Traveling Style

I recently traveled from Kuala Lumpur to Bahrain via Qatar Airways. Since the begining of 'Air Asia Era,' I didn't even remember when was the last time I flew with a normal airline. What amazed me this time was how have I changed my traveling style due to the fact that I was so used to traveling 'Air Asia Style' guiltily.

When I travel with Air Asia, I always arrive the airport with no checked bags, so checking in was easy and fast. This time when I arrived at KL International Airport, I was shocked that the queue to check in was so so long! It took me almost 1 hour to check in myself with my 19.5kg luggage!

Then I proceed to the immigration check point and then further to my departure gate. Shamefully, I was 'rushing' to the gate hoping to get a seat as front as possible at the waiting room. That was because I was, again, applying my 'Air Asia' traveling style to try to get the best seat on the airplane. Then I suddenly realised, 'Wait a minute, I do have a seat number on my ticket. Why am I rushing?'

When it was time for boarding, the flight attendant announced that it was boarding time for the First and Business class passengers. Then it was time for senior citizens and passengers with young children. At last, it was my turn together with the rest of the passengers. When I got on board, I found my seat and happy to see that there were blankets and pillows on my seat. I was also happy to see a screen in front of me. I happily seated and the flight attendant handed me a sticker with options of: 1. 'Wake me up for meal' 2. 'Wake me up for duty free shopping', 3 ' Do not disturb'. I immediately put on sticker number 1 and took a nap. Sure enough, when the meal was served, I was waken up by the flight attendant to enjoy my midnight snack. :D After I finished, I continued my beauty nap...zzz

When I woke up in the middle of the night, I could request for water. Then I watched a few minutes of movie before I fell asleep again. When I was awake again, it was time for breakfast. Not too long after that, it was time for landing.

All these can't be found in Air Asia or other low cost airlines. I am so used to traveling in low budget that I have forgotten the comfort of traveling in a normal airline. If without Air Asia, I don't think many people can travel as frequent as they do now. For example myself who work in Bangkok, going home to Kuala Lumpur is made cheaper by traveling with Air Asia (only sometimes). Malaysian Airlines is loosing business due to stiff competition from Air Asia that they have to lower their price to get customers. Travelers are indirectly benefit from the price war between airlines.

With the introduction of baggage charge on Air Asia, I began to travel light. Unless necessary, I would always have only carry on with me. It save money and also save time during arrival because i don't have to wait for my checked luggage.

I am not saying that Air Asia is the best. But I have to give credit for how it changes people travel. What is interesting to me is that how different we travel depends on the type of airlines travel with. Of course whenever I can afford, I will go for the normal airlines. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen too often. So, I am glad that Air Asia is there to fly me from one city to another.

Public Tranportation in Bangkok

This is my last posting from Bangkok for now. I will dedicate this posting to the public transportation of Bangkok. Bangkok has been famous for its traffic jam for years. I have lived here for 5 months. I can be a living proof that it is indeed very jam. However, to be fair, I think Bangkok has many types of public transportation to ease the traffic. Otherwise, I cannot imagine how bad the traffic can be!

1. Motorcyle Taxi
This is a good way to travel short distance. If you are lazy to walk for a distance of 15 minutes or longer, you can choose this as an option. Fare starts from 10baht and up. It is useful when your bus stop is at the main road and your house is way back in the alley. You can spot them by their colourful vests with Thai numbers are the back.


2. Tuk Tuk
It is one of the symbols of Bangkok. It is not the most comfortable transportation in my opinion and not that cheapest. But it does serve its purpose of bringing passengers from one place to the next.

3. Taxi
I love Bangkok taxis. They are everywhere and goes almost every where even to the nearby provinces. They are relatively cheap compared to taxis in other countries. The downside about Bangkok taxis is that they are very difficult to get during evening rush hour because the drivers have to return the cab to the companies. Some drivers drive like race car drivers. So, be prepared before you get on one.


4. Songteaw
This is a small truck that is being converted into a small passenger bus. It has benches for passengers and room to stand. I find it a bit difficult for foreigners to take it as it is usually driven by non-English speaking drivers with no sign in English. Unless you are sure of your destination, it can be challenging.

