Just wanna share a picture of my first ever gashapon. I bought this one in Jatujak, Thailand. This is the first that I saw Rukia as pretty (sorry Rukia fans but she does look like a kid) so I went ahead and bought this one - set me back by 99Bht (~150php).

Pretty Rukia

Splurge!!!

We went malling today (first in like ages) and can't help but splurge on toys today. I have four new gashapons from One Piece (courtesy of my honey. :D) and one Hikari gashapon from Neon Genesis Evangelion). We saw some cute nendoroids from Good Smile (or so the box says, ;p) for 450php each - I am not familiar from which series they came from though. Finally saw a Haruhi nendoroid which sells for 250php each (didn't come from a box though and the nendoroids are sold separately not like in the box).

Kawaii!

I would just like to share my latest find - 2 cute Sakura (Cardcaptor Sakura) gashapons from Vente in Riverbanks Mall (Marikina). These are from the series Card Captor Sakura Part 1 originally manufactured by Bandai -each one sells for 200Yen (~100Php). Of course they are not the original thing, but it's still pretty cheap even for a bootleg, right? And besides, they are so cute so I don't really care. This inspired me to start my own collection. I'm eyeing Haruhi Suzumiya and Please! Teacher gashapons as my next buy. I also saw original Tenjo Tenge action figures that I would like to include in my set. After those, I'll see about getting me some nendoroids. ;p

Sakura (Opening Costume)


Sakura (Episode 8's Battle Costume)

Adventures (and Misadventures) in Sawadee Land (Part 4 of 4)

Day 4: Nice Little Theme Park, Some Thai Dinner and then off we go!

We booked our tour from the hotel which includes pick up from and to the hotel, entrance to the park, snow town and buffet lunch. We headed out to the theme park at 9am (theme park opens at 10am and closes at 5pm).It was an hour ride from Bangkok.

Upon arrival, we were given stickers to wear and tickets to Snow Town. First stop, is the cable car. Since the extreme rides are way on the far side of the park, our plan was to ride the cable car and be dropped down there. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way and we were taken back to where we started so we just trekked down the far end and go on from there.

Super Splash. (This was the most fun ride for me!) This one is like Jungle Log Jam. Good thing is that there's a bar that secures you so you can raise your hands and scream your head off while plunging into the water. (Warning: This will really get you wet! Where's the fun in wearing a raincoat though, huh?)
Before and After the Ride

Grand Canyon. Think, Rio Grande. Nothing that will pump up your adrenaline. Just wet, wet, wet.

Viking. This one is Anchor's Away. I'd rather have skipped this one altogether but since everyone is going, heck, I'm not gonna be left out!

Not again, ever!

Next up is Haunted Mansion. After riding the Viking, some decided to take a breather first, so there's just three of us who entered - same old, same old. After that we rode the roller coaster (same as the one in star city only without the 360 degree loops). This one is a fun ride too. Then it's bump car time! We went two rounds on this one, all fun!

Now everybody is ready to eat lunch so we headed to the food pavillion for the buffet lunch. Only few choices are available here, nevertheless, the food was tasty so we didn't mind much. I enjoyed the pink dessert (tastes like our sago't gulaman). Other desserts are black gulaman and monggo in syrup.

Hurricane. On the way out we saw this insane ride Hurricane. There are moments where you'll hang suspended upside down and at 90 degrees to the ground. Just watching it will make you dizzy. One of my friends wanted to try this so we waited for him to line up and finish the ride. I tell you he's crazy, wasn't affected at all by the ride and after eating a huge meal at that. Me, I won't ever try that.

Crazy!

4d Adventure Show (120baht). Some of us wanted to see the 4d adventure show. I didn't and from what I heard I didn't miss much. We just waited outside and took some naughty pics of me and the buried giant - way more fun than the 4d. One other tourist saw what we were doing and even took a picture of me in a naughty pose (so don't be surprised if you see my pics in one of those websites, kidding!). I won't post any here. :p

After that we got separated again (coz I was buying a Disney shirt and got lost track of where we were going). Turned out that the others went to see some action show (which, from them, was even worse than the adventure show, good thing it's free).

Snow Town. This is the best! We were given boots and jackets to wear, but even then, it was still freezing inside! There are some area for photo ops but the most fun was the slide (which I took three times). Be careful not to touch your hands to the ice though coz it's really painful!

