Floating market, Mahachai & Central Embassy

Feb 27 2015

Today being the last day of our holiday in Thailand, the decision was to go on the Floating Market tour. 

About 2 hours drive from Bangkok city, we had a great time talking to Black. He told us of his wife who was a government servant working in Immigration Department. He told us tales of under-counter money and big meals and banquets to get things done. 

He also told us of his 2 daughters who were very smart and excelled in their studies. Obviously he was a father who doted on his girls. Sometimes they would ask him for money and he would have to borrow to give it to them. I was surprised that he spoke of all these nonchalantly as though it was a fact of life for him and his wife. 

He also told us that he was a yellow shirt supporter. He supported the king and the king's daughter. Indeed everywhere we went, we saw photos of the Thai king at his best and most handsome. We could see that the king was much loved by his people.

Anyway, he was good tour guide and driver. He took us to the floating market. We paid 1,200 baht for a long boat that which took us into the narrow alleyways of water flanked by wooden houses built on the water. At first, it looked like a residential area as we saw houses after houses. 

Slowly we saw long boats containing all kinds of wares - food, mango and sticky rice, souvenirs, vegetables, fruits, bags, traditional Thai handicraft ahead of us. The boat owners would shout out their wares to us and some of them will use long sticks to put our boats toward them.

We bought a coconut drink, Thai fridge magnets, mangoes, Thai pancakes from some of the vendors. Other than long boats, wooden stalls stood out invitingly along river banks with its sellers calling out to us to stop and climb up small steps to view their wares.

Somewhere along the long winding river, there was a place for our boats to stop and for us to mount the steps for food and drinks.

I was particularly fascinated by an open air art gallery of beautiful paintings along the river. The paintings were world class and really beautiful.

We made our way to the end of the river and back again and I took many photos with my handphone because I had never seen anything like this floating market before.

Other than Asiatique, this place gets my vote as one of the must visit places in Bangkok!

After this interesting trip, we went to Mahachai for lunch. Mahachai is a big market with aquariums of all over the place. Fishes, crabs, prawns were swimming in the big tanks. All we had to do was to select the fresh seafood and ask the restaurant to cook the fish or prawns for us in the manner of style that we want.

We had barbequed prawns, butter crabs and steamed fish Thai styled. Very delicious.

It was here that I bought some satay fish, anchovies and cuttlefish. After eating them I later realized that the Malaysian version was better tasting.

Tim asked Black to take us to Central Embassy, a high class shopping place in town. This place was like Pavillion but more high class selling all the top branded items. We had ice-cream at one of the quaint little shops.

After Central Embassy, Black took us for chicken rice at Pratunam. We had to queue to get seats. However I was disappointed as the chicken was hard and not as soft or silky as the chicken back home. The rice was just passable.

From Pratunam, Black took us on our last ride in Bangkok - to the airport!

It was time for us to say goodbye to Bangkok!

Menam Chao Phraya tour

25 February 2015

This was the only morning we could take a stroll around the market near the hotel. Interesting things were sold in the market. We stopped to eat in a small restaurants. Breakfast was ham curry puff and koay teow soup. At last I had my teh si but it was not as good as KL's!

I bought a pair of pants at the market for about 200 baht and my daughter tried a very special cuppacino coffee ice-cream drink.

Our itinerary today is the Menam Chao Phraya tour. 

The longest river in Thailand is also very clean. Many houses are built along the river on stilts.

The Menam Chao Phraya tour consists of a ferry that takes visitors up and down the river. Along the way, the ferry stops and lets people down for a sightseeing tour. A tour guide on the ferry gives us a running commentary on the building and famous places located along the river.

We wanted to experience the river cruise so we opted to take the ferry ride from Sheraton Imperial Hotel. We did not know that we could buy the one-day pass of 150 baht from Khao San so we had to come up with money each time we board the boat. No one could tell us coherently that such a pass was available despite us asking the people manning the ticket booth. In the end we gave up and just bought the tickets anyway.