5. Mini Van / 'Rot Too' (in Thai)
This is a fast way to travel between downtown Bangkok and the suburbs around Bangkok. It is fast and usually sit 14 passengers. Some of the vans are quite old and narrow seats. It has its route that it follows. It is managed by the Bangkok Mass Transportation Department.

6. Public Bus
Public buses in Bangkok come in a few types and colours. Some of the buses look like 20 years old with no air-conditioner and wooden floor. This is the cheapest way to travel in Bangkok for far. There are also air-conditioned buses just slightly more expensive than the old buses.

7. BTS Skytrain & MRT Subway Train
These two train systems are the most popular, fast and comfortable way to travel in my opinion. They run fast and very frequently. Although it can get crowded during rush hours just like any other transportation, it is still the fastest way to travel.

8. Boats
Bangkok has a lot of canals called 'Khlong'. The city makes full use of the waterways and provided motor boats as an option of public transportation. What a great idea and you can see why Bangkok is the Venice of the East.

Advert Advert Everywhere

Thailand is the Land of Smile. In my opinion, it is also the Land of Advertisements. Advertisements are everywhere in Bangkokians’ daily life. The usual ones like adverts on metro or subway trains, buses, tv, etc. But there are some unexpected ones that pop into my sight once in a while. Let’s read further for some interesting ones that I have seen.

1. Colgate adverts on disposable coffee cup. Instead of having a logo of a local café, Colgate advert take over the cover of the paper cups. You can’t avoid it when you sip your coffee.


2. At petrol stations in Thailand, there are attendants who fill up your tank for you. So, you would be sitting in your car waiting. While you are waiting for your tank to be filled up, ‘boom!’ the attendant would place an advert in front of your windshield telling you about the promotion that is going on in their convenient store. So, instead of waiting in the car, why don’t you get yourself out of the car and go into the convenient store to check out these promotion items? Very clever…

3. This is also a good idea. Advert in the taxi cab! I got on this cab one time, I saw a small laminated advert card of various mint and chewing gums at the back of the headrest in front of me. Then my colleague who was with me in the cab told me that the cab driver is actually selling the gums as well! I thought it is a good way to advertise as we all know Bangkok traffic is bad. A short trip could end up a long one. So, why not buy a pack of gum, and just chill in the cab while the taxi driver brings you to your destination?

4. On TV, you can see a display of a LCD TV with big logo. Also, you will see display of a laptop in front of the desk. You can't avoid adverts even you are watching the news.

I am sure there are some more clever ideas that I have not discovered yet. But just these are some interesting ones that I encountered.

English in Thailand

As a foreigner living in Bangkok, many people would wonder how do I get through with my daily live without speaking Thai language. Well, in Thailand, English is quite a popular foreign language. I notice that Thai culture has an interesting way that uses English as title or slogan for many things. For example, they would have English name for sales in departmental store like ‘Midnight Sale,’ ‘Halloween Sale’, etc. However, other that the name of the sale, the rest are in Thai including date. So, I am clueless as when should I go to shop.

In Thailand, most of the road signs are bilingual. So, for foreigners who would like to drive from one place to another, that shouldn’t be a problem. The only downside is that if there are any traffic update signs on the road, they would be in Thai. So, it’s wise to drive with someone who can read Thai.

Many foreign magazines such as Elle, Wallpaper, Men’s health, etc come in Thai version. When I first went to a book store magazine section, I saw many magazines with English titles. I was excited to flip through them. To my disappointment, the content was 99.9% in Thai language. I don’t blame the magazines as this is Thailand. I shouldn’t expect that magazines come in English to please foreigners like myself who can’t read Thai. So, I can only look at the beautiful pictures in magazines since a picture is worth a thousand words. I guess they are right about don't judge a book by its cover, in this case, a magazine.

Colour Coded Nation

Thailand, especially Bangkok has been in political turmoil for a few months now. However, since last Tuesday, the situation really elevated to affect the aviation in the country. Suvarnabhumi Airport and Don Muang Airport in Bangkok have been seiged by the anti government protesters! The airport authority had decided to close the airport since Tuesday (26^th November 2008).

