The drive up North and home sweet home

After we checked out of the hotel.  We drove through patiently through the congested roads in BKK to their shophouse near Rangsit (I think).   They are into wedding cake business and they wanted to bake a cake for the kids to eat.  Wife's cousin promised her niece and nephew last time in Maesai and she will be doing it before we hit the roads in the evening.  Initially we declined but they insisted that they need to bake some cakes for the Poo Yai Ban (Village head) back in Maesai and other relatives too.  So, it's not a big hassle.

The chocolate cake tastes great and we loaded all into the truck and started off towards Nakhon Sawarn at around 7pm.  My Cousin(brother)-in-law drove the 1st leg while I was in the passenger seats.  The rest of the gang, my wife and her cousin plus 5 kids are at the back.  Her cousin have 3 boys so naturally my boys is having a hell of his time playing with them.  He's the 2nd youngest among the 4.  Cousin's youngest son is only 1+ and keeps looking for his father while we were driving.  

We stopped just outside Bangkok to fuel up and get some snacks for the road trip.  It will be a 12hr+ drive up North with breaks in-between.  At around 12am, near midnight, we've reached  Nakhon Sawarn and I took over.  It's my 1st time driving such a truck and on a strange road.  Initially I was a bit reluctant to go fast but after half an hours of getting used to the car.  I steadily increased the speed.  Driving is much more better than doing nothing in the passenger seat as it keeps me awake.  And the arderline rush of driving in the dark on an unknown road keeps me awake too.  I'm not too sure about my cousin-in-law though as he was so used to driving up North, he just went straight into his nap in the passenger seat after I took over.  I just kept driving and was thinking... man.. I need to do this in the day once in my lifetime to get to see Thailand in another way again!  Wife was a bit worried about me driving so she was awake at the back chatting with her poor cousin.  And she kept asking me if I'm tired anot.... :P  Anway, I was suppose to handover to my cousin-in-law at Lampang but I went striaght on to Phayao, giving him back his driver seat over there at around 430am.  We reached home at around 730am.  A bit faster then ususal as I was speeding at around 2 to 4am.. hehe.. Cousin-in-law is a much safer driver though.. Doing 120 at most ...

Need to plan a road trip next time.  Maybe with some friends from SG.

In the pigeon hole and Bangkok stop over

We didn't went out after the watercove park trip. Wify did went out to Tampines mall for a short shopping trip while I let the kids have some fun at the playground downstairs. Girl is a natural climber like my wife. Boy boy just go crazy with the slides. I think this is one area that is pretty cool about Singapore. We do have plenty of cool looking, safe and clean children's playground (especially in my area).  Basically whenever we are not going anywhere and staying in the flat, we would drop by the playground to let the kids stretch their arms and legs.  A flat in Singapore is small and unlike in Thailand, the kids can't shout or jump in the flat.  Well, I used too but that was the time where people are more tolerant and we are still in a kampung(village) style but not the case now.  I think its better this way too as at least I can teach the kids to be considerate of others.  Not making too much of a ruckus...

So it's a lot of cheap entertainment for my kids :P. We finally took a flight back to Bangkok on the 3rd of April. Boy started to become very chatty on the cab we took from the airport to the hotel in Petchuburi. I think it's because of the familiar Thai they are speaking. Boy do understand Chinese but he is just not like his sister, not willing to speak in Chinese. (even with me as he knows I can understand him)

He was so chatty with the cab driver, speaking of his experiences in Singapore and Thailand that wife and I were just laughing away at his illogical response to the cabbie. Girl does not loose out and shared her experiences too. Pretty entertaining for the long ride as the traffic was all jammed up. We managed to check into the hotel at 7pm and its a very family oriented hotel called Centrepoint Petchaburi. I took the executive suite which allows up to 4 adults in a room.

We settled down and since we had some food on the flight, we didn't bother too much about the dinner. I did went out and bought some McD and the kids had some french fires before we called it a day.

Initially, we planned to stay in BKK for 2 night and wanted to take the bus home but it was full. Song Krang was just around the corner so all were heading back for their new year break. Luckily wife's cousin was heading back to Maesai with her husband and kids and they have a big van like truck that could fit all of us. We had to extend one more night at the hotel as they need to settle some business on the 6th April.

We didn't go anywhere in particular in BKK. Wife was happily shopping at Pratunam next door. Kids were having fun at the hotel's play room for children or a dip at the hotel's pool. We did dropped by MBK to buy a bag for my sister the day after.

Finally checked out on the 6th. Wife's cousin picked us up at the hotel lobby and we went to his house to prepare for a roadtrip back to Maesai.

Bangkok Revisited

It's been almost3 years since I last stepped into Bangkok city centre.  As my flight back to Singapore is at  9pm.  I have 5 to 6 hours to spare.  So instead of doing nothing at the airport.  I took the airport express bus A4 to MBK (Mah Brong Krong).  Its equivalent to the Orchard road in Singapore.  I have not taken a cab to the city from the new airport and its really much furthur then Don Meaung (the old airport).  The express bus took about an hour to reach my destination.  (Pretty good considering the heavy traffic.  MBK did not changed much at all.  I think Singapore is changing more then BKK regarding the development.  I went to eat the Suki buffet.  (price increased liao)  Used to be 199 baht for an hour and 15 mins.   Now its 270 inclusive of tax.  After my dinner, walked a bit and hop onto the BTS to furthur east of the city to get out of the city jam and took a cab there back to airport.  After all these year in Thailand,  I still don't like BKK.  Not sure why but its the place I would avoid to go in Thailand.