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Pre-BKK
>>19 Jul 2024 (Fri)
1530 - Read news about the global outage and wondered if we'd make it to BKK [Crisis 1].
1815 - Reached T4 early. Received a slip of paper to fill in passport and flight details.
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| Analog drawer plans for when technology fails! Ink spots and unevenness = photocopy of photocopy. Rough edges = cut by scissors. But most importantly, it worked. |
1840 - Queued for manual check-in and received a handwritten boarding pass. Rest of the way into transit area was thankfully trouble-free. Was quite impressed by the orderly response, and also for once thankful to be in the ulu, peaceful T4.
1950 - Finished dinner and headed to boarding gate... only to hear that our flight was delayed from 2040 till 2220 [Crisis 2]. Well, there went the night haha.
2000 - Made the (very good) decision to park ourselves at the Tiger den. Got the bucket of 5 bottles coz it was the most VfM option (also on hindsight a good decision by volume) with mix of Tiger, Corona, Hoegaarden, Kirin and Summer IPA. Skipped the Chang since we (thought somewhat correctly that we) were gonna have that in BKK. I scored a miserable 2/5 in the blind taste test that followed, thanks to my misplaced bias against Tiger (Hoegaarden did extremely terribly that day).
2140 - Boarded with the handwritten boarding pass and some relief.
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| Those of us who checked-in online beforehand had seat assignments. For everyone else, it was free seating. |
BKK
2350 - Landed.
>>20 Jul 2024 (Sat)
0100 - Got on a grab after an extended search and some marching back and forth between the airport taxi gate and grab pickup gate.
0135 - Reached hotel. Headed to the nearest 7-11 to get supper where we encountered the first episode in what we didn't know at that point was an entire drama series of alcohol woes: alcohol sales prohibited between 0000 and 1100 [Crisis 3]. At least this one wasn't too bad coz there was an available remedy! For that night, we had 2 (precious) bottles of Chang. Rather conservative on hindsight.
0430 - Lights out after some nighttime chatting. It's important to note that this was 0530 SG time, so it can be concluded that this is a good friendship.
0900 - Alarm time.
1000 - Headed out on time, as planned, after various morning skincare routines. Brunchfast at Rocket Cafe after some walking and scouting.
1200 - Cabbed to the Grand Palace to see the Emerald Buddha. Got the hint that the driver was trying to tell us something important. Through multiple translated speech-to-text messages, we came to the understanding that that day was an important Buddhist holiday. The full implications would only reveal themselves later...
1230 - Dropped off somewhere on the outside of the Grand Palace and walked over through the throng of tourists. This bit felt like entering a dangerous area in a game while being cluelessly under-leveled. The closer we moved towards the Palace, the more we encountered staff trying to wave us away or telling us to go to the floating market instead. Like ok... The key point came out only when one staff showed a laminated card saying that due to the holiday, the Palace had restricted opening hours... from 0830-1200 [Crisis 4]. Hahaha oh dear. Google maps doesn't tell us everything.
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| Looked at the situation and accepted fate :') |
1245 - As resilient people, we pivoted to the next destination while admiring the pretty flowers lining the outside of the Palace walls. Recognised, while looking at our luck thus far and the overcast skies, that we were going to get caught in the rain at some point. But until then, this made for a relatively cooling walk.
1315 - Passed by a neighbourhood park and saw some pigeons chilling, completely sprawled on the ground. Never seen pigeons in such a relaxed state in SG.
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| Practically pancaked. |
1330 - Reached the Ong Ang Walking Street which had good vibes courtesy of clean pavements, colourful buildings and a busking student.
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| Quick shot of the main square. The buildings at the back looked drawn in. Sort of like the old bathhouse walls in Spirited Away. |
1400 - Stopped at Ama Cafe to refuel. H got lucky with a blind box - finally, a small victory to celebrate! Got creative trying to find the perfect angle for a group shot with the compound doors.
1530 - Hopped over to Chinatown to procure pork floss and other snacks. Got caught in the rain, just as planned [Crisis 5]. It's not like we intentionally stayed out to get wet, but the sheltered walkways of Chinatown were not very continuous and we initially walked in the wrong direction to the next destination xD
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| Vintage gloomy feels. |
1600 - Made it out of the rain and into Nam Sing for bird nest and an odd-timing midday meal. Food tasted great but my stomach capacity was at -40% after this.
1745 - MRT-ed to Jodd Fairs and sought out the famous Leng Saap. We found it, and we also found another laminated card on the table (these things don't bode well)...
In brief, that day was Asanha Bucha Day (20 Jul 2024) which is always followed by Khao Phansa (21 Jul 2024), i.e. the only 2-day Buddhist holiday in the entire year. Since these holidays follow the lunar calendar, their dates change every year and have a pattern of falling on weekdays... except for 2024. We struck the (figurative) lottery in choosing to be in BKK on that weekend >.<
So back to the laminated card which carried the devastating message: "Today, the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited" [Crisis 6].