Little do I know about politics. So, I am not going to write anything political. From the recent protests and demonstrations, I can see that Thailand is a colour coded nation. Why do I say so? Thai people are very obedient when it comes to being told what colour to wear.

First of all, we of course have to start from wearing yellow shirt on Monday for HM the King. This new tradition has been started since the celebration of the 60^th Year anniversary of the King on throne. And a few years later, today, many Thai people still wear yellow on Monday for the King. Why Monday? Because HM the King was born on Monday. However, on Tuesday, Thai people wear light pink to wish HM the King good health.

Next, Thai people also wear light blue for HM the Queen. However, sorry that I do not know which day people where blue for HM the Queen as it is not as widely worn.

Two weeks ago, Thai people wore black or white during the mourning period (3 to 5 days) of the late Princess Ghalyani Vhadana. I have written about that weekend in my previous blog posting.

Recently, we can see a lot of anti-government protesters wear yellow during demonstrations and protests. I wonder why do they choose yellow since it is the colour for HM the King.

As for the pro-government supporters. They wear red during their gathering in a stadium. When I saw the pictures of the pro-government supporters, it’s like a sea of red chilly!

So, living in Bangkok, I have to be careful of what I wear. Recently, I won’t wear anything yellow or red. Well, actually, I have neither colours in my closet anyway. So, I shouldn’t be worry unless a new group of protesters decide to wear black or blue. Then I might be in trouble.

Peaceful Water Town

If it wasn't a friend from Samut Songkhram, I wouldn't have the fortunate chance to visit Amphawa. The truth is, as a Malaysian, I had never heard of the name, let alone to visit. But to my pleasant surprise, Amphawa has turned out to be one of my favorite places that I have visited in Thailand.

Amphawa is a district located in the province of Samut Songkhram. It is about 60km away from Bangkok. It makes a nice day trip from Bangkok. The more popular Damnoen Saduak floating market is nearby. So, you can throw two birds with one stone if you pay a visit to Samut Songkhram.

The first time I visited Amphawa in May 2008. I visited Amphawa in mid afternoon, there wasn't many tourists at all. We parked our car and walked towards a coffee shop. I didn't know that the the back (or was it the front?) of the coffee shop actually opens to a canal. The canal is like the main street on the small town. On both sides of the canal, there are rows of old houses facing the canal. There is a walkway that links each houses and shops. Visitors can walk on the walkway from one shop to another. There are staircases that lead to the canal. My friend told me that the water level will rise in the late afternoon. Therefore, Amphawa floating market will start later in the afternoon. Well, due to time constrain, we didn't stay late enough to see the floating market. But I definitely enjoyed my 2 hours stay in Amphawa.

In November 2008, I visited Amphawa again. On my second visit, I still liked it. We walked in a market and had lunch by the canal. The atmosphere was relaxing and nostalgic. It was as if I had gone back to 20 or 30 years ago. In Amphawa, you can find old fashioned toys that were popular 20 years ago. There are some homestay at Amphawa. I saw on some pictures that monks row a small boat to collect food donation in the morning. I would like to see that one day. Perhaps I will stay for one night and get the relaxed weekend away from hustle and bustle of Bangkok. Although thee are many visitors in the weekend, I hope the town doesn't get overdeveloped. It is charming the way it is now.

Farewell to a Princess

Last Friday (14 Nov 2008) was the beginning of the 5 days long Royal Cremation Ceremony for Her Royal Highness the late Princess Galyani Vadhana (the elder sister of his Majesty King Bhumipol) of Thailand. In conjunction with the royal cremation, people of Thailand were told to wear black or white for 3 days as the mourning period for the late princess.

Even though I am a foreigner living in Bangkok, I also wore black shirt with grey pants to show my respect. I was glad that I did because as soon as I was on the street, I saw that almost 99.9% of the people wore black or white as told. It was amazing to me that Thai people really respect the royal family. Growing up in Malaysia, I never pay much attention to the royal family in my own country. But here in Thailand, the royal family is part of Thai life. You can walk in the streets of Bangkok without seeing photos of their Majesties the King and Queen.

