Shanghai / Hangzhou Day 5 (11/6/2014)

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Woke up at 8am today, walked over to Zhi Wei Guan for our breakfast before heading back to Shanghai.  Our original plan was to try out the dim sum at Zhi Wei Guan..but when we reached there, we were greeted by sight of a normal foodcourt.  It was kind of surprising as I was expecting a restaurant.  We were kind of in a hurry, I did no think too much or ask around, we went into the foodcourt and started to orfer our breakfast items. 

 

Shanghai / Hangzhou Day 4 (10/6/2014)

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Another glorious weather day ! Early this am, we set off to Hu Pao Spring.  We arrived there close to 8.45am, way ahead of those tourist buses etc.  Thus the whole experience was very refreshing, minus the crowd!  We saw locals pushing trolleys with empty huge containers to be filled with the spring water!  All we have is 2 small mineral bottles. :))

 

Shanghai / Hangzhou Day 3 (9/6/2014)

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Today is D-DAY that we will be going to Hangzhou ! Exciting!

My original planning was to take the bullet train to Hangzhou and then take the metro to our Hotel - RenHe Hotel (仁和饭店）Should have been a relatively easy journey. But one of my kind friend has helped to contact his business associate in Nanjing to lend us his car and driver so that makes traveling to Hangzhou even much easier !  (Pls read my lesson learnt at the end of this post)

Shanghai / Hangzhou Day 2 (8/6/2014)

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Woke up to perfect weather.  Temperature this morning is around 22-23 degrees..cooling!  Plan for today will be a trip to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Yu Yuan (Cheng Huang Miao) in the late afternoon.

First, roamed the streets for breakfast!  Surprise! There is a branch of Yang's Fried Dumplings near our hotel ! (小杨生煎包)  Actually, during our Day 5, we discovered an even nearer stall close to our hotel.  For today, let's share directions to this little restaurant.  Again, setting off from Level 1 of Sofitel, out from hotel entrance, we turned left, walk straight down the street till we see the following :

Shanghai / Hangzhou Day 1 (7/6/2014)

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Another family holiday! This time we are going to Shanghai and Hangzhou...Yay!

Woke up at 4.45am, breakfast, one last check around the house and we were on our way in a maxi cab to Changi Airport.

 

 For our stay in Shanghai, I booked Sofitel Hyland Hotel, which is literally located along Nanjing Pedestrian Walk..where the shopping belt is.  It's a nice and comfortable hotel, but services??? Hmmm...ok lah, can't really feel the warmth and friendliness from service crew, but still they are polite and do their job.  So cannot complain too much  :))

Bangkok Day 9 (22/10/2013)

D Day ! Home Bound! Woke up bright and early to do one final round of packing and yes, all set for the afternoon flight !  But first..for breakfast.....

One more round of wanton noodles..everybody's fav!  See those glistening noodles?  Slurp it into your mouth, you will taste the light salt mixed with pork lard that melts in your mouth.  When you chew the noodles and all blend as one, the aroma is heavenly, like a whirlpool going around inside your mouth and awaking every taste bud !

Bangkok Day 8 (21/10/2013)

Today is our 8th day in Bangkok and we will be going home tomorrow! How time flies !  

This morning, we wanted to go for the wanton noodles again (refer to Bangkok Day 2).  Unfortunately when we reached there, the stall was closed and will only be opened tomorrow.  Too bad.  Anyway, always plenty of good food in Bangkok. .. so we walked further into the lane and discovered this wonderlicious noodle stall !

When you are at the wanton stall, contnue to walk down the lane..

Bangkok Day 7 (20/10/2013)

Woke up to a leisure morning.  Calmness before madness :O))   No weekend visit at Bangkok is complete without a trip to Chatuchak Weekend markket!

Beautiful warm morning as we set off...but by 11am, sun was blazing hot ! At 8.30am, we took a short BTS ride to Mo Chit and had breakfast there first before taking on the feat to conquer this super huge weekend market.

Look at the human snake traffic!  PS: If you intend to take your breakfast or lunch there, you can find real good roadside stalls.  Once you come down from the bridge, just follow the human flow ( you should be walking towards another overhead bridge (Pic below).  When you come to a right turn into a smaller road, turn and walk down this smaller road, which will also be lined with stalls. Walk to the end and you will find food stalls.  After you've had your fill, you should see the Chatuchak entrance. Scroll down for pics..

Bangkok Day 6 (19/10/2013)

Today is an important day ! 

Work up at 5.30am, washed up.  It was hard to get kids to wake up that early but somehow, managed to pull and tugged them out from their beds.  Lol!

The sight that greeted us when we step into the lobby.  Staff had already prepared the offerings, with our room numbers sticked onto it. 

Bangkok Day 5 (18/10/2013)

WARNING : GRAPHIC OVER-LOADED POST!!  :))

Finally ! It's  Maeklong and Amphawa Day ! This was the highlight of our trip and I was so looking forward to it!

Woke up at 7am.  After a quick breakfast, we checked out of our hotel, left most luaggage with the hotel and only brought along an overnight bag with us.

Our itinerary for today will be to visit the Maeklong Market, watch the train goes by at close proximity and then proceed on to Amphawa for our over night stay.