After a few more minutes, we decided to head out (we can't take the cold anymore!). We dropped by some stores to buy souvenir and stuff and then we headed out to the gate to meet our tour guide.

And again as you well know, disaster struck. We were left by our tour guide coz we were late. So we ended up taking two cabs (we are 6 in all) and asked to be dropped down to the nearest BTS station (which turned out to be Mo Chit - the one beside Chatuchak). Not so bad after all, coz it was our fault anyway, only we have very limited funds by then, so you know (shrugs).

Back at the hotel, I decided to repack and do some last minute shopping at guess where - 711. I bought packs and packs of their soy milk, much like the ones sold here only way, way cheaper (1 piece sells for only 10baht while here it's 40php), the giant Yakult (ok, so the brand was different but the drink is all the same) and the yummy milk pellets (only 10baht per pack). If only they have boxes where I could put it in so that I'll have a months supply of those (must be checked in coz of the drinks).

Then we had our last meal in Thailand at our hotel where we all ordered Thai dishes.

Yummy, bagoong rice (or what they call shrimp paste rice, wahaha!) The white strips on the side is green mango.

Chicken with cashew

Salad with tuna (or something like that, ;p)

After that it's airport time and then back to Manila! Whew, so good to be back home!

Expenses: Dreamworld (booked at our hotel, Samran Place) - 900baht

Adventures (and Misadventures) in Sawadee Land (Part 3 of 4)

Day 3: A Huge Market, Authentic Thai Massage and Bangkok Flood

We separated into two groups today coz some of us wanted to go to church first. Since I'm not a Catholic, I went with the other group. We started out late since we're to go straight to Chatuchak Market - only open on the weekends (To go here, ride the BTS to Mo Chit station and then walk from there. Don't forget to drop by the tourism information office to get a map of the market coz this market is really huge and you could easily get lost here. Another thing, it's forbidden to smoke anywhere inside the market except the smoking stations or you'll get fined 2000baht). If you went to Thailand for some food trip and shopping, you won't be disappointed.

Looks spicy to me

These are small, quail eggs maybe?

Bargains abound from handicrafts, souvenirs, used and new clothes, anything you can think of. The pack of chopsticks that we found at the souvenir shop at the handicraft store costs 180baht but can be had for 60baht here. There's also this cute salt and pepper shaker that I saw at Patpong Market that sells for 450baht. I found a smaller version here for only 20baht. One more good find is a handicraft stall that sells handmade genuine leather bags for only 2800baht (stall owner says that each goes for 20000yen in Japan). The leather was so soft and doesn't smell and at that price we thought it was a good bargain. We didn't have that much cash though. We bought lots of goodies to take back home (chopsticks, magnets, spicy tamarind, dried seafood). By then we were too tired to check out the clothes section, though from the outside all we can see are army clothes, so nothing interesting there.

We sat down to eat lunch at one of the restaurants on the far side of the market and had coconut ice cream for dessert - this one is a must try for only 25baht!

Oooh, yummy! A scoop of ice cream in a coconut shell, surrounded by coconut shavings and topped with peanuts.

We weren't able to meet our friends here coz as I told you the market is REALLY HUGE! We decided to go back to the hotel to drop our stuff and have some massage before heading out to Suan Lum Night Bazaar. There's a little spa just outside our hotel, so we decided to have our massage there. Foot massage goes for 200baht, same for thai massage. As it turns out, the foot massage comes with reflexology and head and back massage, pretty cheap huh? (But if you're going to Wat Pho, there's a massage school there that you can try instead. We weren't able to drop by there coz we're already quite saturated with the temples.)

Feeling refreshed after the massage we headed out to Siam paragon and MBK (their version of Greenhills) for some dinner and a little more shopping. If you're going to buy spicy tamarind and dried fruits to take home, just buy it at MBK rather than in Chatuchak - it costs the same and there are more choices here. Must try are dried kiwi, dried cherries, preserved santol and tamarind candies. We also dropped by the clothing section to buy fisherman pants (the shorter version at 99baht each, the longer one at 199baht).

Then we went to Suan Lum. From Siam station we must ride the MRT to go there. This part of our adventure was full of laughter (and stupidity) coz we don't know how to work the MRT.

"Uhh, so how do we know which one says Lumphini?"" Let's just compare the characters!"" Great idea! (compares characters...) So this is Lumphini, right?"" Oh wait! there's an English button at the top! hahaha..."

