Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok)

I went back Bangkok 3 days later after i came back from Phuket.

As usual, me, Stephane and Louis left on the same flight. Isabel was forced to take the earlier flight alone.For safety reason, you don't usually put all the eggs in the same tray. Duh!

Anyway, i'm extremely excited about this conference because we're staying at State Tower!! The last time i was here, it was Meritus Suites State Tower. Now? It's Lebua State Tower.

Lebua State Tower, located at end of Silom Road before Shangri-La Hotel. It's a 5 star, not the top grade but good enough. Our Sydney hotel was a 4 star ok?!

After 3 years and a change of management, their Lobby changed too. But there's no change in the room, it still had the same decor.

After we checked in, we went Paragon for dinner, Japanese. And our post dinner exercise?Marketing! It's sort of our must-have culture, guess it's a Chai Chee habit we've developed. Anyway, we also dropped by Suan Lum Night Bazaar for some designer shopping.

20 Feb 2008, 1st day of Conference. There were alot of familiar faces and new faces. Everyone was perky and happily chatting away. It was a good start.

Me, Stephane, Isabel, Helen and Elitea. It was good catching up with them.

Like Sydney, our schedule in Bangkok are packed! After a whole day of conference, we had to rush back to wash up for our cocktail party at Millennium Hilton Bangkok which is across the river. After 2 pure hours of drinking, party did not end there... We were being sent back to Sky Bar (State Tower famous bar right at the top on 64th floor) for more drinks, compliments from Roshan (Grant's my boss, he is Grant's boss).

Alot of people likes here to come here for a drink and boy, it wasn't cheap! Isabel came before and she paid 1500baht for a glass of champagne! Me? Boss's treat.. :)

21 Feb 2008, 2nd day of Conference. Night ended late last night. Due we were behind schedule, we had to start early today. As usual, everyone was tired. I can see most of us yawning. Agenda after agenda, discussion after discussion. We're still behind schedule! Damn! Everyone's tired but we have something to give our energy a boost. Massage!

Yes, we have 3 masseurs exclusively for us. Relaxation was very much needed here.

Half way through the conference, i had to sneaked out to meet Suz to pass her my room card. Our day did not end after conference, dinner was in the schedule. A few of us had to rush dinner because we had our massage booked at Healthland. I didn't enjoy the massage, it was painful.. I guess it could be because its nearing closing time, my Thai masseur rushed through the whole massage! Gosh..

22 Feb 2008, last day of Conference. Yes, we're going on a tour. Why do we always do an excursion on the last day of conference?? Why? It's so freaking tiring after the excursion..

Anyway, we were ordered to meet at 6.55am in the Lobby. Then we were led by the Thais to see Temple of Dawn, Chao Praya River and Flower Market. And we were given a task, to buy materials to build Loy Krathong (floating lantern).

Grant giving a talk in the tour bus. Never seen him so casual before. I guess everyone never seen each other so casual before.

View of Chao Praya River at 7.30am. The river is getting busy with all the ferries shuttling here and there carrying boatloads of people.

Chao Praya River was scary.. With so many boats ferrying here and there, swells were quite huge. I was seated at the window and when our boat took off, i shrunk and moved to aisle. Luckily, i was seated at the right place at the right time. The other side of the boat was showered by the river! Whew..

Temple of Dawn. Never been here although i frequent Bangkok alot. Maybe i've been here before, when i was young.

My team at the steep steps of Temple of Dawn.

Along the way, we were usher to this nearby temple where we can fish feed.

Mekong cat fish feeding frenzy!

After some shopping and bargaining at the Flower Market, we were sent back to State Tower for our task, Loy Krathong building. My team, Pretty Pretty *roll eyes* bought many roses. There were about 200 roses. Yeah, we were crazy. We were literally shopping blindfolded. ;p It's so freaking cheap, 1 bouquet of 50s at 50baht! We were shown how to build one and the rest is up to our creativity. And being Team Pretty Pretty, our theme of course is.. Romantic. *roll eyes*

This is the collection of all 5 teams. My team was so good that we had time and spares to make a 2nd krathong.

And all 6 krathongs floated! None sank..

And this is my krathong with help from Lauren, Esther, Helen, Atsushi and Alice. It looks more like a table top flower arrangement than a krathong.

Sadly after lunch, we had to continue our conference. 1 hour into the conference, i was fighting very hard to keep myself awake. Lucky we had a break out session with Brian Kim from USA. And the next thing i knew, it was 6pm.

I ran back to my room, grabbed Suz and left for MBK. We had to go through a jungle of smog before we reached the BTS station. If we have taken taxi, i don't think we will be there in 20mins time. And with more time to spare, Suz happily went bra shopping. After many set of bras, we went pedicure!

Suz's and mine. Mine is the french manicure with flowers. Hers is the hawaiian blue flowers.