The first stop was at Pier 9 where we could visit the Grand Palace and Wat Arun. Since my daughter was not allowed to visit as she was wearing shorts, we opted to wait for the father in a nearby restaurant. 

The restaurants were all jam packed and they also limited us to an hour per person as business was really good. Being rather full they limited us to only an hour. Very soon, we saw the father coming in and we were surprised. Apparently the queue was so long to visit both the Grand Palace and the Wat Arun that he gave up too! Indeed Thailand has many tourists and seem to be a popular tourist destination not only for Asians but also for those from Europe and Australia.

We then decided to visit Khao San at Pier 13 being the last stop of the Menam Chao Phraya (some say it is like Petaling Street). We stopped for delicious coconut ice-cream and coconut juice at Khao San pier. We were told that Khao San district was just walking distance from the pier. 

I was surprised at this next tourist attraction because not only was it chock-ful of tourists, it was also full of little stalls selling everything from shirts, pants, belts to bags and all kinds of trinkets. Traditional Thai food was also being sold in Khao San. 

Surprisingly many of the thing sold seem to come from India. The vendors themselves look like Indians from India. The harem pants, cotton shirts and t-shirts appear popular with the tourists.


Khao San does not really look like Petaling Street. It reminds me more of a place in India where my god-sister brought us to visit. Gangavathi - a world heritage site. There in Gangavathi, tourists outnumber the locals and the atmosphere is just like that of Khao San - laid back and quiet with small quaint shops selling all kinds of stuff.

I really like Khao San though there was nothing really special to buy save for a tube of counterpain which I bought from a small pharmacists hidden among the little stalls. This tube is not the blue counterpain but one containing medicine for arthritis. My knees were holding up but I was having cramps at night from too much walking. 

We had juices at Khao San - banana, papaya and mango juice. For our lunch, the father had the famous koay teow wrapped in omelete and the daughter had a rice dish. I opted for just plain fruits.

From Khao San, we took the boat ride home. The daughter wanted to go again to Asiatique (Pier 11) and we decided to allow her to go alone on condition that she make her way back to the hotel by 7.

Dinner was at Somboon Restaurant, Thailand's most famous seafood restaurant.

We had their famous curry crab, plad shon fish and prawn balls. About 1,200 baht but a very satisfying meal indeed!

A taxi driver named Black

24 Feb 2015

Considering that Tim says black is my favorite color (I beg to differ), we ended up with a taxi driver driving a green taxi arranged by the Hotel to take us on a trip to Pattaya. The taxi driver's name was...you guessed it...."Black"!

Black agreed to take us on a 2-hour trip to Pattaya as we wanted to see the beaches and eat the seafood. However Black decided to take us to a stop along the way to visit the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo.

We had breakfast at small shop before going into the zoo. However the duck noodle was not as nice as the one at Pratunam. The tea I ordered was definitely not teh tarik (more like tea latte) as it appeared to have cream on top of it. Like I said the Thais love their ice milk tea so much cos that was what they gave me although I had ordered hot tea. Thank goodness Black was kind enough to drink it all for me!

As for the zoo, it is clearly a zoo dedicated to breeding tigers and experiments of tigers living with mother pigs feeding off its milk! 

I am not sure whether it is wise to get tigers to suck the teats of a giant 200 lb mother pig but I find it rather depressing to see baby tigers stuck in small cages with very little place to move around. I could sense the distress of the little tigers as they move around their confined spaces listlessly.

Anyway this was a tiger zoo with a difference. Dedicated to the breeding of tigers, they also had crocodile shows, elephant shows and pig racing!

The giant pig was pink in color and looked so delectable. I could just imagine the char siew and the siew yoke that could be made from it! 

However this was the zoo prized pig because it was a 'smart' pig in that it could count! Don't ask me how....

