YUNNAN & BANGKOK Day 11

Day 11: Centre Point Hotel Pratunam -> Alms Offering to Monk -> Pratunam Morning Market -> BKK Suvarnabhumi airport -> Singapore Changi International Airport T1

Pratunam @ 5.45am

Morning world! It is our last day in Thailand and we have an international flight to catch at 4.25pm. Our half day plan for the day is to give some alms offering then we are off to the pratunam morning market and finally a sumptous Baiyoke Sky buffet lunch to end off our trip to Bangkok.

4 bottles of water replenished daily by Centre Point Hotel Pratunam

Previously, we did internet research and noticed that most of the temples are located near Chao Praya river and monks often appear around / near Khao San area. Which is also the famous backpacker street area as there are many backpacker hostels.

However that will be too far for us since we stay in Pratunam and monk offering typically starts very early. So we decided to ask our hotel where we can do the offerings and we were told by our friendly hotel's CSO that alms offering is around 6am - 8am and there will be monks at Petchburi Soi 19.

Petchburi Soi 19 is just 2 lanes across our hotel (refer to Google Map below)

Courtesy of Google Maps - Centre Point Hotel Pratunam and Soi 19

So here's how it is like:

You can buy food / fruits from the food stores nearby. Alternatively, they seem to accept cash also but the original alms giving is giving of food/necessity (e.g. toothpaste, medicinal oil..). There after then remove your shoes as a mark of respect, kneel and then put your offerings in the monk's alms bowl.

Step 1: Kneel, barefooted, and place your offerings in the alms bowl. Be sure not to touch the monk's hand

Step 2: Bow and receive the monk's blessing in return for the alms 

Be sure not to touch any of the body parts of the monk when putting the offering into his bowl. This is a mark of respect.

monks awaiting for offering

locals offering alms

As it gets closer to 8am, we see lesser monks roaming around. The best time would be before before or around 7am if you want to do alms offering. Do note that if you are looking at offering a lot of monks then perhaps Pratunam area might not satisfy you.

After that we went on to the Pratunam morning market which was near Baiyoke sky Hotel. We passed by the famous Sab x2 wanton mee at Soi 19 too! It was around 9.40am when we past by and there was already a queue forming outside! Not too sure if its really that nice but we saw reviews that prices have gone up by a lot. Not too sure if its just another tourist trap :(

Soi 19 wonton mee

If you want to know about Pratunam morning market on a Saturday please read on!

visit the pratunam morning market on weekdays instead! We passed by Pratunam morning market yesterday (Friday morning) and in comparison with Saturday's Pratunam market we realised that yes there are more stores opened on Saturday HOWEVER, shops tend to be SUPER busy loading/unloading goods. As you walk along the narrow stretch of alley / road, you not only have to dodge human traffic but also the goods traffic and they are pushed into the respective stores with those trolleys. Furthermore, there are motors also navigating through the market. It was really really chaotic and disruptive to your shopping experience. Whereas on Friday morning, we didn't see any of these unloading and there were lesser people making it easier to shop! Prices were about the same too of between THB 100 to THB 250. Generally their pricing system seems standardise, if you were to buy 1 piece, normally you have to pay THB 250- 200 (SGD $10 - 8) while if you buy 2 pieces, they can lower to THB 200 (SGD $8). While if you buy 3 pieces, they can give you a steep discount till THB 150 (SGD $6) or THB 120 (SGD $4.8). There were also a few tops going at THB 100 (SGD $4). You have to buy the same design and colour to get the best discount so gather your friends and each of you buy 1 and you can get really cheap clothes!

Shopping at Pratunam morning market for clothes is really a very affordable experience especially if you are not into brands. But do not that generally they comes in one size (free sizing) and they dont allow trying. But oh well its cheap!

Generally after 10am we see lesser shops with some closing already. So if you are interested do go there early from as early as 7am!!

We left pratunam market and head for Baiyoke Sky hotel at around 10.30am as We made a redemption via Asiatravel for this buffet lunch @ Baiyoke Sky Hotel, Sky Restaurant. Since we can make a redemption at Asiatravel, we wanted to find a memorable dining experience to end off our BKK trip. Initially we were contemplating between the Chao Praya River cruise and this Baiyoke buffet lunch (dining at a high level), and as we couldn't seem to fit the dinner cruise into our schedule nicely, we decided to go for the Baiyoke buffet lunch.

The Asiatravel buffet lunch package we got is this.

We have to print out AsiaTravel redemption form and head to 19th floor of Baiyoke sky hotel to get the actual tickets.

19th floor - redemption counter

empty area to sit 

View from Baiyoke Sky Level 19

View from Baiyoke Sky Hotel Level 19

Even the view from the 19th floor is pretty good - almost a bird's eye view of the pratunam district.

Tickets for buffet lunch at Bangkok Sky Restaurant

As you might notice from the tickets, the table (32) is actually computer allocated. Thereafter getting the tickets, we head to level 76. It was around 10.45am. Buffet supposedly starts from 11am, and we see a lot of people there already. They came with tour groups, only saw 1 or 2 that came on their own just like us. Initially we thought the restaurant will be quite empty since people tend to come here for dinner instead to look at Bangkok night view.

