Day 2
Our tour package includes breakfast buffet provided by the hotel. They serve tasty bacon, ham, eggs and croissant. And today, the tour provides a quick tour to the snake farm and the gem factory.
According to Wawa, China businessmen own the snake farm. We were shown around the area and a quick briefing on snakes. Then after that, we were taken into a room and a Chinese man starts giving out in-depth details about snakes. He was speaking in Mandarin and therefore I cant get most of the things he said (yes, my Mandarin is bad). All I was able to catch are that snake organs can be used as medicines and poisonous snakes has 2 teeth while the non poisonous ones have more than 2 and therefore if someone was bitten by a snake and if there are 2 bite marks, death would be in few minutes!
We were offered some tonic wine before the briefing. The wine is made of Chinese herbs medicines preserved in Kao Lian wine for three years and therefore good for health. However, it tasted like shit! We left as soon as the briefing finishes. Wawa was waiting for us downstairs and he offered me another horrible tonic wine.
Thailand is one of the main producers of gems in the world and produces the best gems in the world. They are graded in size, colour, shape and rarity. We were brought into a small room with few workers constructing gems and jeweleries. And after that, they brought us to the other side of the building where they sell jewelleries. Guides were provided and they’ll give brief explanation to us. However, they are very pesky sometimes. Our guide kept on pestering Melody to buy something. She was very polite and therefore we were reluctant to refuse her. We tried avoiding her and stuff but yet she did not give up.
In the end of the day, Melody bought an earring to shut her up.
It was lunch time after the gem factory and snake farm tour. Wawa brought us to Mahboonkrong (MBK) shopping centre. The shopping centre is just like other shopping centre back in KL (identical to Sg.Wang) but MBK is huge! So huge that Melody and I were exhausted even before we could finish touring the whole place!
The food court is located at the fourth floor. Melody and I had delicious tom yam (40 baht, it tasted peanuty and spicy!) and beef noodles (40 bath).
Tom Yam 😀
Oh, I bought myself boxing gloves for 450 baht (rm45)! We were supposed to meet Wawa at 6pm but by the time we finish lunch we still have 4 hours to go!
We decided to pay Erawan Shrine a visit. It’s a small shrine located next to the Hyatt Erawan Hotel. The 4 faced Buddha lies on the middle of the shrine. Worshippers can buy joss sticks and offerings from a counter (I paid 20 baht for 12 sticks and flowers) and place them on each of the 4 altars.
On the other side of the shrine, a group of traditional Thai dancers sit under the shades. Worshippers have to pay them to dance. It was bloody hot and we were sweating like mad while praying. We decided to loiter in Hyatt hotel and Sogo (they’re just side by side).
Bangkok has one of the most congested roads in the world. There are about 6 million people in Bangkok with 50000 taxis roaming the streets! After sitting, drinking and reading books in Sogo for hours, we decided to return back to MBK. However, the taxis refused to charge us by meter. They demanded 200 baht from us! We struck down their offers immediately. We asked a policeman for direction to MBK. According to him MBK is about 10 minutes walk. In the end of the day, Melody and I were sticky, smelly and exhausted.
Bangkok jam
– 3:49AM