Venturing the Land of the Free (I)

"A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)

I went to Thailand a month ago with my family. It was a planned last year. So on the 29th of June, I took a leave from my classes, packed my things and made my way early in the morning to Alor Star Airport. My flight was an early one. From the airport, I flew to LCCT-KLIA to meet my family. It was a long-awaited trip so you know how excited I was then. Meeting up with my family after 2 weeks and going for a vacation together was memorable and fun.

An 'isolated' airport. As it was o645 in the morning, there were only few passengers at the airport. I recalled that other than me, there were 2 families and two business men.

Took this amazing view during my flight from Kedah to KL

Managed to grab some food to fill my growling stomach (I didn't have time to take my breakfast before my flight)

And so, after an hour flight, I reached LCCT and waited for the arrival of my family from Kuching. It was quite a long wait so I decided to connect to wireless connection and surf the net. Doing so make the time flies even faster. Soon, I met my family and boarded the afternoon plane to Bangkok. The journey to Thailand took us 2 whole hours. It was quite tiring for me as I didn't have much sleep the night before. I almost slept the whole way but I managed to take some photos. As we neared Bangkok, there were lots of paddy fields down below(I think the number of paddy fields in Kedah is only 1/8 of the paddy fields that I saw at Thailand). We were totally taken back by the view. It was wonderful. It was even better when we managed to pass the Menam Chao Phraya River. This too, runs for miles and miles.

Chao Phraya River, the pride of Thailand

When we finally landed, we were again amazed by the size of the airport. No offense, but if you think KLIA is big, the Bangkok airport is like...I think 3-4 times bigger. No doubt, Thailand is a hot-tourism spot for tourists ad it has to accommodate millions and millions of passengers every year. This means that approx. hundred of thousands of passengers probably 'embark' the airport every day. To cut everything short, these are the pictures of it:

This is only a semi-quarter of the whole-lot of passengers that I could capture with my camera.

Part of the arrival hall

Just look at the complicated yet creative works of many experienced architects and workmanship

The taxis in Bangkok are the cars that we always thought are the 'rich people' cars in our country. So think twice when you see a luxury car in our streets.

We then took a cab to our hotel in city. One tip for those who plan to visit Bangkok: Before calling a cab, translate the name of places you want to go into Thai (ask at the airport information counter or management). Most of the taxi drivers can't read and converse in English. Try to learn some basic Thai language too to make life easier.

The view of the city from my hotel room.

After unpacking our luggage and getting ourselves freshened up, we went to China Town nearby. It was congested with people and the air is very polluted. On the road, vehicles zoomed passed us and 'Tut Tuts' (I'll explain what's this is in one of my latter posts) roared by us. We quickly got our way from the busy streets into a another street where vendors selling a variety of goods and food and shops are located. We were shocked when we saw that they actually sell real guns and food like fried beetles and such. I wanted to try the food but due to the shortage of time, I didn't manage to cause we there were other better food to try. There were lots of places to be explored at China Street. The small walking path didn't even stop cars from passing through. We had to take care of our valuables as we reckoned that there were pick pockets around.

Preserved food

Unusual fried food

Try guessing what this is

China Street

A taxi trying to 'resist' the 'back flow of humans' through a narrow street

Hawker stalls with great food all the way to the back

Top: if I'm not wrong, it is beef+pig intestine soup (couldn't recall the proper name)

Bottom: Thai noodles, it tastes totally delicious (a must try)

China Street's night life

As there are too many photos and things to write, I have to divide them into a few posts. So till then, I have to get back to my work in and will update again when there is time to spare. Please continue to pray for me and take care.

God bless. Jesus loves you.