The first show we saw was the crocodile show. Strange it may be, all I could remember about my last trip to Bangkok 30 years ago was visiting the famous crocodile farm in Samut Prakarn.

I saw so many crocodiles there and I remembered the rickety walkways.....

Granted that crocodiles are not easy to train (all they like to do is stay in the shallow waters to keep cool), they were also very lethargic. I suspect they must have been fed their midday meal if not the 2 trainers would have their heads chopped off by the reptilians! Part of the crocodile act was for them to put their heads into the open mouths of the crocodiles! I just could not bear to see it. This was the highlight of the show other than the trainers sitting, riding or putting their hands into the crocodile mouths. However the lady and the man trainer must be credited for doing an excellent job.

The tiger show was more interesting. An array of 8 tigers paraded in a round cage. As the trainers fed them bits of chicken meat, we saw how they got the tigers to stand up and do the famous Thai greeting of putting both paws together "sawadee ka" to the audience. This was really ingenious!

The tigers were also invited to sit on circus like ledges build in ascending fashion. There they stood up on their hind paws to greet the audience. Later they 2 trainers got some of the tigers to jump through empty hoops, hoops with paper that smashed when the tigers jumped through them and hoops with fire around the rings!

After the tiger show, we went to see the elephant show. The elephants were by far the smartest. They could throw darts, carry their trainers with their trunks, on their backs and do massages on those willing to try the elephant massage!

At the tiger zoo, I managed to try the famous Thai mango juice and I was hooked! 

Thai mangoes are exceptionally sweet and fibrous not to mention really gigantic. I also had the chance to eat some fruits at the zoo something that I had missed for the past one day in Bangkok. 

The young lady suggested a stop at J Park. Black had not been there before but gamely asked his friends. As it turned out J stood for Japanese and it was a park containing all things Japanese. Why all this fixation with Japanese food, Japanese scenery, Japanese souvenirs, I wonder. I opted to rest while dad and daughter wandered off to take photos around the Park. Regretted it later as I saw the beautiful photos of the Japanese gardens which they showed me.

Here I wandered into the Japanese supermarket and bought some udons and Japanese noodles to share with family members back home.

From J Park we headed to Pattaya. We stopped at a place called Nangnual for lunch. Nangnual had a fantastic scenery of the famous Pattaya beach and the sea.

For me the beaches of Pattaya are really lovely. They were pristine white and really clean.

Here at Nangnual, the daddy had pineapple rice in a pineapple while the young lady had coconut rice in a coconut! Simply scrumptious.

As for me, all I had was a plate of very delicious lime-tasting fruit salads (I was really starved of fruits) and the delicious Thai dessert called tap tim krob (water-chestnuts coated in a pink jelly served in a bowl of sweetish coconut milk).

Black took us passed the a-go-go bars which he said were very active at night. He even described to us what happened in the a-go-go bars (censored).

The highest point of Pattaya is very beautiful. Overlooking Pattaya and parts of Bangkok, we saw green scenery and rows and rows of buildings at one end and the blue green of the sea at the other end. A shutterbug's haven for sure. 

The young lady asked Black to take us to Chocolateville after that. Now even Black had not been there because it was only newly opened. 

We were glad we could go as the first sight of the fairy tale lights and the little structures of windmills, Dutch-inspired houses, farm-houses, sheeps, dainty sculptures was a photographer's paradise. Even a couple in their wedding garb took ages to get a perfect shot on a classic bicycle with the Dutch-inspired scenery as its background.

I think I should be forgiven if my first thought was 'Why a little bit of Amsterdam in Bangkok?' and why the name 'Chocolateville' when there was no chocolate shops around?

Going into Chocolateville, we were simply amazed that the entire place was actually a huge restaurant. Other than that the service was disappointing and the food was pricey.

