a quick glance of thailand (and the disadvantage of having a dslr)

a couple of weeks ago, after numerous postponements, i finally flew to thailand on a three-day business trip. besides work, i had two goals on this brief trip:

1) to experience the famed-bangkok shopping experience (and buy gifts for my wife syempre 😉)
2) shoot, shoot and shoot with our d40

i focused my free time on accomplishing these goals. kahit saglit lang ako sa thailand, i wouldn’t pass out the opportunity to experience and photograph amazing thailand.

(note: the photos embedded here are downsized for web usage. to see the full resolution photos, visit our multiply site here.)

upon arrival in bangkok, the thing (or things) that really struck me were the cars and the roads. para kasing bago lahat ng sasakyan nila dun. kung sa pinas eh ang mga taxi eh vios, sa thailand, ang mga taxi nila eh altis. 🙂 so kung ang altis eh taxi lang sa kanila, ang parang common sedan sa thailand eh camry. lupit no? 😉 but what was more impressive was their roads… or should i say, their road. man, they have this looooooong skyway that seemed like it had no end. sobrang haba talaga. we asked the thais how long it was and they said it was about 100 kilometers long. imagine 4-5 times the length of south superhighway… lahat yun skyway. ganun kahaba. impressive indeed.



from the airport, we proceeded to the hotel which was located just outside of bangkok. check-in lang tapos dinala kami ng aming host sa mall na katabi lang ng hotel. seacon square is megamall-esque in size but lianas-like inside. 😆 actually, some parts lang naman ang parang lianas… the rest is more like… waltermart. 😀



anyway, we planned in spending the afternoon searching for the perfect pasalubong for our loved ones. pero bago yun, we wanted to try some thai food and the easiest place to get one is… at the food court. 😀



soup ang gusto ng mga kasama ko. so inikot namin ang food court… the problem is, most of the menus were written in thai. buti na lang meron kaming nakita na may english menu so syempre, dun na kami bumili. 🙂 tom yang soup ang ni-target naman. it sounded good… and it looked good din sa picture. we ordered one each but soon realized there was a different payment system in there (thanks to a friendly thai girl na tinulungan si jhay with this 😉). sfter going through the payment process, we then proceeded to taste our tom yang. i love spicy food but this one was freakin’ spicy hot!!! kuha-kuha pa ako ng chili powder ha eh d ko naman pala kakailanganin. 😆 grabe ang anghang. todo tulo pawis namin. i ate only half of mine. darwin managed to eat it all (at sobrang pinagpawisan nga lang 😀). vena ate about 1/4th of his while jhay almost didn’t touch his. mahina pala sa maanghang tong si jhay. 🙂


they have system similar to time zone. bili ka ng card then swipe away. 🙂


eagerly awaiting their tom yang… 🙂


the menu, the condiments and the soup.

after the tom yang experience, nag-ikot na kami to do some shopping. pero, since this was like lianas/waltermart, medyo nahirapan kami maghanap. it’s a good thing there was this korean crafts area where we got a few stuff. kaso we weren’t that satisfied (at least kami ni vena). we continued going around the mall until bumigay na sina jhay at darwin and they went back to the hotel. kami naman ni vena were like energizer bunnies and kept going… and going… and going. yun nga lang, wala pa rin kami nabili. *sigh*



we went back to the hotel and waited for our semthai hosts at the lobby as they were gonna treat us dinner. while waiting… surprise, surprise… we saw a familiar face…



it was duane… a former colleague at samsung. he’s now working for cigi (and mighty successful i should add) and has been to thailand numerous times already. like a blessing from God, he volunteered to take us to the bangkok night market. woohooOoOo! pasalubong problem solved. 😉

we ate dinner at a blue wave-esque place. authentic thai cuisine minus the spices. kasi naman si jhay eh binanggit nya sa mga thais na ayaw daw nya noong tom yang kasi maanghang daw… so d tuloy um-order ng maanghang yung mga taga-semthai. boooo! 😆 nevertheless, masarap pa din… especially the lapu-lapu in garlic and pepper. yum. 🙂



the following day was all work. i’ll just skip this part of my thai trip. 🙂


dinner plus tokens from the semthai president himself.