Our accommodation at Amphawa was at Thanicha Resort.  We booked this 2 months in advance as rooms ran out really fast.  For 1 night's stay, one unit with 5 beds and a living hall, breakfast inclusive, we paid 4018 Baht.  There are quite a number of homestay along the floating market, but seems like Thanicha is available for online booking and it is also one of the better ones.  We understand that some other homestay practices common bathrooms and that was not what I wanted, with 2 old folks and young kids.  We made our reservations through www.hotels2thailand.com.

Bangkok Day 4 (17/10/2013)

Woke up to another gloomy weather day.  Well, rain or shine, Victory Monument, here we come!  Lol! Armed with umbrellas, we set off to the BTS station.

Main purpose of going to Victory Monument - to check out the transport station where to board those vans to Amphawa (as we will be going there early tomorrow morning) as well as to go look for food - Boat Noodles!

First task accomplished.  Looking for the station to board the van was easy.  No sweat.  For those who are interested to find out more on transportation to Amphawa, please see my post on Bangkok Day 5 post.  Detailed directions there.

Bangkok Day 3 (16/10/2013)

Woke up at 8am and the first thing that I hear was not traffic or human noises.  Its' pitter patter pitter patter.  RAIN ! Urghhhhhh! Looks like we will have to go into shopping malls and not be able to explore roadside stalls.

After a quick breakfast, we decided to go to Terminal 21.  Not for shopping.  Kids wanted to visit all the toilets there.  They have seen me googled for info on Terminal 21 and was impressed with ...the toilets?!?! Took the BTS to Asoke and spent about 2.5 hours there, exploring the loos and foodcourt.  I would say no one shops or buy things there..not sure how those retail shops survived.

Take a look at the infamous loos that takes load of "dumps" each day..enjoy !  :))

Bangkok Day 2 (15/10/2013)

Rise and shine ! It's our 2nd day in Bangkok.  After quick wash up, we took a cab from the hotel to Pratunam.  Cab fare : 47 Baht.  The cab driver was really lacking in manners.  When I asked and confirmed with him if he charges by meter fare, he said so very loudly and impatiently " YA ! YA !"  Haiz...so when he alighted us, I gave him the exact fare of 47 baht and kept back the 100 baht that I got ready to pay to the driver, regardless of the fare $$.  Saved 53 baht go buy liang teh to cool down boiling fire. :(

We were trying to look for the wanton noodles that apparently all Singaporeans will go to (directions at the end of the post).  Well, the noodles definitely lives up to its reputation, but that is because they use pork lard ! Yumzzz! Not cheap though, the charges are 50 baht per bowl.  Very small quantity.  My kids wolfed down 2 bowls each...

Bangkok Day 1 (14/10/2013)

Yes! Off we went to the Land Of Smiles this am! Woke up super early to go to the airport to catch our 8.25am flight. Booked a maxi-cab to take in the 5 of us plus luggage bags. SGD67/- for trip starting before 6am. It was raining rather heavily but surprisingly, the Tiger Airways flight was not delayed. Yay!

Eventful flight and we reached Bangkok airport at 9.45am.  Worried about traveling with old folks and kids, I scrapped the idea of taking the BTS or hailing 2 separate cabs. Instead, I pre-booked an innova taxi to pick the 5 of us up from the Suvarnabhumi Airport. Trustworthy and sincere driver and he waited almost 1.5 hours for us to clear customs and buy our phone cards! Charged 700 baht.  no wonder he has quite a good recommendation on the internet :) Thumbs up!!

PS: Phone cards I strongly recommend to approach DTAC counter.  Anyway they have the longest queue too.  I find that their internet coverage is good and fast and the price is pretty reasonable.

Finally reached the hotel around 11.45am. As the rooms were not ready yet, we left our luggage a with the hotel and went out for lunch.

We stayed at Mecure Siam Bangkok and from all the reviews I've read, they all said that the BTS is just located outside of the hotel..well that's really true! :). Only thing to note, walking out of the hotel, there are 2 possible way to get to the BTS.  Step out of hotel, turn left, you climb and flight of stairs. But if you turn right, then there is an escalator.  guess which we use?!lol!

After checking out the train ride fares, we decided to go for the store value card. It's called the Rabbit Card.  No idea why Rabbit?  200 baht for one card, where 100 baht is the credited value, 50 baht as deposit and another non-refundable 50 baht as admin charge.  Well, this would be more convenient than buying single trip tickets, ESP during peak hours!

Took a one station ride to Siam station and went to Som Nam Tua for lunch. There were so many good reviews about this eating place that we felt that it's a must to try !

Signature Sign Board

Preparing For Bangkok Trip 14-22 Oct 2012

Having colleagues who are crazy over Bangkok helped in prompting me to make plans for my next family holiday - To the Land Of Smiles!

There are sooooooo many blogs on Bangkok that it basically means info are in abundance online!

Have already booked flights via Tiger Airlines, a total cost of S$1054/- for 5 pax. Add-on baggages of 60kg inclusive.  Super cheap and that's because I booked way in advance like 3 months ago. 

As for hotel, it was a messy thought process. Initially thought of staying 1 night at Pratunam @ Hotel 93 and then shift over to Mecure Siam Bangkok for the rest of our stay as this hotel is basically at the doorstep of the BTS and opp. of MBK. Thanks to colleague J, lol! Her frequent trips to Bangkok has made her an invaluable info ATM !