I ordered an avocado dessert which came without the dressing I ordered. A bowl of mashed potato without any gravy and without the chicken that was supposed to be the chef recommendation on the menu. The saving feature was the basket of chips and the 3 pork meat buns that the chef recommended (which buns were not from Bangkok but rather from Hong Kong). We waited quite some time for our orders to be taken and like forever before the food came.

Frustrated we asked for the bill and found that we had been overcharged for one item which the waiter kindly reduced it for us.

Other than this episode, our outing was fun because of the tiger zoo and Pattaya.

Asiatique

23 Feb 2015
Day 1 in Bangkok by night

The fascinating Asiatique is really a stunning and beautiful place by night.

We had to take a ferry over to this man-made island shopping area. Lining up with many tourists, I had no difficulty climbing up and down the ferry. 

I marveled at my knees which had completely healed. Thank you Jesus for healing me by sending me to a very wise doctor who gave me the correct diagnosis.

A year ago, it would have been sheer agony for me to walk a few steps. To get up after a while of sitting down would require the help of a pair of really good crutches. Sitting cramped in the Airasia airline seat would result in excruciating pain.

Although I took along my special "Kingsman" umbrella (a 2-in-1 of an umbrella plus a walking stick) for support, I was happy that I experienced very little pain except for leg cramps at night as result of too much walking during the day. I bought blue cooling counterpain to apply to the cramps. Unlike the red counterpain which I could buy in KL, this counterpain was blue in color and really cooling when applied.

Asiatique is really unique. 

Made up of small eclectic, quaint, artsy-fartsy, quintessential shops selling clothes, bags, shoes, trinkets, souvenirs, toys, Thai desserts like mango and stick rice and traditional Thai food, one could spend several nights just wandering through its amazing maze and always end up buying something.

I vote for Asiatique as the most fascinating place to visit in Bangkok as it was the most beautiful place to go while in Bangkok at night.

The eye of Bangkok with its shining spokes and surreal neon white and blue colors fascinated me so much that I had to take out my handphone to take many pictures of this beautiful ferris wheel. No matter which angle it was beautiful to look at and stunning!

My daughter loved the clothes so much that she bought a dress and a shirt. I bought a pair of bermuda shorts. She later went back to Asiatique on the 3rd day on her own and bought a custom made t-shirt with her name on it!

Dinner was awesome. We had sweet tom yum in coconut with a big prawn. We also had fried crispy fish in sweet sour sauce and green curry chicken. The pandan leaf cooling drink was simply delicious!

Pratunam

Day 2 - Feb 24 - Monday

We took an MRT from Cha Nongsi to National Stadium. From there we took another train to Siam station before taking a walk on the Skybridge to Siam Central, Siam Paragon and Platinum shopping complex. All the shopping complexes were near each other.

We decided to have duck noodle for breakfast at Pratunam. The father and daughter had duck noodles. I had old cucumber soup. It seems Pratunam is famous for chicken rice. Indeed at this shop selling duck rice and duck noodles, many customers ordered chicken rice.

We visited the small alleyways at Pratunam but found it depressing as the shops were selling clothes like those my mother would buy. Also the stalls were closed to one another in the alleyways which were dirty and smelly.

We decided to walk over to Platinum shopping complex. This shopping complex is a wholesale shop selling clothes, bags and shoes. No trying and no bargaining because the prices are already considered cheap since this is a wholesale market. However many of the clothing were from countries like Korea.

I could not walk the many floors of the complex and opted to sit down while waiting for my family. It was there I met a group of nine from Singapore who often travel to Bangkok for holiday. Of course in terms of exchange rate, Bangkok would be a shopping paradise for them.

After Platinum, we took a tut-tut (small motorized scooter-like transportation with colorful exteriors and plastic L-shaped seats). 3 people can seat comfortably though 4 would be possible but rather cramped.

We were recommended by the Singapore group to visit MBK, the largest shopping complex in Bangkok. The head of the group informed us that it will take us 3-days to finish the 7-floor shopping complex.

