Sawadee...

Came back from Bangkok on the wee hours of Monday morning. Yawn. Tired. But it was a good trip. I’ve never spent so much time with my family outside before. Some things to jot down from the trip.

1. My parents are both gan-jiong spiders. Make that one big SUPERLATIVE gan-jiong. I've always know them to be so, but to bear the brunt of their gan-jiong-ness throughout the entire trip was amusing but irritating at the same time. While my sisters and I were still in slumberland, they were up awake, ready for breakfast and fit to go. Breakfast at the hotel was between 630 to 10. At the witching hour of 8am, a morning call came and jolted us up from our dreamland. "Wake up and get ready for breakfast!" I'd definitely vote my parents as the most unwelcome caller of the day. Ha. You know, we were in a rather relaxed mood. We the slugs of course would choose slumbering over filling our tummies. But my parents wanted u s to go down togehter. Ok, ok. Grudgingly dragged ourselves out of the very beguiling beds with lush, cushy comforters. I swore it was beckoning for me to be tucked in for another hour. Ha. 　

My dad wanted enough time to eat. Or rather, he wanted more than enough time to eat. Which probably explains why his tummy is his most striking feature. Ha. For me, I'd rather sleep longer, eat just enough to fill my tummy and be on the go. My parents are the type who want to be early for everything. They don't like to rush at the eleventh hour, unlike me. I'm always rushing around from one place to another. I don't know why, but i just thought it's better use of time.

2. Managing my expectations for a family trip. A family trip is not a shopping trip. I've stopped buying clothes for the past few months so that i could do a full swop of clothes during this trip. I was looking forward to buying many things. But with four other people around, you can imagine that not much shopping could be done. My parents are extremely frugal so there was an air of invisible stress when I'm trying to buy things, albeit the prices being rather dirt-cheap. My sisters were more interested in the upmarket stuff so the charms of Chatuchak failed to turn them on. My dad was put off by the hot, stuffy condition of Chatuchak, so in the end we stuck around Mabunkong for most part of our trip. Aiya, in short, the shopping experience was a near disaster. I gave up on it eventually and came to terms with the fact that it's a family trip, not a shopping trip.

3. Eating must be the highlight of the trip. We were eating so much good food that i didn't feel like eating at all for a while. Japanese food there was really worth every cent that we paid. Meaning, it's so darn cheap compared to Sing. Sashimi and whatever added up to only 12 bucks per person. What a steal! I'd eat it everyday if i could but my mum didn't quite enjoy Jap food, which i tink is acquired taste.

4. Like the previous time i went to Bangkok with Ms Tan and Mr Chng, I was absolutely bewitched by the Thais. I remembered being totally engrossed talking to Ms Tan about suave-looking Thais wherever we went. Up to a point where Mr Chng seemed rather irritated with our imbecile, delirious talk. But to be fair, i was totally bought over by the gals there too. Bought over by their genuine smiles, gentle demeanors and sincere personalities. If i'm a guy, I bet i'll fall head over heels over one of them. Or rather, many of them.

One of the most touching thing about Thailand as a country is how civilised her people are, despite being only a developing nation. Economics has no direct relation to civility and their people shine in manifesting that. (Ok, ignore the violence down South. I'm talking about their people in general) We took the their "MRT" a couple of times. My mum never had to stand at all. It was as though the people there are computed to automatically give up their seats whenever they see an elderly. But the thing is, my mum's not that old-looking. In my books, i would never give up my seat in Sing to a lady like her because i don't think she needs it. It's amazing, seeing people giving up their seats unassumingly and not expecting any word of thanks. I really am very amazed and astounded by their generosity and goodwill. (Ok, for the skeptics, you might say it's more of socialisation rather than generosity. But the fact is, they do it anyway)

They don't rush to be the first to get inside the train. They queue up orderly, as though they were chained to march in a single file. Wow!! Amazing again!!

5. While people are kind in general, there were the occasional crooks of course to mar the day. Our tour package included a half-day tour. The tour guide brought us to places other than places of interests to buy honey and gems. It was supposed to finish at 1230 but dragged on to 2. And it wasn't over yet. He didn't seem to care whether we were hungry. We started the tour at 730, common sense should tell him that we're hungry. But that obviously was not part of his concern and not on his agenda of things to take note of. We left on our own eventually.

When we checked out of our hotel (Asia Hotel) on the last day, a bottle of mineral water was charged to our bill. We refused to pay for it. The hotel staff brought the bottle down and the hotel manager insisted that we pay for it because it was found half-empty. He said it was their rule and could not bend it. We explained that we had no reason not to pay. After all, it was just 45 baht. We spent almost 1800 baht on dinner the first evening. Even when my sister said she wanted to complain and to tell everyone not to stay in the hotel, the manager refused to budge. I thought he was being an ass-hole and a less-than-competent and a less-than-astute hotel manager. By not budging, he implied that we were lying, that we were being dishonest about a darn bottle of mineral water. He challenged us to write the complaint letter. What an ass-hole! Asia Hotel, everyone. Beware! God knows what he was thinking. Plain stupidity, to earn on a bottle of mineral water but to lose potentially thousands of dollars by potential customers in future.

Hmm, but the trip's still a good one! =)