there's an artist on site, and sell them for reasonable prices. I particularly love the one they have of the old Intramuros and some French toy shop window.

And look! Origami dragons! I'm in my dragon obsession phase right now thanks to Game of Thrones and these were so cute when I found them staring up at me from a glass case.

Since they have every space jam-packed with different items, it's also rewarding to check out the top shelves or cabinet tops to see what other items are waiting to be discovered. We spied a dainty woven basket filled with stalks full of pearl flowers resting on top of one of the shelves near the doorway. It looked so pretty from afar.

Here's my sister Bernice posing with the masked dancer who greets every customer by the front door. We're definitely coming back here!

And a sneak peek of my next Intramuros blog post, Barbara's! Since they're all housed in one ancestral Spanish era building, you can spy the patio of Barbara's from the Papier Tolé's window by the stairwell. (They were setting up for a debutante party!) It's also connected to a museum which houses authentic Spanish-era furniture. I remembering going there once when I was in grade school, can't wait to check it out again.

Until we meet again, Intramuros!

Sawasdee Ka! Temples and Buddhas everywhere in Thailand

There's an ongoing Bangkok photo contest on Facebook and I was planning to enter one of my photos but as usual, I was sidetracked by memories of our trip last year. Take me back to the land of shopping, pad Thai, temples, and elephants, please?

And because I never got to blog about our 5 day trip last 2010, here are some pictures from the Land of Smiles! Most our tour was actually all temples, temples, and more temples! We went to Ayutthaya to explore the ancient temples filled with gold statues of Buddha. It was a couple of hours from Bangkok by car. We were sick of temples and Buddhas at the end of the day but it was awesome nonetheless. 

Golden Buddha! There was an ongoing worship going on and about fifty people were chanting, bowing and pulling the HUGE orange cloth around the buddha and around themselves. It was an awesome thing to experience.

Because I have a thing for elephants--here's an offering to buddha. You have to respect these offerings so be careful not to move or touch them.

I'm THIS small standing beside the gold-flecked feet of the reclining buddha.

Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho!

We then went to a complex where there are ancient crumbling temples filled with buddhas. 

I ran up to the top like crazy, and my legs were shaking on my way down that I almost fell twice. My reward, though, was seeing the lone monk manning the place of worship on the top-most part of the dome. People seemed to worship him.

Ancient temples at Ayutthaya.

And yes, the Sleeping Buddha!

And Pou, our tour guide/driver told me these were the oldest buddha statues in Thailand. I swear, Thailand is amazing.