Thursday, December 07, 2006
The land of smilies. Which country goes by that tagline? No where else except Thailand. =)
Just got back home not too long ago. At 12 plus last night to be exact. Glad that i'm back where i belong. Though i still reminise about the 5 exciting days that i spent in thailand, learning lots and seeing lots.
Shopping at Thailand is a must. Barginning skills put to the test. My mom is practically a pro at that!! So many things were bought at a fraction of the original price due to her superb skill. Heex. Bought a couple of things but not as many as i thought i would buy. Probably due to the things becoming more and more expensive due to the reputation of being THE shopping paradise for everyone, tourists especially. Things are not as cheap as before. Considering the bag that i bought, it deprived me of much much money to spend on other things but nope i don't regret buying the bag. Leather. =) Nice and would last me a good couple of dozen of years. Hahaz.. =) Clothes are plentiful. Thailand is practically a gal's paradise. I so don't blame all the guys who prefer being gals because the amount of gal stuff is overwhelming and of a large variety. There is even a whole street or shopping mall that sells 90% female products like shoes, clothes, hair ribbons, pedicure manicure, spas... U name it, they have it. And i do have to say that there are LOTS of transvisites. Almost everywhere. Some are really beautiful only when they speak do you know that they were once of the opposite gender. I wonder what went wrong.
Anyway, enough about that. Hmm.. Shopping there is a whole new experience. Things are sold everywhere, on the streets, in food places, hotels. Aiyo i cannot finish naming it all. Just too many. Food is also sold everywhere in pushcart style. It is simply amazing how easy it is to start a business there. All you need would be a pushcart where u can hawk your wares. U can "park" it anywhere you like. Put up a few more chairs and there u have it, a road side stall with customers. Their style of living is so simple. They do not seem to be in a constant rush like how u experience in singapore. Due to the relatively lesser competition there i would guess, the whole atmosphere is one of relaxation, some place where u can let your hair down, relax and just enjoy the day without having much worry. Even those who do business in shopping centres, when buying clothes, they would urge u with a "You can try". The way that they speak also depicts their livestyle. Gentle and soothing it is almost like they were singing some melodious folk song. Pleasant to hear. Ooh! And they love to say the phrase "same same". Also, as they do not really understand english. they tend to just answer in the affirmative when posed a question that they do not understand. This leads to much laughter because of the way the response do not fit the question. =) Hand signals are important then. Hees.
I like some of the people that i met there. There was this taxi driver that drives a hot PINK taxi. Early in the morning, after our breakfast, walking out of the hotel, he approached us offering to drive us to the famous MBK centre for shopping however, he added that MBK does not open so early so he would bring us cruising around the area. He said that he would bring us first to a gem centre open by the government before sending us to MBK. At first we were reluctant because we were not interested in gems however, he added that if we do go to the gem centre, we would be inevitably helping him by earning him coupons that can be accumulated for gasoline. The system goes in a way where if a taxi driver brings potential customers to the gem centre, the driver is rewarded with one coupon. If the customers were to buy anything from there, they would earn 2 coupons. For every 10 coupons, the driver is able to get 5 litres of gasoline. I think that this is a good system because it is based on a mutual benefit system. The gem centre gets potential customers while the drivers get gasoline which helps them keep their taxi running. =)
Another person that left an impression on me would be the lady that sole us those bags. She was really kind, chatting us up in a way that was neither offensive nor irritating. It is really for conversation sake. Allowing us to browse through her wares with total ease. Even when my mom drove a hard bargin with her, she was pleasant throughout, even offering us bottles of water when we were thirsty. A kind and nice woman who likes calling us "darlings..." =)
The people were nice. The traffic horrific. They love to speed!!! And take backlanes illegally. The kind of transport that they have vary from buses to motortaxi. Just hop on the motorcycle and the driver would weave through the traffic to your destination. Should that happen in singapore, it would be interesting. But the government would be sure to forbid it listing the 'citizens safety' as piority.
OKie i'm off to watch 'full house'. More the next time.