In light of the late princess’ royal cremation ceremony, I can see that Thai people are very united. Although monarchy has become history in many countries today, it is good to still have a royal family in a country. Though the royal family may not have the power they possessed before, but it sort of unites the people in the period of political separation in Thailand. I cannot imagine any country in the world where almost all the people (including foreigners like myself) would wear black to bid farewell to a princess. To me, this is one of the precious experiences I have in Thailand.

By the way, when Bangkokian wear black, there are still fashionable. I saw black and white poker dots skirt, black lace skirt, or simply black dress with cool silver necklace, etc. From my observation, Bangkokian sure mourned in a fabulous way.

dwp Care 2008

Last Saturday, my company had a charity event called dwp Care. This is an annual event that dwp gives back to the community in need. This year, we invited children from House of Grace to our office in Bangkok and then brought them to Ocean World for a fun day. House of Grace is a charity organization for children with HIV. There were 50 children joined us last saturday. They ranged from 18 months to 19 years old. When the arrived at our office, we served them some juice and snacks. After that, they did some fun stuffs like painting on a large canvas that we had prepared for them, origami, some IQ games, and etc. One of the meeting room was converted into a game zone, and another meeting room had Cartoon Network to entertain them. For lunch, we had ordered KFC and Pizza Hut that the children seldom have the chance to eat. After lunch, we brought the children to Ocean World Bangkok.

Throughout the day, I tried to communicate with the children with body language and my very very limited Thai language. I tried to ask them ‘What is your name?’ etc, but it wasn’t successful at all. But with the help of my Thai colleague, I was able to play for a few minutes with some of the children.

When I thought about the children who looked so normal were actually HIV carrier really made me sad. These are innocent children who have been brought to the world to suffer. All of these are caused by the irresponsible parents. But all the damage had been done. All we can do is to hope that scientists can discover cure for AIDS patients. But for now, the least we can do is to have a fun day with the children.

At least I saw some happy face at the aquarium. It made it all worthwhile.

Bangkok Design Festival 2008

‘Everybody’s Everyday Life’ is the slogan for Bangkok Design Festival 2008. From the slogan, we can see that Bangkok really want to bring designs into people’s everyday life. There are many events going on throughout Bangkok in this annual festival. The main area for the events are in the Siam Area, but spread in a few buildings like the newly opened Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Siam Paragon, Siam Discover, and Siam Center. There is also a Bangkok International Gift Fair (BIG) and Bangkok International Houseware Fair (BIH) at IMPACT, MuangTong Thani.

The events ran for 2 weeks. It has interesting exhibition for those who are interested in Arts, Design and Architecture. However, I think it would be nice to include Fashion Design in this festival too. Bangkok Design Festival is a great event to promote a city’s status to be the so-called ‘Design Capital’. Other than design talents, it also needs some marketing and promotion by the local government. Besides, inviting foreign designers to the event also helps to elevate a city’s status to be a ‘design capital.’ And Bangkok is doing just that to promote and encourage it’s local talent and bring design into people’s daily life.

As for the events, there are too many to be listed in my posting. Let’s just take a look at some pictures that I had taken. Hope to see you here in Bangkok Design Festival 2009!

7-Eleven... or '7' as Thais call it

One of the things I like about Thailand is its 7-Eleven. Alright, you would probably wonder why 7-Eleven and it is not even originated here. Well, Thailand has this talent to take a foreign franchise and make it better than the original.

First of all, 7-Elevens are everywhere in Bangkok and the local call it ‘7’ (I don’t know why). For example near my office on Silom, there are 4 7-Elevens on a stretch of 20 minutes walk. They come in various sizes, range from compact size to big comfortable space. It is literally a ‘convenience store’ because it is really near to where ever you are. Nearby my house, there are 3 7-Elevens within 3 minutes of driving from my house. And another one is 5 minutes walking distance from my house. There are more than 30,000 branches in Thailand!

When you enter a 7-Elevens here in Thailand, after hearing the ‘ding-dong’ from the door chime, you would be greeted ‘Sawasdee Kah!’ by the cashiers. They certainly make shoppers comfortable shopping here. Some shops also play music for your shopping pleasure.

