Hope you enjoy the following video of a taxi ride from Salaya to downtown Bangkok. This journey took longer then usual due to the traffic, well, Bangkok is one of the worlds most congested cities!
Over the weekend I did not train or do any exercise, apart from some walking. Which in my eyes is not really an exercise!
On Saturday I visited Chatuchak Market, once only popular among wholesalers and traders, Chatuchak Weekend Market has reached a landmark status as a must-visit place for tourists. Its sheer size and diverse collections of merchandise will bring any seasoned shoppers to their knees – this is where you can literally shop ‘till you drop’. The 35-acre (68-rai) area of Chatuchak is home to more than 8,000 market stalls. On a typical weekend, more than 200,000 visitors come here to sift through the goods on offer. Veteran shoppers would agree that just about everything is on sale here, although not all at the best bargain rates. But if you have one weekend in Bangkok, squeeze in a day trip to Chatuchak Weekend Market and you will not be disappointed.
Chatuchak Weekend MarketOne of the many alleyways at Chatuchak MarketSome of the alleyways can become crowded.
After a few hours at the market, I was exhausted and decided to go home for a rest!
In the evening my friend and I went to the movies. Travelling on the bike in Thailand was, to say the least, an adventure!
The movie is called Glass, I am not here to promote or advertise the movie so readers you can google about this!
On Sunday I decided to meet a friend for lunch. On my first three month trip to Thailand, I had a lot of downtime in between training. So as a ‘paying it forward’ I decided to teach English at the local coffee shop for free. I had 13 students attend and we all still keep in touch, many students have gone on to successful careers, chemical engineers, lawyers, doctors and teachers. I would love to say it is probably down to my English classes, but most likely it is not!
We met at the Millennium Hilton and walked to the newly built mall, Iconsian. The mall blew my mind, it is a very impressive mall, each shop was a designer brand! The prices made the luxury store Harrods in London look affordable!
Iconsian MallThe stunning interiorEven the toilet sinks were impressive!!First floor ceilingOne of the many luxury shopsBangkok skyline
Thailand has imposed a ‘luxury tax’ for the designer items, European cars attract a 200% tax. The designer goods in this mall were at least twice as expensive as the UK. The main people that I saw shopping there were Chinese.
No post could be complete without a picture of me!Japanese lunch, SashimiFish saladPork steakSushi
Chao Phraya River and IconSian
IconSian and the surrounding area
The impressive water and light showJust to tease me!Time for tea and before you ask, no, I did not have the macarons. Also, notice the halo above my head!More shots from inside the impressive mall
Whilst concentrating and taking a video of this amazing waterfall, my left foot went into the water!This is the water where my left foot went into!!Love the Bangkok skyline
Bangkok at night
I do feel guilty for not training over the weekend but this weekend was well needed and looking back, I have no regrets. Also, as you can tell I am in love with the ambience and atmosphere for this fantastic mall.
After yesterdays Muay Thai clinching session I woke up with a very stiff neck, as we had a late checkout I decided to relax.
Might as well make full use of the jacuzzi
In the meantime Sangeet visited the Gurdwara.
After checkout where I was promised a hotel car for 300 baht per hour….which is cheaper then a taxi. I went downstairs to find out the hotel had gone back on their word and asked me to take a taxi! Now when I checked out, the lounge staff said do not take a taxi as the driver may take off with your luggage! This is why they arranged the hotel car.
I was furious and demanded to see the duty manager. He came out 15 minutes later! Probably just to annoy me a lot more…..I was planning on going to the Gurdwara where I would spend some time, then together with Sangeet go to the Muay Thai training. Now to cut the long story short, I got the hotel to pay for my taxi, as they have already made me very late. In fact 1 hour later!
There was very heavy traffic to the Gurdwara which was making me even later. I spent about 30 seconds at the Gurdwara then head onto see Master Pimu.
The taxi driver
We arrived at the Muay Thai camp at 6pm, the time when classes finish, luckily Master Pimu said it is fine to train. It was a great session with pad work.
I am blurred because I was running so fast!
With Master Pimu and Kirpal Singh (remember that name, Kirpal will do very well!)
After the training had finished Sangeet, Kirpal, and myself had dinner. As Master Pimu’s wife was catering to meat eaters, Sangeet and I had steamed rice. We were both every hungry and it was the best rice we had tasted!
Master Pimu’s wife and youngest child
This was my last training session with Master Pimu and it was very sad to say goodbye. He has asked I come back for at least a month to train properly.
Master Pimu got on his bike and went out to get us a taxi. Here is a chap who is a master in Muay Thai, yet he is so humble. He got on his bike went out and came back with a taxi.
After long good byes we got taken to the Amari hotel. We chose this as it was a walkway to the Don Muang Airport.
Check in at the hotel took around 30 minutes the service and staff attitude was very poor. The room we were given was a smoking room. Now when asking the staff it is important to ask the right questions. If I said is this a non smoking room? As we have asked for a non smoking room they would have replied with yes it is a non smoking room…..we would have had no choice but to stay. Instead I asked if I could smoke in the room…they replied yes you can….I then said we requested a non smoking room….so they had no option but to give us a non smoking room…..which again they took there time over! I could not recommend this hotel.
By the time we got to sleep it was around midnight, we had to check in by 5:30am!
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around.Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep,I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die!Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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