Bangkok - part 1

So me and my girlfriend decided to go to Bangkok at 24th September – 27th September . Luckily for us we got a very cheap ticket using AirAsia for about 500,000 IDR per person. The journey started smoothly, we stayed in Berkeley Hotel, Pratunam. A very nice hotel which is near Pratunam Market and Platinum Fashion Mall (2 minutes on foot). We arrived at Don Muang Airport at 11 o’clock in the morning and try to find something to eat. Don Muang have a food court in the 3rd floor, but there’s quite few selection and the price is quite expensive. So we came across a food stall which sell some dish in a box for only 60 Baht. We bought a rice with pork and brown sauce. For a very simple dish, the taste is quite good. After eating for 10 minutes, we go to the hotel by taxi. Some people have told me that taxi in Bangkok didn’t use meter, but not the taxi I used (I recommend using a yellow and green taxi). The problem in Bangkok is the language barrier. The driver didn’t speak English, some of them didn’t even understand when I wrote it down, my advice for you guys, is always try to find out the destination in thai language. Luckily for us, the driver understand when I said ‘Berkeli’ and when he repeated it sounded like ‘beverli’. Using taxi from airport to my hotel cost 165 Baht (about 23 km) but you must pay another extra 50 baht due to their regulation. 

The Berkeley Hotel

Arriving at the hotel we went straight to the receptionist for checking in and we got the room at 34th floor. The staff helped us by carrying our baggage and explaining some of its facilities while we went to our room. The hotel is quite big, it has a connecting door to one of its shopping centre, The Palladium World, it also has 2 swimming pools and fitness centre in the 11th floor where we have to stop and cross to the other tower, free wifi is availabel in every room. The room looked very nice, but unfortunately for us we got a room with connecting door, so sometimes we still can hear the other people talking beside our room. After unpacked our bag, we decided to go to Terminal 21. It is actually my first time in Bangkok without a tour, and for my girlfried, it is really her very first time visit to Bangkok. We have a little trouble finding a bus station because there is no sign of it, we go around and around for almost 1 hour, we asked some people including a police officer, but once again, due to the language barrier, that didn’t help at all. After a while, we cancel Terminal 21 and decided to go straight to Chocolate Ville, when at last we finally find a place which looked like a bus station because there is a lot of people waiting for something. And then we decided to try wait and then we find our bus. The bus in Bangkok has 2 types, air conditioned and no air conditioned. Almost all of their buses have no air condition and it looked old, its condition looked almost the same as bus in Indonesia except the crowded part. We stopped at Central World but once again there is no sign in the bus about where we will stop so you have to guess by yourself by counting how many stops you need to reach your destination. At Central World, we need to change to another bus or we can use BTS. We decided to try Bangkok’s BTS. 

We went to Chit Lom station and bought a ticket at the ticket machine. The ticket machine only accepted coin, so we need to change our paper money into coin in the ticket office. The BTS is quite good, I think it has the same quality as MRT in Singapore so we didn’t have to learn much anymore. Upon arriving at Asok, we go straight to Terminal 21 which is connected to the BTS. We were so hungry and we find Subway at the mall’s directory, so we decided to eat there since it left me with a very good impression during my first eat at Changi. Terminal 21 is a mall with different design for its floor, since it is divided into the name of a country. There are Tokyo, San Fransisco, London, Istanbul, Paris with different design. But for me, the design was nowhere near Grand Indonesia’s design at Jakarta. We went to DTAC counter because we need to activate the mobile data in my girlfriend’s phone since we had no idea how to do it, it cost 75 Baht for a week of internet package. After walking around for a little while, we decided to go to our next destination, Chocolate Ville. 

Chocolate Ville

From Asok, we ride the BTS again and went to Mo Chit Station. At Mo Chit, we used taxi since Chocolate Ville was quite far and could not be reached by BTS. Unfortunately for us the driver didn’t speak english and didn’t understand a word I’m saying and my girlfriend try to google the thai language for our destination, and again, it looked like the driver didn’t know where that is. Luckily for us, the driver is kind enough to try and called the place based on the information googled by my girlfriend. After speaking in thai for a minute and then he said ‘ok’ to us which make us very relief. Chocolate Ville is a very beautiful place, it is actually an outdoor restaurant which has a very unique design which is strangely what this place is famous for. A lot of people come to this place for taking picture, but don’t forget to try its restaurant although the price can be quite expensive. Chocolate Ville also known as a very crowded place, so I suggest you make a reservation first before you went. I’ve already made a reservation before and asked for a place near the river.
We ordered Half rack Ribs and Lee Lee Kurobuta and the foods are very delicious. The ribs served with what I guess is a barbeque sauce and there are 5 ribs in one portion, the meat was very tender make it very easy to be sliced. Meanwhile, I have no idea what kind of meat the lee lee kurobuta was, I thought it was pork. It was served with sticky rice and some special sauce, and again, the meat was very tender, dip it in the sauce made the taste very rich and delicious.

We spent 885 Baht for 2 dishes and 3 drinks and then we continue to explore and taking picture of the place. At 9 o’clock we decided that we have explored enough and it’s time to go back to hotel. There are a lot of taxi waiting at the place ready to offer their services to take us home. The taxi didn’t use meter and asked for 300 baht to take us to the hotel. Since it’s already night and there are no other transportation, we decided to ride the 300 baht taxi. It took us about 30 minutes with no traffic to arrive at the hotel, so it’s actually quite far.