I am really impressed by the variety of goods they sell here in 7-Eleven. You can expect to find your normal snack, beverages, bread, stationary and etc here. Besides that, you can also find a section call ‘Book Smile’ in bigger shops that sell magazines, newspaper, CDs and books. In terms of food, some 7-Elevens also have a food counter that sell warm “bao”, hot dog, burger, coffee, and also provide warm water for instant noodle in foam cup. There is also a frozen food area where shoppers can find frozen food such as rice with dishes, eggs, dumpling soup, salad etc. Basically, the list goes on and on.

Every month, 7-Eleven will have special promotions. There are things you can buy with very low price when you purchase up to a certain amount of merchandise. Most of the 7-Elevens here also have an ATM for your convenience. And if I am not wrong, I think they even have 7-Eleven Value card! I will have to find out about it.

So when you visit Thailand, feel free to stop by a 7-Eleven.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Many visitors who visited Bangkok have probably been to the famous Damnoen Saduak floating market. It is actually located in a neighbouring province of Bangkok called Samut Songkhran. It took me about 90 minutes on car to reach Damnoen Saduak on a Saturday. For those visitors who don’t have a car, they can either join one of the one day trips from Bangkok or take a bus.

Damnoen Saduak is very touristy. I went there on a Saturday and it was packed with tourists, both local and foreign. But this is one of those unique experience that makes Bangkok famous. Even the reality tv show ‘American Next Top Model’ did a photo shoots of the models here!

First thing I did was to get some breakfast. I sat on one of the concrete steps near a noodle vendor who sells on a boat. Whie my friends and I were waiting for our noodles, we bought some local snack to try. When the noodle was ready, the lady handed me my bowl of noodle soup and I enjoyed it the local way on the step, by the canal.

After we finished our noodles, we rented a long tail boat and on our way to tour and shop at floating market! One of the options was long tail boat with motor which would go faster. Another option was the slow boat that had to be manually rowed by a person. We went for the second option. There were colourful straw hats for us on the boat as the sun was scorching hot! On both sides of the canal were all kinds of souvenir aimed at tourists. It was almost like Chatucak Market has been moved to a canal. Nothing really interested me as they are not that unique. However, what I thought more interesting were perhaps tropical fruits sold on boats. They looked so colourful and fresh.

At almost the end of the trip, we were stuck in a ‘floating traffic jam’!! I couldn’t believe it was so crowded that we were actually inching slowly for about 30 minutes! The whole trip took about 90 minutes and I felt relieved when I got back to the pier. This is the place that I would only come once just as the ‘thing-to-do.’ Otherwise, personally, I think there are more interesting things to do or places to shop in Bangkok than this. Nevertheless, when I look at my photos from Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, it was definitely very ‘Bangkok’. It was self-explanatory that it is Bangkok (although it is NOT in Bangkok)!

Noodle soup seller on the boat... delicious noodle soup

"Floating Traffic Jam" at Damnoen Saduak...

Learning Thai Language

Learning Thai language is not easy. Well, not that learning any language is easy, but Thai in particular is difficult in terms of pronunciations. I have been living in Bangkok for more than 3 months, but I have yet to speak a full sentence. I started learning by learning vocabulary. Thank goodness that I can speak Mandarin, and other Chinese dialects and that helps a little in terms of pronunciations. Let me share with you some similarities between Thai and chinese languages.

(orange words are Thai pronunciation)

numbers:
3 – sam (sounds like chinese number 3)
4 - si (also sounds like chinese number 4)
8 – paet (slightly similar to chinese number 8)
9 – gao (sounds like hokkien number 9)
10 – sip (sounds like hakka number 10)
11 – sip et (also sounds like hakka number 11)

objects:
table – tok (sounds like hokkien for table)
chair – gao ee (sounds like hokkien for chair)
chicken – gai (sounds like hakka for chicken)
noodle (in general) – kuey teow (sounds exactly like hokkien for kuey teow)
yellow noodle (wantan noodle) – bak mee (sounds like hokkien for ‘meat noodle’)
dog – ma (sounds like horse in mandarin)
cat – meaao (well, sounds like cat meow )
turtle – tao (as in ‘island’ in Mandarin)
elephant – chang (like ‘long’ in Mandarin)
jambu – champu (very similar to malay language)
durian – turian (very similar to malay language)
no - mai (like 'don't want' in hokkien)

There you have it for some basic Thai language  Hope I am able to speak like a Thai in no time.

