Bangkok 2.0 -part 1

Assalamualaikum...

Sawadikap...^^ Just a quick info, after coming back from Bangkok last year, my cousins were excited when they heard about the journey i had. So, we bought an AirAsia flight ticket during zero fair promotion three months later, and it was for only RM113.20. As I predicted Zue could have a baby after a year, it would be the best time to visit. Hehe...

A day before

I was still at work. In Penang. And my flight would depart tomorrow afternoon from KLIA, Kuala Lumpur. Yeah, kinda hectic as I planned this trip a year before, I didn't even have any job at that time. I've packed all my things last night. Hopefully I got everything with me. During lunch hour, Raiy would send me to bus station. Mind you, I didn't even buy bus ticket yet. But it was not a school holiday season, so I wasn't worried so much.

7 pm, I arrived at KL. Having dinner with my lovely family and watching TV until midnight with Emak. Before I went to bed, I checked my things for the last time, and prepared for tomorrow’s outfit.

Excited. ^^

Well, here we go. Allahumma yassir wala tu’assir.

Day 1 (21 Mac 2012)

This morning, Ayah sent me to Mak Lang’s house to gather with my cousins. Well this time, it would be a four person trip. My cousins; Idahnor, Nina & Aiman, and there was me of course. It was supposed to be 6 persons trip, but the other two cousins, they, suddenly got married...hahaha. As I said, it was a one year in advance planning. Who knows what could happen tomorrow, aite? :P

Few weeks earlier, I started to contact and email Zue, to get itinerary of attractive places in Bangkok. Nina, our ‘trip researcher’ already did the blog-hopping to get interesting tips and review from other travelers/backpacker round the world. I assured, it was gonna be an exciting trip!!

Our flight would depart at 3.35 pm. So, at 12 pm, we made our move to Stesen Sentral, KL Sentral. This is the hub of transportation in Kuala Lumpur and we decided to take shuttle bus to LCCT. But before that, we went to two different currency exchangers. One was located at Level 2, inside Nile Books, and another one was at level 1, near to ERL arrival. We didn’t actually bring all cash money as you can withdraw directly from CIMB Thai provided you have a CIMB account. However, the exchange rate would be different from regular Money Changer.

Afterwards, we went down to LG floor to get our shuttle bus. You can find stairs/escalator to LG nearby the KLIA Transit entrance. Ticket for shuttle bus is between RM8-RM10, depends on service provider. It took about 1 hour 15 minutes to get to LCCT.

Idahnor already checked us in by online last night. So when we arrived, we just dropped our baggage and went to eat. Hehe. After we had a quick meal at Marrybrown, we went through Customs and directly to Musolla to perform jama’ Zuhur & Asar and also solat sunat musafir. Around 3 pm, we moved to waiting lounge after our flight, FD 3524 was announced.

We arrived around 5.30 pm Bangkok time at Suvarnabhumi Airport (read: Suvarnabhum). After finished all check out procedure, we bought sim-card to ease our communication there. Zue had told me beforehand to buy True, but since all my cousins were going for DTAC (Happy), well, I rest my case hehhe. The difference? Actually it is more suitable to choose True for those whose come to Thailand frequently because it is cheaper and has 1 year expiration date without topping up the credit. You can use the same simcard next time you go to Thailand. However, my friend said that the coverage is better within the cities, not at the outskirts.

Buying DTAC sim at the airport

Done with the simcard, we took Airport Rail Link which is SA City Line (Suvarnabhumi Airport City Line) to Ramkhamhaeng Station. The ticket price was 30Baht or RM3. Zue had given a great helped by booking hotel for us in advance. It was the same hotel as my trip last year, Regent Ramkhamhaeng Hotel.

Ouh, speaking of Zue, I have not told you guys yet. Well, it was as I predicted, Zue had given birth to a sweet, healthy baby girl. Cheers!!! Alhamdulillah :D. However, she was not in Bangkok, not even in Thailand during my trip there. She was….well, of course at her home sweet home, Kepong, Malaysia.
Hahahaha. Palm face. But it’s okay. I would just visit Sarah, her baby girl when I got back to KL ;)

So, Zue’s husband, Mohamad picked us up at Ramkhamhaeng station. As expected from a big city, he arrived a little bit late because of the traffic jam, plus, he was working on this day. But we didn’t mind waiting for him…it was not far from Ramkhamhaeng station to our hotel. But the traffic really caught us.

A quick review on our hotel, it is situated at Ramkhamhaeng Soi (street) 22, Bangkapi. We took 2 rooms, Standard Room (800Baht/RM80 per night) for Aiman, and double bed room (1100Baht/RM110 per night) for us girls. This is a Muslim hotel, where all the foods are halal. It is near to mall, convenience store, CIMB Thai atm machine and SA City Line-Ramkhamhaeng Station. You can change to BTS SkyTrain (Sukhumvit Line) by taking this line to Phaya Thai.

After thanking and saying goodbye to Mohamad, we went out for dinner. It wasn’t far, just across our hotel! It was a small halal stall selling all kind of rice/noodles. FYI, you know it is a halal restaurant/stall when they display moon and star sign Z with Quranic verse or ‘Bismillah’ or simply “Halal” sign. However, because most of Thais cannot speak English nor Malay, communication might the only problem in here. Macam ayam bercakap dengan itik! Same goes to this stall. All menus were in Thai languages and we tried our best to order the right food hehe. Luckily there are many Thailand restaurant in Malaysia, so we able to order some of delicate food :D

Idahnor, Nina & Aiman

After two rounds of eating (yes, we were that hungry!) we took a walk along Ramkhamhaeng road. They have street market or uptown every night in here, but unfortunately, they close early around 11pm. Unlike Malaysia where we have uptown up until 3-4 am in the morning! hehehe.. J

 

 

We reached our room around 12am. Cleaned up ourselves and had a good rest. Couldn't wait for more exciting tour tomorrow!!

To be continued...;)