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| "It's a little upsetting." (Teo, 2024) |
*cries* There went almost all the plans we were looking forward to. And so much for packing a nice set of clothes.
I think we are too well-trained in the field of solution-finding. So dinner was extremely mechanical as calls were made and various contacts were contacted. We zeroed in on only one possible solution but would have to wait to execute it.
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| It's not you, it's us. This was the famous dish but it didn't really register oops. At least I recognised that the fish was good! |
1845 - Finished our mechanical eating. Tracked down A, our free-spirited 6th companion. Walked around Jodd Fairs together in the drizzle. At least in BKK, there were other snacks and knick knacks worth seeking out.
1910 - Encountered a lost phone. Decided to hang around till its owner returned in hopes of chalking up enough karma to exchange for a miracle. H's quick eyes spotted the owner and flagged her down as she walked right past us, oblivious to the fact that she had even lost her phone at that spot >.<
[AAR: It's... useful to have a picture of self on lock screen to aid kind strangers. But more important to realise when phone is lost and call it to avoid making kind strangers wait. Actually just don't lose phone.]
1950 - Happened across a photobooth (the gen Z ver of neoprints) and decided to go in for some reason [Crisis 7].
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| Failed miserably at being young. |
2030 - Cabbed back to hotel and waited till other guests were gone from the lobby before enquiring with the staff on our solution. Successfully procured 10 precious bottles of Chang!
[AAR: Do math before making important decisions. 10 x 320ml = 3.2L i.e. a single tower's worth. How could we have thought that those 10 bottles were enough??]
2045 - Brought the precious bottles up to our room safely, to ensuing jubilation.
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| Cue display of assorted, cliched expressions of happiness. E.g. ear-to-ear grins and one literal leap of joy hahaha. |
2300 - Proceeded back downstairs to procure more stock... only to find 1 single bottle of Chang left where there was once a decent stash >.< Seems like other parties caught on about the solution. Procured that bottle and resigned to the fact that that would be the last of it for the trip.
[AAR: Recognise that precious resources are limited. Don't be overly conservative when opportunity arises.]
>>21 Jul 2024 (Sun)
0230 - Lights out after much chatting.
0930 - Struggled to wake.
1010 - Checked out. Headed over slightly late for pre-booked massage. The back and shoulder package felt more like a full-body/leg massage.
1200 - Returned to collect bags. Cabbed to centralwOrld for lunch.
1315 - Sat down for lunch and hurried to order before the huge group that came in before us did so.
1330 - Waited... and waited... for the food to trickle in. When the dishes came, they were tiny (even by my standards). Attempted to order more, and were told that some dishes we wanted were sold out =.= [Crisis 8]. Cue loss of control of some facial expressions. But we also discussed that we should go back and eat vegetarian for a while.
1445 - Zoomed over to Big C for a quick look. Picked up some tomato snacks.
1530 - Cabbed to DMK.
1645 - Entered the transit area trouble-free. Went to the lounge (my entry courtesy of F) for free food... and found free alcohol available :')
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| Every drop counted. Except the Leo which tasted extremely strange. |
1730 - Headed to the gate on time for boarding. Noticed that our flight time had snuck backwards from 1820 to 1835 [Crisis 9a]. Thought that this was fine, since it was only 5 mins worth of delay per pax hahaha.
1800 - Waited at the gate for the boarding call that wouldn't come. With no announcements made, we checked in with the hiding staff and were told that boarding would begin in "20 mins" [Crisis 9b].
1855 - Started (the process of) boarding, 1.5h past original schedule [Crisis 9c]. Experienced several highlights between then and getting on the plane: J getting called out of queue for reasons unknown, F and my boarding passes initially invalid, and lastly getting caught in the rain through various gaps between the shuttle bus, the boarding stairs, and the plane itself. Let's just call all these [Crisis 10].
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| 我问天 |
1925 - Took off. Relaxed on the uneventful flight, except for when the kid in front decided to cry. Noticed that this airline was rather lax about belting up. Kid was allowed to remain standing on his seat for the whole landing process.
Post-BKK
2245 - Landed.
2305 - Disembarked with J onto a shuttle for an unusually long ride to T3. Had to leave F behind on the plane due to her far back seat.
2320 - Cleared immigrations and realised that C and H were only 10 mins away from landing. So much for our flight originally being 2h earlier xD
2335 - Ran and caught the bus home.
2355 - Reached home before pumpkin time.
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Key stats:
- party size: 5+1
- guys: 0
- beers: 23
- other alcohols: 1
- rain exposure: 3
- ham and cheese sandwiches: 5
- daily step count: 13k-17k
- amount spent: ~$500
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