Hungry and tired, we went Chinatown for seafood.

23 Feb 2008, Home Sweet Home Day. We went Chatuchak to buy my pants.

I bought my pants! :)

I bought my 1140baht pants! :(

I bought my freaking miserable 10 baht discount pants! :<

Single

Wished Joel is here with me...

My Suite is too big for me.

Welcome to Bangkok.. AGAIN.

This month will be my 2nd time in Bangkok. -.-

This time it's for Conference.

poot Thai mai keng

Bangkok was as usual, Good. Food and lots of local designer shops.. *joy joy joy*

Met up with Gavin's Thai friends on our last night in Bangkok. We had seafood dinner at Ratchada, opposite the (in)famous Carribean (aka high class club). His friend Sak and friends were a happening bunch.. How happening? After dinner, we were being invited to Slim, a disco in RCA. It's designed by one of them. The club has 3 areas, Live Band, R&B and Trance. We were ushered to Slim's VIP area with 3 waiters servicing us exclusively. And they drank non-stop on a work day night! When we left, they were still drinking.

This is a glimpse of Slim's R&B room. It was packed on a Monday night.

On Tue morning, we departed Bangkok for Phuket. We stayed at Benyada Lodge in Surin, a small boutique hotel with good reviews.

As usual, we rented bikes to get around in Phuket. The number of beaches they have in Phuket is crazy. There're beaches where it is so secluded that you have to take a water taxi, I must visit Freedom Beach in time to come! And there is Paradise Beach, the route in was horrible. Up and down the steep slope, our bike at full throttle can only climb at 20km/h. :(

This trip, we've seen most of Phuket beaches.. Nice ones, dirty ones, secluded ones and 3 beaches at one go!

This is Karon View Point. From here, we can see (in running order from the top to bottom) Patong, Karon and Kata.

It's so breathtaking here. The beaches.. I WANT TO RETIRE HERE!

This is the 1st beach we chilled. It's a beach we discovered while riding. We saw "Go to Beach" signage along the way, we just turned in and have a look.

Yanui Beach. This environment reminds me of Khai Island. They have snorkelling and kayaking. We went kayaking. It was actually nice to kayak until Joel threaten to flip the kayak. :(


See this part of Yanui. Beach is split by the rocks, just like Khai Island.

The 2nd beach we chilled was Surin. We've been Surin last year, this year how can we not chill here?

I was chilling when i took this picture with my handphone. Dunno why, just felt that it will be a nice picture. And it turned out nice. :)

Joel and his frowns.. He always do that because of the sun.. Do you know how sunny it was?!

While we were chilling there, we had a little experience. An experience i will never forget.

Danny, remember we were in Patong where we played with the waves? Patong has big waves huh? Surin has bigger!! @_@

Me and Joel were in the waters with a float swimming for the waves. Where the waves were, we were there. After some time, the waves stopped, so we waited and waited and waited. When i was about to give up wanting to go back. A big wave came. Me and Joel embraced for the gush. The next thing i know, we went under water! I can feel Joel on top of me! We were washed up the beach and as the waves subside, we were being pulled back to the waters. When we were recovering from the 1st hit, another came in and swept us underneath the water again! Trying to compose ouselves, the 3rd wave came and hit us! This time, i can feel the current pulling my pants off! With all my might, i held on to my pants. :p Then came the 4th hit. Having to drink quite a bit of water and being thrown here and there. We immediately stood up and walked to higher grounds.

We were filled with sand all over! My hair was sandy, my bikinis were filled with a ton of sand and my thigh & back were bruised (the throwing around against the sand has caused abrasion to my thigh and back).

Price for float: 100baht
Price for sunglass: SGD60
Price for experiencing a little "tsunami": PRICELESS!

I really cannot imagine those who went through hell during the tsunami. It must have been 10 times worst than what we've experienced. Our heart goes out to all those who survived and those who did not.

Anyway, back to happy things.. 天灯! It's a traditional in Taiwan and we saw lots of the lanterns at Patong. Vendors going around, "150baht. 150baht, sir? 150baht."

The lanterns lit up the dark sky.

In Taiwan, lanterns were lit up and set off to float away bringing your well wishes to Heaven. In Patong? Novelty.. Smart. What happens after that? The lantern will burn out the fuel and it will disappear from the sky. As of where it dropped to? Sea of course, unless your ship is in its pathway. :)

And there were also fireworks! I guess there were fireworks every night because we've seen 2 out of 3 nights in Patong streets.

Fireworks at Patong. Nice.. It could be a CNY celebration.

6 nights in Thailand ended quickly.. How i wished i can stay longer in Thailand..

新年快乐!

This is the only CNY decoration we have in office and we bought it ourselves.

Have a Happy, Blessed and Prosperous Lunar New Year!