But anyway, we were able to reach the bazaar fine, good for us! If Chatuchak is like Divisoria, this one is more like Tiendesitas. The stuff sold here are mostly clothes which are better than those in Chatuchak or in MBK. They give pretty good discounts here too or maybe because the items are priced a little bit higher than in the other two. Since it was nighttime, the air is a little bit cooler and the shopping more fun - or so it should have been. Unfortunately, just a few minutes after we were inside, it began to rain - HARD! The stalls are starting to get flooded and we were stuck inside. After a while, with the rain showing no signs of stopping and fearing that the flooding will get worse, we decided to brave the flood in the stalls so that we could go home already. Unfortunately, the flood was even deeper outside (what was I thinking, of course it will be deeper outside! smack!). Needless to say, we waded our way through the murky waters just to get to the safety of the MRT and from there headed to our hotel. Oh well, I guess we had too much luck on the earlier part of the day.

Only one more day to go and tomorrow we'll be going to a theme park, yay!

Sorry, not much pics here coz I didn't bring my camera only my cam phone so excuse the photos. ;p

Adventures (and Misadventures) in Sawadee Land (Part 2 of 4)

Day 2. Ayutthaya Tour, Afternoon Cruise and PP Acrobatics

'Twas not a very good start for us. We were hassled by the tour driver and another tourist because we were late (hey, it was not our fault, the email says that we're to be picked up at 7:30am and they were there at 7:00am!) We were transferred to a tour bus and then off we went to Ayutthaya about 2hours ride from Bangkok. First stop was the Summer Palace. This is even better than the Grand Palace, the place was amazing! We rented a golf cart to tour around the place. I get to practice my driving skills (good thing the cart was so slow coz I don't know how to brake, haha...).

By the golf cart

We had lots of nice photo ops here.

I don't really know what this is, looks pretty though.

One must try is the strawberry juice from the resto. I was expecting just ice topped with strawberry syrup. I was in for a treat though because there were real strawberry bits in it. The drink costs 40baht only, not bad huh?

A refreshing drink, must try! :D

Then we were off to the ruins. There were dogs lying around the grounds, which we thought were dead coz they weren't moving and they have sores all over their body. It added to the gloomy ambiance here. Nothing much to see, just ruins everywhere.

The umbrellas ruined it!

On a happy note, I bought a nice landscape painting here (from 1200baht, the price went down to 340baht. I am not sure if I got a bargain though, but I'm really happy with my painting, something to give to my honey so that he'll be inspired to paint again. :D).

After this we went to a small temple, nothing much to see here.

Actually we don't know what we were doing here, nice photo op though ;p

And then to the original reclining buddha. We just took a few clicks here and then off we went to the cruise.

The Original Reclining Buddha

Buffet lunch at the cruise was so-so, nothing to gush about. The cruise was set to run through Chao Praya river. Well, what can I say... after the novelty of riding trough the cruise wore off, we were a little bored. There was really nothing much to see and it was also raining then so we cannot go up the deck. After 3hours of cruising along we were dropped off at a mall to be picked up and sent back to the hotel.

Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) as viewed from the cruise

Come night time, we were looking for something to do so we decided to check out nightlife at Patpong district and the so-called PP acrobatics.

SCAM#2. (R18 from here on...)

Before we even got out of the cab, somebody's already approaching us to direct us where to go. He asked us if we're going to shop or to see cabaret or pingpong show. Since we are a already a little wary of Thais because of the earlier scam, we told him that we're just looking around. After a few minutes he approached us again and we went with him to a club just on the outskirts of the market. He told us that we can check the place out first and we don't have to pay anything. The show was not quite what we expected. There was a table in the middle of the floor where the girls are gyrating to the music. One by one, each girl takes up centerstage to do some "acrobatics". For the curious, the acts were: someone pulling out a long string of glow-in-the-dark something out of her you-know while dancing to the music, somebody put in a pen there and wrote welcome to thailand (don't accept anything they offer from the stage coz they'll make you pay for it, besides who would want to, right? Eek, double gross!), someone else put in a straw and blew candles over a cake, yes, there are pingpong balls shooting from there, someone popped balloons, someone opened soda water, someone pulled out a string of blades (now that really freaked me out!) and someone mixed a juice in there and then squirted it out to a bottle which they will offer you also (now this one tops my gross list forever!). So in the middle of the act, the club owner approached us and showed us our bill amounting to 7100baht for the 5 of us. Apparently, you pay for the show and the drink which was supposedly only 100baht at the start of the show (way overpriced already) was in fact 300baht each! And mind you, we weren't the only tourist scammed here because earlier, there were already people from another table having the same argument. Apparently this is how they operate. So we argued with the boss 'til the price went down to 400baht each. After that, we finished our drink and left.

