17 Oct 2008, 10:55pm.  Room 225, Baiyoke Suite Hotel.  Bangkok, Thailand — With Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey on the TV, I realize it’s been the second time that I’ve watched Failure to Launch.  At least it’s not Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness — I’ve watched that 3 times in the past 3 nights.  I leave my hotel room and catch a cab to the airport.

11:20pm.  Suvarnabhumi Airport — Whoa, that was fast.  Normally taking 45 mins, my young taxi driver, listening to what seemed like a Thai version of Parokya ni Edgar, took just 20 mins to get me to the airport.  I left 30 mins late to arrive 30 mins late, but instead arrived 30 mins early.

18 Oct 2008, 12:35am — There she is.    I had missed Beej so much, not having seen her for a week.  I give my baby a hug, and a kiss.  God, I missed that.

1:20am.  Baiyoke Suite Hotel — We’re home… at least, for the next day and a half.

8:30am.  Sky Lounge Restaurant — We have breakfast at the 43rd floor, overlooking Bangkok.  We talked for what seemed like hours — like we hadn’t seen each other for a month or two.

12:00nn — We leave our hotel room.  The adventure begins now. 

12:01pm.  Pratunam — As soon as we step out of the hotel, shopping began immediately.  Pratunam = Divisoria.  Nuff said.

1:00pm.  Platinum Mall — Shopping, then lunch at the food court.  After circling around for a few minutes, we decided to eat at KFC. 

2:00pm.  Pantip Plaza — A whole building of electronics.  PCs, laptops (for as low as 20K+), gadgets, even flat screen TVs (for as low as 30K+).  Despite Beej’s constant “pushing”, we only went window shopping here.

3:00pm.  Ratchatewi (aka Ratatouille) BTS Station — This was the nearest skytrain station, a 15 minute-walk away from our hotel.  Funny moment: we heard Beej’s “Labels or Love” ringtone and thought her phone was ringing.  It turns out it was someone else’s phone (a guy).  Fafa!  Haha!

3:15pm.  Siam Paragon Mall –  The first floor looked like Greenbelt 4/5, but has a crowd as large as SM’s.

3:30pm.  Siam Ocean World — I envied Beej in her stories about the 4-D show in Hong Kong Disneyland, so I asked her to watch the 4-D show here in Bangkok with me.  Movie was fun, but a little extra light wouldn’t hurt.  It was too dark.

4:15pm.  Siam Paragon Food Hall — We attempted to eat mango something something, but their money-card-for-payment scheme got in the way.  We ended up having a Coffee Float thingy from McDonald’s.

5:00pm.  Pratunam — We’re back in our homebase.  Apparently, the mini-malls here close quite early, and several stalls and vendors are already starting to pack up.  We scramble to do our shopping (because it was our plan to spend the following day as “cultured” people haha), only to find out that it was just a change of the shifts.  Morning shops were closing, but the night street market was just starting.  Hurrah for Beej. 

8:00pm.  Pratunam Area McDonald’s — Tired and beat up from a half day of non-stop walking, we have our dinner at McDo — cheeseburger and chicken nuggets meal — just like the old times. 

8:45pm.  Pratunam — More shopping.  Bangkok streets + tiangge @ night.

9:30pm.  Baiyoke Suite Hotel — We come back home to finally rest our tired feet and legs.  We then watched SATC until we fell asleep.

18 Oct 2008, 8:00am — The plan was to wake up at 6:30 and go visit the temples as early as possible.  We woke up at 8:00… and it was raining.  Damn.

9:00am.  Sky Lounge Restaurant — We discuss our backup plan over breakfast.

10:00am — Rain stops.  Yey!  We decide to do our last bits of shopping in the morning before checking out, and go to the temples after lunch.  We go around Pratunam (there’s a lot more shops now!) and Platinum Mall again.

12:15pm.  Baiyoke Suite Hotel — We come back to the hotel and pack up our bags.  Beej is busog from all the shopping.  I have Pringles, Maltesers, and leftover chicken nuggets for lunch.

1:00pm — Late checkout. 

1:15pm — We decide to get adventurous and walk to Phaya Thai BTS Station, instead of Ratatouille.  We get lost in Bangkok’s streets, and eventually decide to take a taxi to Ratatouille.  Hehe. 

2:30pm.  Saphan Taksin BTS Station — We ask Tourist Information for directions to Grand Palace and Wat Po, only to find her na nagt-telebabad sa phone.  Parang Pinoy din haha.

2:45pm.  Bangkok River (or whatever it’s called) — Finally, our “culture points” start to go up, and we ride the boat to N9 pier, Tha Chang, which is supposedly nearest to the Grand Palace.

3:00pm.  Tha Chang — We get to our pier of destination, laugh at some of the signs along the way, but walk along the wrong road “towards” the Grand Palace.  Apparently, we were walking behind it, hahaha!

We eventually reach the end of the long wall (just like Intramuros, only cleaner), and arrive at…

3:20pm.  Wat Pho — We visit the “9 Wonders of Wat Pho”, the best of which is the Reclining Buddha.

4:45pm — We look around and shop for some souvenirs and get back on the boat back to Central Pier.

5:15pm.  Saphan Taksin BTS Station — Tired and starting to have a headache, Beej sleeps on my shoulder on the way back home.

5:45pm.  Petchaburi Road — The “I Hate Bangkok Dogs” Moment.  Beej accidentally steps on some dog poop with her Crocs.  Luckily, a nearby shop owner gives us some water to clean it with.

6:00pm.  The Pizza Company — Extra pepperoni pizza and some kind of cream-based shrimp pasta for dinner.

7:00pm.  Baiyoke Suite Hotel — We go back to our hotel, get our bags left at the Concierge, and take a taxi to the airport.  In Filipino-like fashion, the driver tries to haggle the fare with us.  Good thing I know the real price if we were to use the meter, so we settle with a price that’s agreeable to both sides. 

7:45pm.  Suvarnabhumi Airport — We arrive at the airport, and look for our check-in times.  We wait on the long line in the PAL check-in counters, and I get lucky and get called to the front on the counter beside me (for first class/business class).  I didn’t get upgraded though, but at least I got to cut in line. 

8:30pm — We watch an episode of SATC while waiting for Beej’s check-in time.

9:15pm — Beej checks in her baggage on the Cebu Pacific counter.  Then, we take our remaining Thai Bhat and exchange it back to US Dollars, and we both proceed to the Immigration counters.

9:40pm — We take the long walk towards our boarding gates, take our final bathroom breaks in Bangkok, and wait for boarding time in one of the restaurants in the airport.  We order for a bottled water and a hot latte.  Mahal eh.    A few minutes before boarding, we use our remaining Thai coins to buy a ref magnet as our souvenir of Thailand. 

10:30pm — I board my plane back to Manila.

11:30pm — Beej boards her plane back to Manila.

20 Oct 2008, 3:50am.  NAIA Centennial Terminal — I arrive in Manila.  My father fetches me from the airport, and we drive to…

4:15am.  NAIA Terminal 3 — We wait for Beej at the arrival area of the airport, which looks deserted and ugly.

4:45am — Beej arrives in Manila.  We drive home and take our much needed rest.