How It All Began
After almost three years of flight restrictions due to COVID-19, the world finally regained some semblance of normalcy in the first quarter of 2022 as more countries reopened their borders to international visitors. With pre-departure/on-arrival testing and quarantine requirements being dropped, and vaccination and booster shots being administered to majority of the world’s population, it felt like the right time to take that one flight out once again. I was initially hesitant to travel before the second half of the year, but I guess wanderlust took over and I couldn’t resist it any longer.
My original choice of destination was South Africa as there was a fantastic KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes promotion by Singapore Airlines, with 30% off Saver award tickets. The promotion was valid till 30 April, for travel between 1 and 31 May 2022. With the promo, an Economy class round-trip ticket to Johannesburg was available for redemption for only 35,000 KrisFlyer miles. A regular-priced ticket would otherwise cost over S$1,600.
Africa is one continent I have not visited yet and I really wanted to go see the Big 5 (lion, leopard, black rhinoceros, elephant and African buffalo) in a safari. I asked my parents if they would be interested to go with me. Dad has always enjoyed watching wildlife documentaries and he was very keen to go, but he ultimately decided against it as it was a rather long flight (over 10 hours). They also felt that staying in Kruger National Park for four nights would not be so convenient or comfortable.
On 22 April 2022, I asked my friend IH if he would like to join me as it would be more economical to get a twin-sharing room and safer to travel with at least one other person. IH took some persuading and he became interested soon enough, but he was just short of a few hundred KrisFlyer miles for a full redemption of the round-trip air tickets. We decided to wait a few days for him to chalk up the required spending to convert them to KrisFlyer miles.
After some hiccups, where some of his transactions didn’t qualify for the requisite miles, IH finally had enough for a full redemption. However, we hit another snag when we couldn’t agree on the travel dates. I wanted a longer stay but IH preferred a shorter trip. By the time we decided on the dates and were ready to book the flights on 30 April 2022 (the last day of the promotion), to our horror, we saw that the miles required for redemption had increased from 17,500 to 55,000 miles for a one-way ticket. There was no way we would be able to redeem our miles for the full flight. Shock turned to disappointment and I got really upset that we had waited far too long and missed the opportunity. However, I believe in fate and I knew that this trip to South Africa was not meant to be. With more time to plan, perhaps we could do a more extensive trip to Serengeti in Kenya in the future.
However, I was still determined to make a Spontaneous Escape, so I redeemed my KrisFlyer miles for a trip to Bangkok instead. Bangkok was an easy choice because it was a familiar destination, with lots of good food and shopping. Mum and dad could come along and I knew they would enjoy it too. My Economy class return ticket cost 17,500 miles and S$84.50 for airport/government taxes. I then used my remaining 20,895 miles to partially redeem the tickets for my parents too, topping up S$369 for the remaining fare and airport/government taxes. Overall, it wasn’t as good a deal as the redemption for the Johannesburg flight, but I was happy that my parents could come along with me, as it had been a long time since we travelled together (The Grand Adventure in 2018).
For this trip, we decided to spend two nights in Bangkok, two nights in Pattaya and then two more nights in Bangkok. We wanted to revisit Pattaya because our last time there was over 30 years ago and I remember nothing about it. For a change, we decided to pamper ourselves by staying at nice, proper hotels instead of Airbnb apartments. My friend told me about a Citibank credit card promotion with an additional 18% off bookings on Agoda, so I made use of the promo to book our accommodation.
For Bangkok, I booked a stay at Grande Centre Point Ratchadamri, supposedly a 5-star hotel located at the city centre near Erawan Shrine. I had never heard of this hotel but it was featured on Agoda and the promotional price seemed reasonable so I decided to give it a try. For convenience, we decided to stay at the same hotel before going to and after returning from Pattaya.
For the first two nights, I paid S$370.54 for a Grand Suite with a size of 69m². For the last two nights, I paid S$438.47 for the same Grand Suite class of room. The reason for the price disparity is because I accidentally forgot to apply the Citibank promo when making the second booking. I was so upset at myself for that! Nevertheless, the room rate of S$202.25 per night, or S$67.42 per person per night, was already cheap, considering it included breakfast. You won’t be able to get this rate for a suite at a 5-star hotel in Singapore!
For Pattaya, I decided to indulge ourselves even more by booking a stay at a “real”, international 5-star hotel, Hilton Pattaya. I was sold when I saw pictures of the hotel’s infinity pool. I wanted to get a suite but it was beyond my budget so I settled for a King Deluxe Ocean View room with a size of 46m² instead, which cost $618.35 for two nights, inclusive of breakfast.
In terms of COVID-19 regulations, from 1 May 2022, PCR testing and quarantine were no longer required (for vaccinated travellers) when entering Thailand, and the amount of COVID-19 insurance was reduced from US$20,000 to US$10,000 (coverage for medical treatments in Thailand). We purchased our travel insurance from NTUC Income and paid S$36.60 each for a 7-day Classic Plan. We also applied for our Thailand Pass online on 22 May 2022, and received the approval less than four hours later.