Lessons learned: 1. In Bangkok, everything you pay, no free! (in typical thai accent, :D)2. At the sign of a commotion, leave.

We ended the day eating noodles on the street outside our hotel, to blow off some steam, before calling it a night. So there goes our 2nd day. Hey, we still have 2 more days to enjoy so hang on...

Expenses: Ayutthaya Tour and Cruise with buffet lunch (Asiatravel) - 1800Baht

Adventures (and Misadventures) in Sawadee Land (Part 1 of 4)

At the airport

Day 1. A Floating Market Tour, Scary Elephant Ride and One Grand Palace

Our tour guide, Sa, picked us up at the hotel at around 630 am. Since it's too
early to have our breakfast at the hotel, we just had it packed. First stop is
floating market, around 2 hours travel from Bangkok. We were dropped at a
station where we boarded a motorboat to take us to the market. Nothing much to
say about the ride. It was more like one big flood. And since the boat was a little
too shallow and motor-driven, water was splashing from the sides so we were
too busy trying not to get wet from the icky water.

We were dropped at the market itself (no, the boat going through the market is not included in the package, you have to pay 150baht to be able to ride the boat that will
go through the market). Having seen the water and experienced the boat ride to
the market, we decided to just sit this one out since we're not going to buy
anything and we're not too fond of going near those waters again. There
are souvenir shops on the sides and market stalls selling fruits, noodles,
drinks etc. to keep us occupied anyway.

Colorful display

We tried this taco-like sweet. The shell is sweet, something like
sugar cones, and then filled with meringue and topped with coconut (this sells
for 3pcs at 20baht).

A Yummy Treat

After the floating market, we went to an elephant school where we sat atop the elephants (again, the elephant ride is not included in the tour so we shelled out another 650baht apiece here). Not much picture from here coz we're too scared to let go of our seat. The seat was not very stable and when you're on top of an elephant the ground seems so far and hard. Here, the elephant walked through a trail (amazing how an elephant that big can walk through a trail so narrow) and went down a swamp. It was a long 30-minute ride and I was more than happy when it was finally over.

Oh, the poor elephant!

Next stop would be a handicraft store. Lots of souvenirs to buy here but as you can expect from any souvenir shop, items are way overpriced. One thing of note here though are the sculptors' work which are so intricately done. The tour ends here (after the customary visit to a gem factory) so we asked to be dropped off at the Grand Palace on our way back for our DIY temples tour.

This is the first sour note to our trip as we were scammed right outside the palace.

Beware of these two!

SCAM #1.We were dropped off at a park just across the palace. There were lots of pigeons here so we raised our cameras ready to take some snapshots when we were
approached by a man who gave us bags with corn kernels in it. Yeah, we know
right from the start that we he'll be asking money for it - lousy thing though
we cannot reason with him coz he couldn't understand English. We tried to give him back the bags but he refused and so we proceeded to feed the birds. We were still surprised at how much he was charging us for a little bag of corn kernels - 100baht and with us holding 3
bags each that would be 300baht! Geez! He called somebody to help him collect
the money from us and the second one charged us 50baht per bag only. We were tired
and hungry then, so we just paid them what they were asking.

Lessons learned: 1. Treat strangers like dogs, don't look at them and they'll ignore you.

2. Many things are cheaper in Thailand, but not corn!

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant before going to the Grand Palace.

Looks yummy, eh?

The palace grounds was amazing. Elegant structures can be seen left and right - it was so fun to take pictures here. The temple of the emerald buddha is also inside but unfortunately there's a ceremony being held then so we cannot come in.

After that we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel. Of course it's already around 5 pm then so we got to see how Bangkok is at rush hour. The traffic was more horrible than in Manila. Our cab driver bought two newspapers to read anticipating the traffic that we're gonna be in. We were in one place for 30 minutes without budging an inch, imagine that!

Well that's it for our first day in Thailand. Nothing much to brag about I know, but hey, we still have 3 more days to go...

Expenses: Floating Market Tour (Asiatravel) - 600 Baht, Grand Palace - 350 Baht