We were also informed by a security guard (Thai but English-speaking) that MBK has the first MK restaurant outlet. Now a church member had recommended that we try this restaurant as it was a special Bangkok steamboat outlet.

We found the restaurant but not before helping ourselves to free iced tea milk tea drinks at the largest food outlet at the 5th floor. The Thais love their iced milk tea which they drink in tall glasses. The reddish-brown drink made me homesick for teh tarik but it did not even taste close the real thing back home. It tasted rather sweetish and too cloying for my liking.

We found MK restaurant and found out that it was like a clone of the Sukiya restaurant in KL save that there was no buffet spread. It was delicious. I really like the not too strong Sukiya soup which I ate with dollops of the Japanese sesame sauce. However I did not find the tom yum delicious as I am not really a fan of tom yum unless it is tom yum in a coconut shell with a big prawn stuck at its open mouth!

After a hearty lunch, we explored Siam Central, Siam Paragon. I bought a Mulberry wallet outside Siam Central for 150 baht. It was classic as it was white in color.

Next stop Asiatique....

Bangkok 22 February 2015 to 27 February 2015

First night at Bangkok - Feb 22 2015

We made the trip to Bangkok after the 2015 CNY holidays at the advice of a travel agent who informed us that the best time for holidays is after the CNY.

However he did not tell us that it was super hot in Bangkok! My cousin had already warned me about the heat when we met up during CNY. We came prepared with hats and sunblock lotion but were taken aback by the sheer heat and the humidity.

We arrived late at night at Don Muang airport in Bangkok and was a little confused about where to take the taxi until we saw lines of people waiting for taxis. We also thanked God that we met people who could speak English at the airport.

There were at least 6 to 8 lines of people just waiting to get a taxi ticket. Unlike KLIA 2, the taxi queue was really long with many foreigners.

Our taxi driver got lost taking us to the Hotel. He had to ask some people before he managed to get us to the right place.

Glow Trinity Hotel is a 3-star hotel but really has all the amenities of a 4-star hotel. This hotel is also centrally located with the MRT just a few minutes walk away. There are shopping complexes nearby and also a morning market and many stalls selling food. 

The hotel people upgraded us to a bigger room with a queen bed and a single bed. 

The attendants were casually dressed and friendly. Tim even asked the guy who took our bags up how much to tip him. He said 20 or 40 baht. 

The room was spacious with nice wall sofas, big TV (video films can be rented to watch), a coffee-tea bar, free mineral water daily, clean bathroom and nice soft beds with ample supply of pillows and downy comforters.

Continuation.....

Cuenca, Batangas & Manila

May 30 to June 2014

Cuenca, Batangas, Manila – May 30 to June 7

My maiden mission trip to Philippines can be said to be a record-breaker. This is because of the many firsts that I had experienced during this trip. In fact of the seven of us who came along, at least five of us were first-timers.

1.       It was my first time leading a mission team of this size. I was not sure what to do but I thank God for the prayers of HGC and the ‘obedience’ of team members. 

I was particularly concerned when Festus came down with fever on Monday.  As Allison and I sponged him to bring the temperature down, I wanted so much to text Ps Khor to ask him to pray for Festus’s healing. 

Somehow the Holy Spirit reminded me that Ps Khor had been praying for us during morning prayers and that God will heal Festus so that he could enjoy the rest of the mission trip. Praise God that Festus’s fever came down the following day after a night of rest, water and panadol! We took turns to do the morning devotion, prayed and worshipped in the Spirit and also had much fun and laughter teasing one another during our first mission trip together as a team.

2.       It was my first time preaching a message on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was at the request of Ps Willy who was conducting a 2-month discipleship training session for church leaders and members of the Cuenca Bible Christian Church. Both he and Vicky had been faithfully conducting a discipleship series every Saturday and wanted to cap it with a final series of teaching on the Holy Spirit.