Life is like a stream…

Sometimes I think life is like a stream. We just flow in the stream of life. Along the way, we experience different stages in life. At different stage, our friends around us would have experienced similar big events in life. Once upon a time, I always discussed with my friends, what each of us was going to do after SPM. After that, we graduated from whatever courses that we studied, and then we stepped into different walks of life.

There was a period when friends around me got married. When my sister got married, I was so busy with preparing the wedding. When my best friends got married, I was the driver. My cute little Honda Jazz was involved too. :-) When another friend got married, I was one of her ‘sisters’… haha…. It’s so funny to have a guy to be a ‘sister.’

Then, there is a period when my friends start to buy houses and build their home sweet home. When my friends moved to their new houses, I was asked to give suggestions. Recently, another friend moved to a new condominium, I was there to help moving. Tiring, but it was all fun to be able to help.

And then, here comes the time when family and friends start to have babies. When my sister went for ultrasound lately, I went with my sister to say hi to the baby. When my friend became a father, I was involved in choosing a Chinese name for the baby.

In life, there is no turning back. I cherish all different stages in life as I am fortunate to share all the special moments with my family and friends. I am fortunate enough to be able to celebrate all these events with them. It's like fireworks that bring colours into the dark sky and then the moment fades away. What remains will be always in my mind. I would like to thank them for letting me involved.

Homecoming... AKA Balik Kampung

Last week, I went back to KL for a short visit. Coincidentally, it was the long Hari Raya holiday week. KL was a bit quiet and traffic was lighter than usual. Since all the KL people left town for holiday, I came back to KL for my own holiday. One week seemed like a bit long for me at first. But when it reached the last couple days of my stay, it seemed too short.

I spent most my time with my family, especially my sister, who is expecting a baby. We went out to eat together for almost every meal, except for when I went out with my friends. Whenever I went out with my friends, there was always food involved. I had buka puasa buffet with my gang of best friends. I went to ex-colleague’s house for our annual hari raya get together. Then I also brought my family out for a nice Sunday brunch at the Gardens.

Besides food, I also shopped a lot in KL. I really do miss shopping at Mid Valley! I always get what I want. Another of my favourite shopping place is 1U. I only spent about 1 hour there and ended up with many things in my shopping bag. Many things are souvenir for friends.

Yes, I admit that I do miss KL. Bangkok is great but KL is my home. I miss my family, my friends and as you all know it, the food.

Colourful Election

I’m so amazed and impressed that democracy is thriving in Thailand. Bangkok will have a governor election in October 2008. The people in this city have the chance to choose who they would like to be the head of the city. From my understanding, Bangkok is the only city in Thailand that has an elected governor by the people.

There are 9 candidates in the running for the new governor of Bangkok. One of them is a female, Ms Leena Junjanya ! One of them is the previous governor hoping to be re-elected.

Bangkok is a colourful city. Everything is so colourful in this city, including the posters of Bangkok governor election 2008. . On the posters, we can see a big picture of the candidate. Pictures of the candidates are not boring portrait. They are actually posing in front of the cameras! The number shown on the posters is his or her candidacy number. There is no sign of the parties they representing on the posters. As you may notice, some of the posters are actually graphically designed. Each candidate’s posters have a colour scheme. For example, posters of the previous mayor, Mr. Apirak Kosayodhin, use blue, green and white. Ms Leena Junjanya uses pink on her posters (to match her make-up?? Haha) On the posters, some show pictures of what the candidate will do if he or she is elected.

These posters are not like the boring election posters that I saw in other parts of the world. In Malaysia, the posters or banners only have parties’ logo or slogans. But here, they are more interesting to be looked at. I think only Bangkok has such interesting election posters. Here are some examples that I took pictures of. Enjoy.

Bang Nampheung Floating Market

One weekend, my friend brought me to a so-called ‘floating market’ outside of Bangkok. It’s called Bang Nampheung Floating Market located in Samut Prakan province near Bangkok. Although the name is ‘floating’ market, but the market is actually on land. If you decided to come here, don’t expect to be shopping on boat. However, there is a river next to market that visitors can rent a boat for a joy ride, but I don’t see the point of doing so.

