Sunday, November 14, 2010

2008 February: Bangkok: Day 1: Arrival and Siam Niramit Show

2008 February: Bangkok: Day 1: Arrival and Siam Niramit Show


We left Manila at around 10:30am and reached Suvarnabhumi International Airport at around 1:00pm Bangkok time. Note that Manila is 1 hour ahead of Bangkok. It is advised to change one of your watch to follow their local time and to not miss any of your appointments. You can also keep your Manila time on your mobile phone to have a reference as well.

Guardians in Suvarnabhumi International Airport

Baggage Carousel numbers are not announced on plane nor posted on the end of the exit tube. You have to check them on the video screen before reaching the Immigration counter. After spending 30mins to 1 hour in the Immigration queue, we were now able to get our baggage. For those who avail tour packages with PAL, the name of the agency they are connected into is KBS Travel (http://www.kbsbookingonline.com/ or http://www.kbsthailand.com/). Always follow-up with PAL or KBS on your arrival instructions. For us, it is to Exit at Gate C located at the left most side of the Arrival Terminal (Level 2). This gate is located near Baggage Carousel Nos. 18-23. The KBS guide will be holding a KBS placard with clients' lead name.


Exchange rate in the airport is not good, but you may need to exchange some of your money to be used for the advance payment in the hotel.


You will wait for all other clients who avail the Swingaround promo before boarding a 10 passenger van.
Travel from the airport to Hotel is about 45 minutes.

Ibis Siam Hotel (has already been renamed to Seasons Siam Hotel, 2018) is located in 97 Rajaprarop Road Makkasan which is just a bus away from Pratunam area and mall district. The hotel is a different 3 star hotel among the others. The Ibis philosophy is to give “value for money” - they do not have room service and no bell boys. If you directly booked to the Hotel, the rate for a Standard Room is THB2000. We booked our hotel together with the Swingaround promo and it already includes a breakfast buffet.










Lobby






Internet service of Hotel




Breakfast Buffet

Hotels in Bangkok also has a standard practice where guests should give an advance payment though you already paid the whole booking over the credit card. We paid THB2000 as an advance payment in case we make international calls and/or take sodas from the fridge.

Standard room is okay based on my preference. It has good lighting, sofa, soft beddings, closet and clean bathroom. It provides a tea making facility, an emergency flash light and bath towels.



Exchange rate in the hotel is also not good. Instead, we were advise to exchange our money on an authorized bank. The nearest money exchange from the hotel is located in Big C mall, which is a bus away. You can take bus 73, 204 and 514 going to Big C, Central World and Isetan malls. To reach MBK, Siam Discovery, Siam Center and Siam Paragon malls take bus 73.



On our first day stay, we booked to watch the Siam Niramit show (http://www.siamniramit.com/index.php). It is a Thai cultural show that presents 3 acts (Journey Back to History, Beyond Imagination and Joyous Festivals). We were picked up from the hotel by 5:30 pm and reached the place in 30 minutes. We check out the place and made some photo op with the other characters from the show.

We took our dinner buffet and return to the waiting area. Take the opportunity that you can take photos with the participants because cameras are not allowed inside the auditorium.


The show is very amazing and spectacular. They were able to include real elephants, goats and roosters in the stage. They even had reproduced the floating market with small boats over the real water. We already know that there will be acrobatics and aerial movements, but what totally surprise me is when it rains on the stage, every time water flashes and when plain water turns to a fountain.

After the 80 minute show, there is another photo op with the participants, but we did not stay late. We go back to our driver to sent us back to the hotel.

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