a couple of after dinner shots. (photos courtesy of vena)

after dinner, vena and i met up with duane at the hotel and immediately proceeded to bangkok night market. we took a cab, the railway and then the subway to get there. here we further realized how efficient public transportation was here in thailand. meron na silang sobrang mahabang skyway, meron pa silang mrt at tapos… meron pa silang 2-level subway. thumbs up to the thais.



bangkok night market at lumpini park is, simply put, 1 gigantic tiangge. 🙂 duane told us that the market will be open until 2 am so vena and i were confident that we will find the perfect pasalubong here. ikot-ikot kami and saw the usual stuff… until we came into this stall that was selling contemporary wall clocks. perfect! tagal na namin naghahanap ni selle ng wall clock eh. pumasok ako at nagtingin-tingin hanggat may nakita akong magandang design. then dumating si vena at may na-gusto-han din sya. ang problema eh parehas kami ng gusto. 😀 we were still hours away from 2 am so instead of arguing who gets to buy the clock eh we decided to continue looking around and just come back later kung wala nang makitang iba. so naglakad uli kami at si duane eh mas marami pang nabibili kaysa amin. 😀 we then reached a sampaloc stand at syempre nagsi-bilihan kami. while doing so, we noticed that some of the stalls were closing shop already. teka, teka… baka magsara na din yung nagbebenta ng wall clocks ah. nagmadali kaming bumalik and guess what? sarado na sya. 😦 sabi nga ni duane, “sabi ko sa inyo, eh… binili nyo na dapat, eh.” 😀

somewhat defeated, nag-ikot na naman kami but this time, pag may na-type-an na kami, eh automatic, bili na. we’re quick learners naman. 🙂 wala kaming tigil kaka-ikot hanggang halos maubos na ang mga bukas na stall so we called it a night. we decided to take a cab back to the hotel and experienced something so pinoy… ang na-ngo-ngontratang taxi driver. uso din pala sa kanila yun. 🙂

the following day, we were scheduled to go the “king’s palace.” that’s what we heard. d namin sure kung ano tawag sa place eh. bad trip nga ako kasi comfy na ako in my shorts and sandals tapos bawal daw pala ganoong attire dun. grrrr… hindi sinabi agad eh. nagpalit pa tuloy ako. byahe na naman kami past bangkok and to another province hanggang nakarating din kami sa palace. eto naman parang nayong filipino. 😀 akala namin we will be riding golf carts around the place pero we remained in the van at umikot. medyo bad trip nga kami kasi d naman na-hinto yung van so we could take some pictures. we just had to shoot through the van’s windows.

finally, the van stopped and we strolled around this mini-floating market… and even beyond.




i was shooting pictures like crazy as seen here. (photos courtesy of vena)





a few images around the floating market.


i found this footbridge interesting especially in black and white.


the guys striking a pose. the one disadvantage of having dslr is you don’t get to be in the pictures.


here’s one of the few photos that i get to be in. i’ve been practicing my post-processing skills and tried to recover this photo. check the before and after comparison. (photo courtesy of darwin)


there was a part in the market where you can feed these tilapia-sized fishes. i took this sequence of shots and turned it into somewhat of an abstract art.

afterwards, we were off to view a crocodile show at samutprakan crododile farm…



…home of over 100,000 crocodiles. that’s a loooot of crocs.





we can’t even imagine how they manage to feed all of them. sobrang dami talaga. we strolled around the place and after a while, went back to the van because, one of the korean expats told us, “dyoks, after 5 minutes… we have to go.” yun pala, what he meant was, after 5 minutes, we have to go to the crocodile show. 😆 it’s a good thing we realized this or else we would’ve missed the show.



the show was amazing but, at times, nerve-wracking. sabi ko nga kina vena, ako yung kinakabahan para dun sa mga crocodile wrestlers. watch these and you’ll understand 🙂



(videos courtesy of vena)

after the show (actually d na namin tinapos 😀), we went straight to the airport. checking-in was a breeze… so unlike in the philippines. 🙂 we had time to do some duty-free shopping so that means more pasalubong for my wife. 😉 we boarded the plane and, thanks to vena and jhay, we got window seats… and was able to get off these shots.




darwin even took these takeoff and landing videos for kicks. 😀




overall, it was a nice experience but a short one. we didn’t get to go around much (nor ride an elephant which i wanted to experience 😀). but it was just a 3 day trip so we didn’t expect much really.

is thailand worth visiting? definitely. but i’d rather visit the many more wonders of the philippines first. 🙂