Journey to the Siamese Kingdom Part 2

Day 2

As promised in the last entry, our resort, Boutique Raft Resort River Kwai located at the bank of River Kwai, around 50km from city centre of Kanchanaburi.

Cool resort, with the sound of river flow and the balcony door that straightly opened to the river. We booked River Kwai Suites, a bamboo made room of two floating on the river with two reclined bamboo chairs at the balcony.

The room

The wash room. When you bath, the water straightly go to the river through the wooden floor

The bamboo chair for you to relax, chit chatting, reading in front of the river

Toiletteries 

The view from the room

This morning, we had a breakfast at the resort. Quite a variety of choices so we had scramble eggs, fruits, baked bean and a bread. Eating in front of the river makes you feel good.

What a colourful breakfast! 

The driver picked us at 8.30pm at hotel lobby. He brought us to the Srinagarind Dam, about an hour journey from the resort. Basically, the dam was built on the Khwae Yai River for hydroelectric power generation. The dam's power station has a 720 megawatts and was named after Princess Srinaharindra. 

We spend about 10 mins here for photos before proceeded our journey to Erawan Waterfall which located around 10 mins from the dam. 

Srinagarind Dam

The other side of the dam. Looks like a big man made lake. 

Erawan Waterfall is one of the most beautiful waterfall in Thailand, with greenish blue water flow from the waterfall to the pond at each level. The waterfall has 7 tiers in which each tiers had its own name as follows:

Level 1 - Hlai Khuen Rung
Level 2 - Wang Macha
Level 3 - Pha Namtok
Level 4 - Oke Nang Peesau
Level 5 - Buea Mai Long
Level 6 - Dong Prucksa
Level 7 - Phu Pha Erawan

We only went up to level 5, just had a simple swam and fish spa before going down to the base. We need to hike to every level and the path is very easy with stairs provided.

The entrance fee is THB200 per person and once you reached level 2, you need to left all your foods and bottled water at the counter by paying a deposit of THB20. To maintain the water quality and the cleanliness, all foods are prohibited to be carried over each level.

Entrance of Erawan Waterfall

The board showing the waterfall tiers

Photos of each tiers

Level 1 - Hlai Khuen Rung

Level 2 - Wang Macha

The waterfall model

Level 4 - Oke Nang Peesau

Level 3 - Pha Namtok

Level 5 - Buea Mai Long

The steps to each level

Even we not going up to level 7, but we still spend around 3 hours at the waterfall. Cooling view, less people and the sounds of the jungle enough for you to have a me time doing nothing there. But, since we still have few places to go, we need to stop day dreaming, get a move and proceeded to the town of Kanchanaburi, about 1 hour from the waterfall. 

The driver dropped us nearby Kwai River Bridge. We walked around 5 minutes to join the crowded there. First thing that we need to know before enjoying this place is the train timing. Need to make sure that you have enough time to get out from railway when the train is coming hehe.. 

The span of this bridge is composed of nine curved-truss segments (originals dating back to WWII) and two angular-truss segments (replacements (under war reparations) from Japan after 1945). Nearby the bridge is JEATH Museum and a temple at the other side of the river. 

Kwai River

Me, on the railway bridge

A bit clear for photo session here

A market nearby the bridge. I can see a kid playing a guitar with a small tins in front of her for tips. 

How the bridge looks like, from the market

We then, walked to the JEATH War Museum which located 5 mins from the bridge. JEATH stands for primary nationalities that involved in the construction of the bridge namely Japanese, English, Australian, Thailand and Holland.

This war museum is all about the Death Railway which was built from 1942 to 1943 by Allied Prisoners of Wars under the direction of Japanese. They displayed the machines, vehicles, pictures and how the situation looks like during the construction of the bridge.

Entrance Fees THB40.

The girl became my photoboom. This old train has been used during World War 2 to transport ammunitions to expand the fight to India and Burma

Museum Building from the front. The middle statue is King Narai the great

This is how the prisoners struggled during the constructions of the railway under Japanese command. They look tired, thin and exposure to disease and death due to insufficient nutrition. 

This railway wagon is used as a prison to hold the prisoners of WW2 in Kanchanaburi 

The trishaw used by the officers 

After 1 hour tour in the museum, we visited the market in front of the museum ~ River Kwai Park.

The entrance of the market 

Jewellery sections of the market. We just window shop

This section selling cloths both for kids and adults

This is my favourite part. The jeruks and dry food sections. Variety of choices. I bought a few. 

Cheap cheap stuffs 😁😁😁

At the end of market, there is a small Muslim restaurant. Since i am Kelantanese, so i just spoke Kelantan dialect with the restaurant owner hehe. We ordered nasi goreng and soups.

