Day 12 in Thailand - What's A Trip Without Chinatown

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Day 4 in Bangkok

Supposed to wake up about 8am, but we were tired and overslept till 9am plus. We wanted to have an early start, to check out the prices for bus/train or flight home. Asked around a bit and found the cheapest option at Triad Travel Agency (weird name, sounds like some black market travel agency).

*Triad Travel Agency - situated along Soi Chana Songkram in a small office next to a small eatery, just opposite Pain Thai Massage.

The agency is run by this Thai old man himself and that's maybe why he can get the prices down so much more than the others. He managed to get us some cancelled seats off a flight heading for Singapore tomorrow. It's the Lunar New Year and most flights were packed to the brim (or so he said). He quoted us THB2950 (around SGD130) for that flight with Bangladesh Airlines.
And since we had another day to spend, Vivi decided to visit the Chinatown.

Directions to Chinatown - bus no. 53 at the bus stop (on our side of the street) near the Merry V guesthouse.

We have absolutely no problems knowing where to alight. Shops with Chinese characters are a pretty clear indicator. The action of the Chinatown is actually in those narrow, cramp alleys where one must visits to really feel the rich culture of it all. We left Chinatown and walked through a maze of streets (it's a labyrinth there) to get to the nearest river taxi stop. It took lots of asking around to get there.

*Lots of shops/restaurants/stores in Chinatown selling birds' nest dessert. It's really cheap compared to what you get back home. The cheapest is about THB100 per serving. And the kind of food here are simply awesome. I had some tasty fried banana and fried squid egg sac!

*River taxi - it's a really great form of transport there. Cuts through all that nasty traffic jams and it brings you to some of the most interesting sights of Bangkok. Only a few Baht to travel on it, so it's really worth it.

Vivi wanted some solo time of her own, so I alighted at Bang Lamphu by myself. I sat at the restaurant of Wild Orchid and sulked like an abandoned child. Hardly the kind of quality time I had in mind... Sigh.

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