The next day, we gave our Thai friend a break, and decided to spend a lazy morning enjoying the breakfast at the hotel. It was a buffet breakfast that they had offered to us at a discounted rate, so we booked it just for one day to try. It would have been great to sit outside by the river to enjoy the breakfast, if not for the heat and the birds. It was such a beautiful view. But we get the same view inside, with aircon!
The food was just average. They may have been trying to cater to muslim crowd as there were no pork on the menu. And although they have a little bit of everything, there was just something off about the spread. Even so, we enjoyed our luxury breakfast. I usually won't pay for a hotel breakfast unless it's a resort or a Japanese Ryokan. But as I travel more with friends, I realise some people do like to have breakfast at the hotel. Perhaps it forms a complete image of a hotel stay? For me, I always just eat outside, or buy some food and eat it in the room. But if breakfast is provided, of course I'm gonna eat it!
We took a hotel tuk tuk to the nearest BTS station, and from there we travel to Chatuchak market. It was a thing to visit this market whenever we are here. This is my 2nd time here. It's a huge market, and I would have loved to explore every part of it. But it was also freaking hot, even in the morning.
We had lunch at the market. Lots of stall selling thai food with lots of tourist. Sadly, the food was expensive and not very nice. I had the tom yam, so no matter how bad it was it was still edible. But the fried soya bean curd was totally not! I usually don't waste food, but even I can't stomach it all. Lol.
After Chatuchak, we took a train to town area, as my friend wanted to pray to the famous four faced buddha in Erawan area. Wow, what a crowd there! The very first time I visited this place, I was 23 years old, on a transit stop from Korea with my first boyfriend. We stayed at a hotel nearby, and walked pass the buddha whenever we went to the mall. It was not as grand as now though. Now, hundreds of people are there all the time, offering prayers and stuff.
You could even purchase an elephant as offering for the gods. I though that was rather cute :)
It was not just the Erawan buddha, almost every big mall or hotel has an over the top shrine in front. And people who walked pass would pray to them. It was something very unique to Thailand, and I appreciate this side of the culture more than the bargains at the mall.
So something interesting to share. When you purchase incense to for the gods, you are not allowed to light them. You just bring them over to the shrine, pray, and placed them there. After a while, a cleaner will come and clear all of the unused incense into a bin and remove them. I was just speechless looking at this process. I hope they reuse those incense elsewhere and not just destroy them. The worshipper doesn't seem to mind. It was the same as the marigold flowers too. You pay for them, placed them in the alter, and they get removed after a few minutes.....
A few weeks after I came back, there was a tragic death of a group of Vietnamese in one of the high end hotel here. It was due to food poisoning of cyanide over some money deal. Anyway, we went to Big C for shopping after that, and I did ended up buying lots of sauces from there. I love Thai sauces for cooking. Since I always cooked at home when I'm not out, buying sauces is a form of souvenir shopping for me. It helps me recall the wonderful time I had in the country, and reminds me of the delicious food there.
Lastly, on our way home, we went for some hot soya milk again, and even tried the fried oyster just next door to the soya milk place. They made it super crispy, and it taste just lovely! Little did we know, we will have another awesome plate of oyster the very next day!
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