Sights, shopping and massage in Bangkok – Day 4

Posted in Food, Travel | 0 comments

Suan lum night market has been one of the ‘must visit’ places in Bangkok for a tourist to go. However, the land lease expired in 2007, and the tenants had been illegally occupying the landtill Jan/Feb of 2011 before they were all chased away. And suddenly, there’s nowhere to go to experience the night market atmosphere in Bangkok!

In the recent months, the closest replacement is Tawanna Square, which is somewhat like a wholesale center but extended outdoors using tentages.

The day started with a quick visit to the tailors to do the fitting for my orders. For people who do tailoring while skipping the fitting session, you might as well just buy off the shelf. The fitting for both the tailors I used were quite good, but as expected, alterations had to be made in order for it to be better fitted.

A quick meal at Pasta ‘n’ Noodles was surprisingly good! It was just one of those restaurant type places along the road near Nana BTS. The food looked decent and the price was good, so we went in. And as usual, we were the only customers in the restaurant. Now I’m wondering where do locals eat!?!

After that we made our way to Phetchaburi MRT station to get to Asoke Pier which was just walking distance away. One of the unique feature of Bangkok is how river transport is an essential form of transport there.

From 1 end of the river to the other, it’s probably around a 80 minutes boat ride, and if you were to travel the same distance on taxi, it would have probably cost 200 baht and maybe 2 hours given the traffic congestions!

Tawanna Square is located right beside Mall Bangkapi, which is a pretty large mall in a suburban type of district. But most importantly, it has it’s own pier! Being tourists, it makes more sense to ‘do as the locals do’ and take the boats rather than to rely on taxis right?

There’s basically 1 pier at every stop location. Thus, the boats from both direction will stop at the same pier, and you gotta make sure you don’t get onto the boat travelling in the wrong direction! Once it approaches the pier, the 2 operators of the boats will just sling ropes to pull the boat closer, and within 1 minute, if you’re not on the boat, it would have left without you! Most of the locals even got onto the boat while it was moving! Once you’re on the boat, the operator will then walk along both sides of the boat to collect the fare. Our fare from Asoke pier to Mall Bangkapi pier was a 40 minutes boat ride and it costs only 17 baht. We actually passed the Mall yesterday on our way to Siam City Park, and by my estimate, a taxi ride would have cost 100 baht for the same distance.

At first, we were worried of missing our stop, since the signboards were in Thai. But Mall Bangkapi is really quite a big building, so in most likelihood,  you won’t miss it!

If I were to compare a mall, Mall Bangkapi would be fairly similar to NEX Serangoon. Full of locals, lots of F&B outlets, and lots of bustling activity. Tawanna Square would then be something you don’t see in Singapore.

It has everything ranging from apparels, performance costumes, novelty items, food, drinks, mobile phones, electronics and even sound systems for cars! In fact, you can even get hair extensions or tattoos done right at Tawanna! In my opinion, I would much prefer Tawanna Square compared to Chatuchak. At least there is a shopping mall right beside where you can go for some nice buffet once you’re done walking!

Unfortunately the boat service stops at 8.30pm. We decided to take a taxi to Hua Mak Airport Railway Link station, and then taking the ARL to Makkasan and switching to MRT since there is probably going to be traffic congestion at Sukhumvit Road again.

Onward to Day 5 and the last day of the Bangkok trip!