Lift to level 76

View at level 76

View at level 76

view at level 76

Level 76

Level 76

We loitered around here for awhile before the crew gestured that we can head up to level 78. to head up to level 78 you have to climb the stairs from Level 76. Apparently they don't allow the use of the lift for this purpose not too sure why.

Level 76

Finally at around 11.08am, we can head up to level 78 where the restaurant is open for buffet ~~~

Bangkok Sky restaurant - Thailand's tallest hotel cum restaurant

Inside the restaurant

 It was pretty empty when we entered as most of the tour groups head to the restaurant at level 76. We were hoping that we can get the window seats to get a better view of Bangkok's skyline and guess what we got it! Hehe

View of Bangkok skyline at level 78

View of Bangkok skyline at level 78

Okay now moving on to the buffet, after all it is the main purpose right? haha

In terms of selection, we must say they have a wide selection - from Thai cuisine, international (western), chinese, japanese...  There is ice cream, salad, drinks too. Really a lot of selection, practically the food area is the whole stretch circling around the centre of the restaurant.

drinks

seafood

You can get them to grill fish or chicken too!

dessert and japanese selection

more desserts

top to bottom: Mango sticky rice and tom yum soup

We concluded that if you are going for the skyline view and wide selection of food, then this hotel's buffet is a right choice for you. However if you are going for quality, then perhaps improvement is still needed.

Restaurant at 12.15pm

More people start to stream it when it is nearing 12pm. We left at around 12.20pm as we had to do a final packing before our driver come at 1.20pm to pick us up to Suvarnabhumi airport for our flight.

queue at lobby to take the lift up to level 76 - buffet

If you are intending to come Baiyoke Sky hotel buffet lunch, do come at an earlier time (11am) and you dont need to queue or jostle with the crowd. Crowd also means food get taken away at a faster speed. Especially for the better ones like fresh salmon. Haha

We enjoyed the meal and was really full. It was a good experience but if we were to pay the full price of more than THB 500 (SGD $20) then perhaps we won't try it...

Our airport transfer van arrived on time. It was via redemption through Asiatravel again (same as our airport transfer on day 8. It was due to arrive at 1.20pm, but when we were below at around 1.10pm it was already there.

Do allocate some time for check out at Centre Point Hotel Pratunam. Normally you can just give back your hotel card, and the hotel will return you your deposit and you can go. However over here, you have to give them your deposit slip and card, thereafter they will return you your deposit and they will give a call to their room service personnel to check that everything is in place (e.g you didn't use the minibar, spoil the equipment, or remove anything from the room). This check took some time about an additional 5mins.

Bye Centre Point Hotel Pratunam

Overall our experience here is good and we would come back here to stay again if the price remains affordable especially when there's promotion. We love the family room (Deluxe executive) concept, allowing us to stay together and making sharing of food or stuff easier too.

our airport transfer van 

Traffic was surprisingly smooth on a Saturday afternoon. We departed Centre Point Hotel Pratunam at around 1.20pm and we reach Suvarnabhumi airport at 1.48pm. It took around 30 minutes to reach the airport.

Area 4 - Thai Airways

Time to check in our heavy luggages with our loots from China and BKK! It came up to an amazing 49kg for the 4 of us. When we departed to China on Day 1 it was only 30+kg!

Baggage weight

The clothes haul that we got from BKK must be the culprit. Each of us almost bought clothes that can last us through 1 year or more, because they are really this affordable. It is like clothes you see in Singapore especially on blogshop going at SGD $20+, and yet over here at Pratunam morning market you can get for below SGD $10. It is a no brainer whether to buy or not. Hehe

 Suvarnabhumi airport Departure check in

Thai exhibition

Thai exhibition

Tastes of Thailand (souvenir shop)

After we past the custom, we saw a lot of people buying mango sticky rice from King Power duty free shop or this Tastes of Thailand shop. It wasn't cheap and it doesn't really look nice either. But i guess its the most convenient way for tourists to bring some sticky rice back to their hometown.

Gate C1

We have to take the escalator down and the nearest seats to the left of the escalator is where Gate C1 is at.

Escalator C1

Boarding pass

Thai Airways

on runway

We departed at around 4.30pm, almost on time.

Goodbye Bangkok

up in the clouds

Perhaps it was a short flight, so meal was served pretty fast at around 5pm, half hour into the flight.

Thai curry chicken rice

The Thai curry chicken was good, however the vegetables salad wasn't too much too our liking.

Flight was smooth and we entertained ourselves with the last in-flight entertainment before we conclude our long 11 days trip.

Flight estimation timing 

As it appears from the screen, we seem to be able to touch down at Singapore Changi Airport T1 early. However when we were nearing Singapore, there seem to be busy traffic and the pilot had to encircle Singapore and Malaysia airspace thrice to delay some time before we can land. By the time we land, it was already 8+pm.

But oh well, we weren't n a rush. In fact, touch down marks the end of our trip.

It was a memorable experience to China Yunnan and Thailand Bangkok. We will be sure to visit Bangkok  again in the recent time to come especially when we are in need of a short getaway or affordable eats/clothes. While for China, our first start to China had been great and in time when opportunity arise, a visit to China again for its beautiful and magnificent scenary is definitely on our bucket list.