This floating market is crowded with local visitors. I also saw a handful of foreign tourists. I am not sure what they think about the market. To me, the market is interesting to me because of the variety of food that is available here. Majority of the stalls here sell food. Only a few that sell souvenirs and other merchandise. There are plenty of noodle stalls along the river. The sellers set up their stalls on a boat parked on the side. I guess that makes the market somewhat ‘floating’?? Anyway, yes, food always attracts me. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try too many because I came here unplanned and I had lunch before I came. Darn it!! Next time I must come with an empty stomach!! However, I still get to try coconut ice cream. It must be famous because I saw many people were eating it. It was placed in an empty coconut shell. I think that is a clever green idea to make use of the unwanted.

Beside the floating market is a coconut plantation. There is an area of art activities for children. Overall, this is a good place for Bangkok people to get away from the city for a few hours in the weekend. For tourists, I recommend Damnuan Saduak Floating Market. Watch out for another posting on Damnuan Saduak Floating Market.

Taking MRT or BTS in Bangkok

Bangkok has 2 Metro/Subway/Underground Train (or however you want to call it) systems: MRT and BTS Skytrain. MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is the underground train or subway system. It is only 4 years old (as of 2008). BTS or also being called SkyTrain, as the name suggests, is running above the streets of Bangkok. Both MRT and BTS are clean, convenient, and COLD! I mean seriously cold and your eye glasses gets blur when you come out from the train to the hot and steamy streets of Bangkok! I take the MRT more often just because it is more convenient for me. Let me share with you some etiquette and my experience of taking the train here in Bangkok.

First of all, passengers actually queue in front of the door, especially during rush hour, while waiting for the train. The first time I took the BTS in the morning rush hour, I didn’t know. As soon as I got to the platform, I went straight to as near as I can to the train track. I was glad that I was near to the track so I could be the first one to board the train. So I just stood and waited for the train to come. I slowly looked around and felt strange that the platform was full of people but nobody was standing around or behind me. Then suddenly I saw that everyone was standing in queue while waiting for the train! I was not sure how many pairs of eyes were watching and cursing this rude guy jumping queue. I felt embarrassed but I try to stay cool. I pretended nothing happened and walked to the back of the queue and waited for my turn as everyone else did.

When the train comes, people don’t push each other to get to the train. Though I can sense the ‘rush’ when train comes, but everyone just take their time to board the train. Since everyone is in queue, you just wait for your turn. If the train is full, you can have the option of standing aside and let the people behind you get on while you wait for the next train. I have never been so relaxed taking a train during rush hour because I don’t have to push or being pushed to get on the train. I think this is the Thai people’s nature of ‘sabai sabai’ (take it easy).

Another important thing I noticed is that they actually allow passengers get out from the train first! I don’t see that happens in too many cities that I have been to especially in Shanghai. So, passengers in the MRT train actually don’t need to rush to the door before arrive at their destinations. There is plenty of time for passengers to get in and out of the train.

While inside the MRT train, passengers like to stand facing towards the front of the train. I am very curious about it and have yet to find out the answer. Of course not 100% of them stands towards the same direction, but I would say about 95% do. And when the passengers stand, they don’t like to hold on to the stainless steel pole or the straps hung from above. So when the train moves forward, the standing passengers slightly tilted their bodies to the back to balance themselves. And tilted forward when the train brakes. I have been taking the train for 2 months, and I have never seen anyone fall down even without holding on to the pole or straps.

Thai people are very polite and courteous. They carry the same manner while on the train. Sitting passengers always offer their seats to those in need, i.e. elderly or small children. The train is quite quiet here in Bangkok as most people don’t speak loudly. And when there are empty seats available, standing passengers would not rush to sit. They normally wait for a moment to see if the other passengers want to sit. When it is crowded, passengers do stand towards in the center of the train and not gather near the doors. This let more passengers get into the train.

So have you learnt something from Bangkok train systems? It amazes me that what we were taught in school like queuing and offering seats to those in need actually do happen in reality. Yes, they happen right here in Bangkok.