Day 6: 29 May 2022, Sunday

It’s Sunday, and that means there’s only one place to go in Bangkok…the Chatuchak Weekend Market! For most Singaporeans, a trip to Bangkok is never complete without a visit to Chatuchak, sometimes also spelled as Jatujak, or JJ Market. It is one of the world’s biggest weekend markets, spanning an area of almost 27 acres with more than 1,000 stalls. It is so big that it is divided into 30 sections, selling everything from clothing to tableware to antiques to souvenirs. 200,000 visitors throng the market on each day of the weekend, and an estimated 30% of the shoppers are foreigners.

You can get to Chatuchak by public bus, BTS Skytrain (alight at Mo Chit station) or MRT subway (alight at Kamphaeng Phet station). We chose the most convenient method – a taxi. Having learned last night that hiring a taxi may be cheaper than getting a Grab car, we left our hotel at 9:10am and flagged a taxi on the main road without hassle. The starting fare for a taxi in Bangkok is only 35 baht (S$1.45) and it increases at 2 baht intervals. It is much cheaper than in Singapore, where the current flag down rate is S$3.90 for a ComfortDelGro taxi. We arrived at Chatuchak at 9:28am, and the final fare was 77 baht (S$3.20).

Surprisingly, most of the stalls were not open yet. They always say “the early bird catches the worm”, but it seems like there were no worms to be caught at that hour. We walked through the various aisles to see what was on offer. The art and paintings section had some really beautiful artworks for sale, but of course, we didn’t buy any. Gradually, more stalls opened and we ended up spending about five hours at Chatuchak. We didn’t walk away with huge bags of shopping, but we each bought some stuff that we were pretty pleased about.

As it was a sweltering day, we decided to seek refuge from the air-conditioned Mixt Chatuchak shopping mall, located right next to the market. We went to the food court upstairs and I ordered an omelette with rice and seafood tom yum set (75 baht / S$3.11). The Thais make the best omelettes…always fluffy and oh so fragrant!

At 3:27pm, we hailed another taxi off the street and left Chatuchak. The traffic on Sunday afternoon was very heavy so the return journey took much longer. We arrived at our hotel at 4:21pm and the fare was 141 baht (S$5.85). En route, our taxi driver, Mr Surasak, offered his services to send us to the airport tomorrow for 700 baht (S$29). He had just bought a secondhand 7-seater car from his friend. Considering that his service was excellent and he spoke good English, we decided to engage him, thus saving us the trouble of finding a taxi early in the morning tomorrow.

At 4:40pm, I went for a massage at Dé Rest Spa, located on the third floor of Maneeya Center Building. A massage was the last thing on my checklist for the trip and I saved it for the last day. I picked Dé Rest Spa because it was a short 8-minute walk from my hotel. The lobby area was nicely furnished and welcoming. I had walked in without a reservation and they were actually pretty full because it was Sunday, so I went for the only option that was available at the time, the one-hour Head-to-Toe Thai massage, costing 840 baht (S$35), excluding tips.

After the relaxing massage, I met up with mum and dad at around 6:30pm and we walked to Siam Paragon mall. By this time, we were done with our shopping so we were mainly just walking through the malls to see see, look look (which means “window shopping” in Singlish). Anyway, all the malls are the same. We had dinner at the huge Gourmet Eats food court, before going to centralwOrld mall for more window shopping and calling it a night at 9pm.

Day 7: 30 May 2022, Monday

After an early breakfast, we checked out of our room and said goodbye to our comfortable Grand Suite at Grande Centre Point Ratchadamri hotel. Our driver, Mr Surasak, had already arrived and was waiting for us. We loaded our luggage into his spacious black Toyota Innova MPV and left the hotel for the airport at 6:42am. The early morning traffic was smooth so at 7:17am, we arrived uneventfully at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

I promised Mr Surasak that I would help to promote his services, so here goes: If anyone is going to Bangkok, and you need a reliable driver who speaks good English, you can contact Mr Surasak at +66 82-209-8288 via WhatsApp. Besides airport transfers and trips within Bangkok, he can also do day trips to neighbouring places like Pattaya, Hua Hin, Kanchanburi and more. He has a pool of drivers, so if he can’t do the job himself, he can find someone to do it. His price list is as follows:

At 9:40am, our Singapore Airlines flight SQ705 departed Bangkok and we touched down at Changi Airport Terminal 1 at 12:45pm. There’s no place like home. End of a short but enjoyable post-Covid trip!

Here’s a highlights reel from the 6 days in Bangkok and Pattaya, enjoy!