Here’s a breakdown of our flights, hotel and travel insurance expenditure for our 7-day trip, per person:
– Singapore Airlines air tickets: S$151.17
– Accommodation for 6 nights: S$475.79
– Travel insurance: S$36.60
– TOTAL = S$663.56 per person
With all the bookings made, I was ready for my first flight out in almost three years. Bangkok, here we come!
Exchange rate: 100 baht = S$4.15
(Comparatively, YouTrip has a better exchange rate of about 100 baht = S$4.05. Do consider using YouTrip for credit card purchases.)
Day 1: 24 May 2022, Tuesday
Excited at the thought of flying again, we arrived early at Changi Airport Terminal 3 at 12:20pm. We had lunch with my uncle, aunt, cousin and nephew at the food court before proceeding to print our boarding passes from the self-check-in machines and depositing our luggage into the automated bag deposit counters. Having not travelled for so long, I must say the whole process felt a bit unfamiliar!
After clearing immigration, we were still early so we walked through the transit hall to check out all the shops. We also visited the Butterfly Garden, which is the world’s first butterfly garden in an airport. Inside, there is a 6-metre grotto waterfall and lush landscaping. We saw dozens of tropical butterflies flying freely within the two-storey enclosure. Definitely a nice way to spend a few minutes unwinding amid nature before a flight.
After grabbing a cup of $2 black coffee from Pret a Manger, we boarded our SQ712 flight and departed Singapore at 4pm. I was a little surprised to see that the flight was full. Seemed like everyone was ready to travel as soon as the border restrictions were eased. During the 2 hour 25 minute flight, we were served dinner on board, a light meal consisting of chicken with mashed potato and pumpkin, and dark chocolate ice cream from Udders as dessert. The main meal was piping hot and it tasted quite good, actually.
As a sign that we were still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were also provided with a packet of Walch anti-bacterial wet wipes together with the meal tray. I was happy to see that the food and cutlery were packed in sustainable packaging, even though this meant that presentation wise, it was a far cry from the “fine-dining” experience we were used to. However, I wonder if the good intentions of using sustainable packaging are negated by the disposable bamboo cutlery, which contributes to more waste compared to reusable metal cutlery?
In what seemed like no time at all, we touched down at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport right on schedule at 5:22pm (Bangkok is one hour behind Singapore). Clearing immigration was smooth as well and we didn’t have any problems with our hardcopy Thailand Passes and vaccination certificates. The luggage came out quickly too. I booked an SUV using the Grab app and we left the airport at 6:20pm. The pickup point for Grab cars is outside Door 7, across the road/zebra crossing.
It was a smooth ride to the city on the expressway but the traffic was heavy once we were off the expressway. Nevertheless, the journey took less than 40 minutes as we arrived at our hotel at 6:54pm. Including the two tolls on the expressway, the total fare was 746 baht (S$30.96), cheaper than our SUV Grab ride from home to Changi Airport (S$33.80), which took 26 minutes.
The lobby of Grande Centre Point Ratchadamri hotel was spacious and bright. We had read some online reviews that check-in/out was quite slow, but we didn’t experience it as there was no queue at that hour. Our room was located on the 29th floor, which was convenient because it was serviced by both the low level (1st to 29th floor) and high level (29th to 50th floor) lifts.
Our Grand Suite was quite good, and within my expectations. It was large and comfortable, with plenty of space to put our suitcases. It felt more like a serviced apartment as it even came with a full-sized fridge, washing machine, kitchen counter top and dining table. Certainly good value for money.
After refreshing ourselves, we went out for dinner at about 7:30pm. From our hotel, it was a 5-minute walk to Erawan Shrine. From there, if we continued along Rama I Road, we would walk pass the mega shopping malls Centralworld, Siam Paragon, Siam Center before reaching MBK Center. We decided to walk along Ratchadamri Road towards Platinum Fashion Mall at Phetchaburi Road.
We popped in to CentralwOrld for a quick look and it was HUGE. We decided to skip the restaurants there and save the mall for another day. We left CentralwOrld and headed towards Platinum Fashion Mall, where we thought there would be a better chance of finding street food.
When we arrived, we saw a Street Fest right in front of Platinum Fashion Mall, with many food stalls offering all types of common street food. We found a table and ordered some food to share – two plates of tom yum seafood fried rice (180 baht/S$7.47 each), two sticks of grilled squid (20 baht/S$0.83 each), three sticks of grilled pork (15 baht/S$0.62 each) and three bottles of coconut water (60 baht/S$2.50 each). It wasn’t the cheapest or most delicious street food for sure, but it would do for our first night.
On our way back, we dropped by Big C Supercenter for a look. Even though it was not even 9pm yet, all the shops were closed. We decided to call it a day and walked back to our hotel. When we reached our room at 9:05pm, we were in fact quite tired, since it was already 10:05pm in Singapore. We would have much more time to explore, shop and eat in the next five days, so there was no hurry to do too much on our first night. And that’s the end of Day 1!