We had a truly awesome time. All our messages flowed with each other. The final session with Allison was to put into practice all that we had taught them for the past two-days. I heard the sound of a mighty rushing wind while Dorothy saw rain falling on the people. 

Many young people were in tears. Psalm saw a vision of halo around people’s heads. The message was that we had been cleansed and had received the Holy Spirit. We are to continue to walk in the Spirit and to keep the halo around our heads burning brightly!

3.       It was my first time praying for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So many spoke in tongues. Many broke down and cried when Tim and I led them to pray the prayer of repentance, some crying uncontrollably. Other team members prayed for the sick and people were falling all over the place, slain by the power of the Holy Spirit!

4.       It was also my first time to receive a certificate nicely framed up thanking me for being part of the discipleship training. For all of us who had received the certificate, we were deeply touched. 

When I held the certificate with my name on it, which certificate was signed by the senior pastors, I felt that I had graduated from Bible school. However the reality was I had so much to learn from the Christians of the Cuenca Bible Christian Church! 

Their humility, hospitality and their eagerness to serve us with their excellent meals, transportation for the seven of us and blessing us with a free holiday to Tagaytay (a volcano island with stunning scenery) was something unparalleled as compared to all the other mission trips I had ever attended. Like one of my team members said, we truly felt appreciated!

5.       To my shock and surprise, we were even given a big offering on our last day! This is also my first time to receive a love offering after ministering. Having ministered in different mission trips in the past, I have more often than not ended up given things away to the locals.  Joy filled our hearts when as a group, we decided with one heart to sow the money back to the church!

6.       It was also my first time to pray for the municipal council of Cuenca, a district of Batangas (province of the Philippines). I was asked to share my testimony during the flag-raising ceremony with the workers of the municipal office and to pray for the city of Cuenca. 

That morning as we took turns to pray during our morning devotion, one of the sisters in the team prayed for the gates of Cuenca to be opened to welcome the King of Glory. I decided to share on Psalm 24 and to lead the council staff gathered on the open space of the municipal council grounds to pray for clean hands, pure hearts asking God to forgive them for turning their soul to an idol.  Then I asked them to pray a prayer with me to invite Jesus into their hearts and into the city.  At least 40 council employees including the mayor of Cuenca prayed to open their hearts and the gates of the city to the King of Glory!

7.       It was also my first time witnessing to so many people. Armed only with the tract ‘Steps to peace with God’, I went through the 4-steps with more than 10 people, leading them to pray the sinner’s prayer, at the mall, at a 7/11 outlet, at a tourist spot, in a home, at Payatas (a slum area in Manila) and at a Dunking Donuts outlet. 

I also managed to distribute a number of tracts to several people that I met during this trip.

8.       It was also my first time to meet a humble Korean missionary, Rev Lee who had started a school in Batangas and a church in the area to reach out to the young people in the area. In fact Ps Willy shared with us that he grew up in BPC (Batangas Presbyterian Church) and that his life had been much impacted by Rev Lee’s 25 years of ministry in Batangas.

This trip is an eye-opener for me as I could see how Ps Willy and Vicky treasured their time with us in HGC. 

They shared with their church that we made their family felt so at home with our love and hospitality during their short time in Malaysia.

They also implemented many of the things that they saw us doing in HGC in the Cuenca Church for e.g. the discipleship training sessions leading to the possibility of starting discipleship groups in the different Barangays (similar to our life groups) with the possibility of turning the discipleship groups into daughter churches, the DISC profile which they learnt from Ps Nicholas Choo and which they brought back to let their senior pastors do (in so doing they discovered the personalities of their senior pastor and wife). 

They even adopted the format of our membership profile, the pre-service prayers, the prayers during services, the ‘harp & bowl’ prayer and worship sessions during their prayer meetings!

I have been so blessed. I have been so enriched. My heart is bursting with joy!

Salamat po Jesus! Paalam Cuenca, Batangas and Manila! We will be back!