What was the agenda when you booked that flight to BKK? Shopping? That is what you will get for a 3D2N trip, lots of shopping and we didn’t stay over the weekend for the most famous Chatuchak Market.
We took the earliest flight out, 640am, reaching BKK around 8am local time (flight was abt 2hrs long). And to maximise the shopping experience or like most ‘kiasu’ Singaporeans, we booked the last flight home.
I don’t usually book a nice hotel, my plans in all the trips is not to spend time in the hotel, but to utilise every moment in the streets, doing whatever we want to do. But this trip really changed my perspective. We booked a room at Amari Watergate Bangkok through hotel.com and totally enjoyed the stay. The place was clean and pretty spacious, more importantly it was near to the best shopping mall in BKK.
Here is my suggested shopping itinerary:
Day 1
First thing first, change your Baht here at the Suvarnabhumi Airport. The rate is the best at the airport than anywhere else in Bangkok. For us, 100B = S$4.20.
Secondly, if you are traveller like me, leaving kids at home, you may want to purchase the pre-paid sim card at the airport too. Only 350B (abt S$14), you will be able to check in on your kids at home everyday. At least you won’t feel so guilty when you shopped all day and nearly forgot you still have 2 girls at home waiting. This helps to save a lot on our data roaming charges too, just use the wireless internet available at the hotel to download whatever emails, tweets, BBM, etc.
Thirdly, since we took the earliest flight into BKK, we have to wait for a few hours before check-in time. So we took a taxi ride to Lin & Sons Jewellers. This is a place in Bangkok not known to many tourists, in fact for the past 2 trips, we have been faithfully going back to this place to purchase some cheap and good silver products or shop for some nice accessories. Though it may be slightly out of the way from most big hotels or shopping malls, this is definitely a special place I would recommend. Check out their website, you can pre-order some items before you visit them, so then you can collect once you are there. In fact, rumour is if you can produce the design (from any brand), they can produce the product. Give it a try.
After our check-in to the hotel, rest if you want, but for us, time is money, time is shopping! First stop is the best shopping mall in Bangkok. You can find everything in this mall. The Platinum Fashion Mall is a huge, in-door market made up of various clothing and shoe stalls selling almost every imaginable fashion accessory from underwear, maternity wear and winter clothing. It’s a 15min walk from Chidlom Station.
Clothes
Shoes
Bags
Cosmetics
After a gruelling 4hrs of shopping, damage done, time to just cross the road back to our nice hotel room for a rest before we head out for round 2, night market.
Most of the cab rides should be within 100-120B, basically you can budget about S$5 for each trip. Remember to request the cab drivers to go by meter, only by tuk tuk, fare has to be agreed before the trip.
Thanon Khao San Market, this is a famous backpackers area filled with wall to wall guesthouses. So it’s a good place to find a chill out bar for a drink and relaxation.
One thing you CANNOT miss here is the famous Phat Thai (a stir-fried rice noodles with eggs, chilli, etc).
Before you wander through the streets and shop again, why not stop for a foot massage. Be nice to your feet! Anyway it’s only 100B for 30mins.
As you can see from my post, we didn’t buy much here, it was purely a night to soak in the fun and relax. Isn’t that what we want a holiday for? =)
More food? If you dare…
After a long day, it’s time to head back for sleep.
Check out Day 2…
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