Ooh.. and i so miss all of u!!
Just got back home not too long ago. At 12 plus last night to be exact. Glad that i'm back where i belong. Though i still reminise about the 5 exciting days that i spent in thailand, learning lots and seeing lots.
Shopping at Thailand is a must. Barginning skills put to the test. My mom is practically a pro at that!! So many things were bought at a fraction of the original price due to her superb skill. Heex. Bought a couple of things but not as many as i thought i would buy. Probably due to the things becoming more and more expensive due to the reputation of being THE shopping paradise for everyone, tourists especially. Things are not as cheap as before. Considering the bag that i bought, it deprived me of much much money to spend on other things but nope i don't regret buying the bag. Leather. =) Nice and would last me a good couple of dozen of years. Hahaz.. =) Clothes are plentiful. Thailand is practically a gal's paradise. I so don't blame all the guys who prefer being gals because the amount of gal stuff is overwhelming and of a large variety. There is even a whole street or shopping mall that sells 90% female products like shoes, clothes, hair ribbons, pedicure manicure, spas... U name it, they have it. And i do have to say that there are LOTS of transvisites. Almost everywhere. Some are really beautiful only when they speak do you know that they were once of the opposite gender. I wonder what went wrong.
Anyway, enough about that. Hmm.. Shopping there is a whole new experience. Things are sold everywhere, on the streets, in food places, hotels. Aiyo i cannot finish naming it all. Just too many. Food is also sold everywhere in pushcart style. It is simply amazing how easy it is to start a business there. All you need would be a pushcart where u can hawk your wares. U can "park" it anywhere you like. Put up a few more chairs and there u have it, a road side stall with customers. Their style of living is so simple. They do not seem to be in a constant rush like how u experience in singapore. Due to the relatively lesser competition there i would guess, the whole atmosphere is one of relaxation, some place where u can let your hair down, relax and just enjoy the day without having much worry. Even those who do business in shopping centres, when buying clothes, they would urge u with a "You can try". The way that they speak also depicts their livestyle. Gentle and soothing it is almost like they were singing some melodious folk song. Pleasant to hear. Ooh! And they love to say the phrase "same same". Also, as they do not really understand english. they tend to just answer in the affirmative when posed a question that they do not understand. This leads to much laughter because of the way the response do not fit the question. =) Hand signals are important then. Hees.
I like some of the people that i met there. There was this taxi driver that drives a hot PINK taxi. Early in the morning, after our breakfast, walking out of the hotel, he approached us offering to drive us to the famous MBK centre for shopping however, he added that MBK does not open so early so he would bring us cruising around the area. He said that he would bring us first to a gem centre open by the government before sending us to MBK. At first we were reluctant because we were not interested in gems however, he added that if we do go to the gem centre, we would be inevitably helping him by earning him coupons that can be accumulated for gasoline. The system goes in a way where if a taxi driver brings potential customers to the gem centre, the driver is rewarded with one coupon. If the customers were to buy anything from there, they would earn 2 coupons. For every 10 coupons, the driver is able to get 5 litres of gasoline. I think that this is a good system because it is based on a mutual benefit system. The gem centre gets potential customers while the drivers get gasoline which helps them keep their taxi running. =)
Another person that left an impression on me would be the lady that sole us those bags. She was really kind, chatting us up in a way that was neither offensive nor irritating. It is really for conversation sake. Allowing us to browse through her wares with total ease. Even when my mom drove a hard bargin with her, she was pleasant throughout, even offering us bottles of water when we were thirsty. A kind and nice woman who likes calling us "darlings..." =)
The people were nice. The traffic horrific. They love to speed!!! And take backlanes illegally. The kind of transport that they have vary from buses to motortaxi. Just hop on the motorcycle and the driver would weave through the traffic to your destination. Should that happen in singapore, it would be interesting. But the government would be sure to forbid it listing the 'citizens safety' as piority.
OKie i'm off to watch 'full house'. More the next time.
Ooh.. and i so miss all of u!!
