THE G-SPOT (Got to visit Spots): Thailand Version

When I opened the Yahoo webpage, I saw one of the headlines of Yahoo news about the top tourist spots in the world. I clicked on the link and to my surprise, the number one spot didn’t belong to Paris (totally, my dream place to visit!) or even New York (In New Yooooork! Concrete jungles where dreams are made of…).

  

The top tourist spot in the world belongs to…. *drum roll* THAILAND!!!

But when I think about it, it is not impossible for Thailand to grab the top spot.

FIRST PROOF! I have been there twice. Why would I even waste my money to visit a country twice, right? It’s because I just couldn’t get enough of Thailand and everything about it! 

Night life in Thailand

SECOND PROOF! It’s cheaper to go here than to other countries. Flights from Manila to Thailand are way cheaper than a trip to Japan or Australia, especially during seat sales (watch out for Cebu Pacific seat sales!).

The food is also incredibly cheap! Imagine, we are four in the family and we only spend around 300 Baht for lunch and another 300 for dinner. And di namin tinipid ang aming sarili ha!  We are already so full with that value of meals. We already have our Phad Thai (the famous pansit  of Thailand), Thai Iced tea (it’s color orange and perfect to quench your thirst), and green curry with rice! Their food court is an experience in itself. Have you ever seen a food court that uses prepaid cards to pay their food instead of money? It’s really amazing I swear! Before you can order your food, you would have to go to the reloading stations and get a card in exchange for your cash. For example, in exchange for your 100 Baht, you’ll get a card with a 100 Baht load. Then you go to the station where you want to order your food and hand them the prepaid card. Don’t worry if you don’t finish all the credit, you just have to keep the card and you can use it again next time to buy your food. THAT’S WHAT I CALL TECHNOLOGY!

Enjoying the Thai Iced Tea while shopping

The Prepaid Cafeteria

Yum yum!

More food!!

If you are a risk taker when it comes to food, they sell fried crickets, grasshoppers, and other insects in the side streets and you can buy it for only 10 Baht. Tried it for myself and it is like what people say; it tastes like chicken.

Enjoying my edible friends

The fruits are also cheaper! This is the reason why my mom agreed to spend for this trip. She is a fruitaholic (if there is such a thing). We pass by every stall of Durian sellers and she would eat it while walking. Even though I hate Durian, I ended up eating Durian with her while walking the streets of Bangkok. It is creamy and flavorful! Just don't mind the its strong smell.

Besides food, Thailand is also famous for their massage. Here in the Philippines, this would cost around 1000-3000 pesos. But in Thailand, it just cost around 150 Baht or 225 pesos. You can find them along the streets of Pratunam. It is my first time to experience a full body massage. They will put you in a more comfortable, costume type of outfit before the massage begins. Afterwards, I feel rejuvenated and energized to walk the streets of Bangkok again.

The Thai massage outfit

Need I mention the hotels? The hotels also come in cheap prices without sacrificing the quality of the room. The rooms are clean, big, and some of them already come with free breakfast. We actually reserved our rooms via internet. If you are kind of iffy (in doubt) about reserving via internet, I’m here to tell you that you have nothing to worry about! It’s actually easier (and cheaper than walk-ins) and you can customize it if you want to avail of the breakfast, be fetched in the airport, or give you a ride back to the airport. Since we can’t decide whether to get an expensive or cheap hotel, we ended up spending two nights in a cheap hotel and spending the other two in a more expensive one.

Our first hotel was My Hotel in Pratunam. Even though this was cheaper than other hotels, the services and facilities didn’t disappoint us. It was a newly built hotel near the Pratunam Market and Platinum. The halls actually smelled new! The rooms though were not that spacious but it was well lighted and clean. Their free breakfast was also amazing! If you are the type of tourist who is on a budget but still want to get a nice room, I recommend that you get this hotel! Really worth it, guys.

Our second hotel was Baiyoke Boutique. When you go out of this hotel, you can immediately see the stalls of clothes! Love it, right? The hotel lobby was really cute and posh. In every floor, there were different designs for the elevator doors. It really added a little cuteness to the hotel. The rooms were big and the room decorations were really chic. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that the whole hotel was carpeted. You know what happened to carpets after being stepped on by thousands of visitors in that hotel, right? If you are with your barkada, I really recommend this hotel for you.

Our hotel room in Baiyoke Boutique with all the thing we bought

Hotel lobby

The cute elevator doors

 

THIRD PROOF! If you are a shopaholic like me, Thailand is the perfect place! Not only THE PERFECT PLACE, it is paradise.

Just a short story about how perfect Thailand shopping experience was. Since it was already our second time to visit and we have already experienced the temples and all the tourist attractions in the country, our plan was to spend all our money on food, shopping, food, shopping, and SHOPPING.  During our first day, we didn’t waste time and our first destination was Platinum, which was a walking distance from our hotel. When I entered the mall, I was overwhelmed with all the beautiful clothes! I really had to pause in front of the mall and took in everything! Not exaggerating here, guys. They had a whole floor for clothes, shoes, accessories, and shoes. You can also try the sky walk that was used to connect the different malls, namely

• Central World
• Siam Paragon
• Erawan Shopping Arcade
• Gaysorn (for syala (gay linggo for sosyal or rich people)
• Siam Center and Siam Discovery
• MBK ( largest shopping center)

But just to add, nothing beats Platinum.

OTHER TIPS:

Biggest shopping center in Thailand

SHOPPING TIPS! I recommend that you buy in bulk since the shops there are wholesalers. They give lower prices if you buy more than one item from there shop. Choose a shop that has lots of beautiful items you want to buy so you can get bigger discounts.

Streets of Thailand

Since we didn’t have the chance to visit the famous floating market of Thailand during our first trip, we decided to try it out. We went to the Damnoen Saduak (there are other floating markets such as Bang Kung Whia Floating market). FUN FACT!!  This was actually a location in one of Tom Cruz’s Mission Impossible films! We paid 800 Baht per person, which includes the van and the boat ride. Not sure if this was the best and cheapest package out there, but from what I heard, they charge tourists around 800 Baht just for the boat ride! So be careful guys! For me, I expected more from the floating market. I thought it was really a market with all the fresh fruits, flowers and locals selling goods, but it lost its “authenticity” and just turned to a tourist spot. Though, I recommend that you try the noodles that were sold in the boats and the sticky rice with mangoes. 

Loving the floating market!

The yummy noodles!

Another, be careful with the Tuktuk and the cabs. They usually charge tourists more. The cabs come in different colors and my mom told me to suggest in my blog for tourists to take the green cab. So guys, mothers’ know best, ride the green cabs.

Sorry if my blog entry is lengthy, but I just could not stop gushing about my Thailand trip experience! I wish I could write more but I know people have short attention span and you would probably just close my blog page. To cut it short, Thailand is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Peace out.

Amazing Thailand!