T55. Bangkok Part I

That question still lingered few days prior to departing for Bangkok.  Is this the right time to go to Bangkok?  The explosion around Erawan in Bangkok is still not completely resolved, the falling ringgit, and also the depleting pocket.  But I have bought the flight ticket long before all these happened so I have to brace it and ride that plane.

It was the worst time as far as the ringgit performance against Thai baht is concerned.  If it was RM11.27 for 100 baht back in July when I first check the currency exchange, by the time I did the actual exchange, it was at RM12.04.  Really unlucky but I still have to carry on with it.

Obviously we didn't bring much baht even though the concept of travel this time is urban shopping.  We have to think about that exchange rate still.  Hmmm and the flight has been delayed for few hours as well. 

Luckily, MALINDO Air sell food on board nowadays, and we like that idea so much.

 

 Finally, all doubt about our decision have been cast aside when we saw the vast paddy field beneath us.

  No wonder Thailand is exporting rice and Thai rice is always better than ours.  They seem to make use for every inch of the land.

We safely landed at DongMuang airport, the designated airport for Malindo airline.  We have a good  impression after taking Toyota Altis taxi from the airport to our hotel.  Taxi is clean, the driver is nice and friendly, and most of all he used the meter.  It only cost us 300 baht for the taxi ride but since we used the highway (they call it tollway), the toll charges is on us too.  All in we paid about 375 baht.  My study of the route showed the taxi cost to be around 400 baht so I am not far off this time.

Toll slip.

After we unpack our bags, we hop on to the BTS or skytrain, the name they give to train service running on top of Sukhumvit Rd, which I suppose the main road in Bangkok.  Going back to the theme of our visit, which is leisure, I had planned our trip to include river cruise with dinner on board.  I made a book in advance and when I call the personal from the cruise company, they have our names in record and we have been advised to be at the right jetty latest at 5:15pm.

BTS Nana station

The print out information that we brought from home indicates that we have to ride the boat at Si Phaya Expressboat pier no 3 near Royal Orchid Sheraton.  We ride the BTS from Nana station with interchange at Siam station and head to Saphan Taksin station.  As we look for pier no 3, we walked northbound for about one kilometre without realising that we are suppose to take a pick up boat at the Taksin Bridge pier just in front of the Saphan Taksin station.

Exit from Saphan Taksin station.

Taksin Bridge pier.

Taksin Bridge crossing Chao Phraya river.

 We knew we will not be able to catch that 5:15pm timeline so we decided to let go off the cruise this time.  Tired after that walk, we stop by a spa and get a good 30 minutes feet massage that cost us 150 baht.  You can do the conversion and see how cheap they are.

The unplanned massage.

This look like a school.

Some makeshift canopy for stall.

Bangkok is generally clean.

 In the midst of that great walk, we encountered a mosque.

 Along the Sukhumvit Rd, there are plenty of shopping malls.  Bangkok is always associated with modern malls so it is no surprise to see so many malls but the Siam Paragon is one of high end malls.

 It is located at Siam station where the interchange is.

 

Looking for halal foods in Bangkok is generally easy since there is a big Muslim community in Bangkok as well as Thailand.

T54. Cameron Highland

Another popular highland in Malaysia is Cameron Highland.  This place is more for nature tourists compared to Genting Highland which is more for entertainment and theme park.  There are two ways to choose for climbing to the height of 1540m where Brinchang is located.  For those traveling from north of the peninsular, take an exit immediately after Simpang Pulai toll and take a rather mildly winding road up.  For those traveling from the south, normally they will choose the exit at Tapah, a small town prior to reaching Ipoh.  The road leading up to Cameron Highland here tend to be steep and in some places have very sharp bends.  I chose to ignore the Tapah exit and headed straight to the Simpang Pulai, which may not be a very popular choice but I wanted very much to avoid too steep and winding road up.

Cameron Highland was discovered by Sir William Cameron in 1885.  There are three notable district  namely Ringlet, Tanah Rata, and Brinchang.  Each of these district have their own unique town.

Tanah rata at about 200km from Kuala Lumpur

Bharat tea's Cameron Valley.

The first stop if driving from Tapah will normally be tea plantation estate.  There are a number of plantation companies such as BOH tea and Bharat tea.  Both are located quite close to each other and both locations are between Ringlet, the first town after entering Cameron Highland, and Tanah Rata, a more modern all-in town.  We chose the later one, apparently because our first choice which is BOH tea has no more parking space.  Since when Malaysian like tea so much I wonder.  My reason for stopping is not for the tea but for the view.  I might change my mind though.

View looking down from the Cameron Valley.

One of the tea plantation workers in action.  But why smiling?

With the temperature hovering around 20*C, working in the plantation field will not be too bad.  But the hilly condition of tea plantation estate could be back breaking so it's rather much easier to just shoot pictures and leave.
Before we leave, we had to taste the freshly processed tea and mannnn I reckon this is the best tea I have ever had.  Malaysian and tea tarik cannot be separated and now I have changed my mind.

A little below the BOH plantation outlet there is a rather small size strawberry plantation place.  This is the first place for strawberry matter we found here and not really the best, but the operator is very kind and they even managed to sell few pots of flowers to us.  But did we buy the strawberry?  We did, but still something is missing, maybe the scale of the plant.  We decided to move further up to find a bigger one.

Flower resembling high-heel shoes.  Indeed?

Drive further up to Brinchang for strawberry.

At Brinchnag, we found what we are after.  A strawberry plantation in giant scale that allow us to pick our own strawberry. 

Nicely arranged salad.

Here is the strawberry in abundant.  The area is big and hilly and at the end of the walk there is a place to buy all strawberry product.  I end up taking salad with the strawberry hidden at the bottom of the plate.

Where is the strawberry?

And finally here comes the strawberries.

 
We have our rooms booked at the hotel in Brinchang and I can see that Brinchang is the centre of Cameron Highland.  Night activity is usually to visit night market nearby just beside the main road.

 

 

 

At night the temperature can dip to 18*C and some even wearing jacket but a normal t-shirt will usually adequate.
Cameron Highland is really pleasant, cool, and good for a short trip out of Kuala Lumpur.

Around the pasar malam area there are plenty of restaurants and food stalls to choose from and we chose the right one and have been served with a spread of mouth-watering dishes.

You might want to see some of our video.