The makcik Kelantan restaurant 😁

After had our lunch, we planned to visit another important place which is Maluka R. E 124. 

What is this place all about? 

Mallika R.E 124 ~ reflecting the past Siamese lifestyle in the Chao Phraya River Basin.

During the reign of King Chulalongkorn, Rama V (1873-1910 A.D.), the people’s way of life in 1905 A.D. was changed ~ the abolition of slavery. The abolition caused the slaves to live a life of self-sufficiency, self-reliant, and in harmony with all other Siamese people.

Interesting places to visit from my point  of view. You can wear the traditional Thai costume for THB200. Other than traditional houses, there are city tower, Saphan Han and ancient market zone which is worth of visits. In order to buy foods, souveniers, crafts sold in ancient market zone, you need to buy holed coins after the entrance. The markets only accepted the holed coins for buying and selling transactions. I didnt change anything. Not interested to buy anything 😬😬. 

After spending around 2 hrs here, we nake a move to our final destinations for the day, Death Railway. 

Entrance fee: THB200

The rickshaw in front of the entrance

The entrance of Malika R.E 124

Saphan Han - Turnable bridge. There are few shops selling spices, crafts and cloths inside. 

Beautiful garden lies below the Saphan Han

City Tower

Reuan Pae - a floating house for trading and restaurants. Located at the bank of the river

Reuan Hmoo - used by the rich people to welcome visitors 

The hall in the Reuan Hmoo

Traditional houses

And this. No proper sign board to describe further on these houses

The villagers drying the grains

The traditional equipment that they used to processed the paddy i.e separating paddy and rice 

Reuan Dieow - This type of house normally occupied by proletariats who's producing basic living needs such as vegetables, paddy, clothing etc. 

The crafts sold at Ancient Market Zone. 

Me, on the rickshaw hehe

The final destination of the 2nd day, The Death Railway. Sounds horror and scary but what is this place all about? 

Also known as Siam-Burma Railway, with a length of 415 km between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma.

The railway was built in 1943 by Japanese to support its forces in the Burma campaign of WW2.

Between 180,000 and 250,000 Southeast Asian civilian labourers and about 61,000 prisoner of wars were forced to construct the railway. About 90,000 civilian labourers and more than 12,000 prisoners died during the construction.

You can either ride a train to Tham Kra Sae station or reach here by road. 

We reached at the station around 5.40pm and the train scheduled to arrive at Tham Kra Sae at 6.00pm. Since it is just the time for the train to arrive, we take a chance to snap a photo around the railway. 

This time, the train reached 15mins late, the sky getting darker but we still at the railway waiting for the train. Some tourists already left since they waited for so long. But us, keep on waiting until the arrival of the train. 

The boat house, water chalet along the Kwai River

Alert the train timing to take picture like me, else you can jump into the river or run away to the safe side.

The train is coming

And getting closer.. 

And stopped at Tam Khra Sae station for minutes before leaving to Wang Pho

After the train left, we back to our chalet which located not far from the station. We ended up our beautiful journey by having a dinner and had a good rests. 

To be continued.. 

Journey to the Siamese Kingdom Part 1

A short journey to Siamese Kingdom, with a limited annual leave balance left but you still wanna have a holiday! Here we go...

So, after months, I just had time to write on my journey to few cities in Thailand i.e Bangkok, Kanchanaburi and Lopburi in just 4 days and 3 nights.

Day 1

As early as 5.30am, I reached at KLIA2 to board to Dong Mueng, Bangkok. The flight took 2 hours and we arrived at 8.55am local time (Bangkok is 1 hr earlier than KL). Since it was a very rush trip, we chartered a car with driver to bring us to few cities. I have been here for few times and since it is a neighbourhood country, hence, no harm to choose variety of transportation mode every time I came here. 

The driver already awaited us at the airport. Our first destination was Lopburi and  will overnight at Kanchanaburi. The journey from Bangkok to Lopburi took around 2 hours and from Lopburi to Kanchanaburi took around 3 hours. In total, we will spend our time in the vehicle for 5 hours today. Oh yeah! Alternatively, if you intent to go to Lopburi by train, you can ride it from Hua Lamphong Station to Lopburi Station (around 2.5hrs journey) . From there, you can ride a tuktuk to your desired destiny.

The driver was Muslim and well versed in English hence, easier for us to communicate.

We went into the 7E inside the airport to buy some meals before embarked to Lopburi. There were instant halal meals sold in any of the 7Es in Thailand. Few choices available, so you can buy your lunch or dinner here.

 Fried fish with spicy sauce. Tastes fantastic! 

Chicken grilled rice

We arrived at Lopburi around 11.30am, heading to the sunflower field. There are few fields in Lopburi but some already closed as they were fully harvested. Lucky to have a few which still opened for visitors.

The sunflowers are only bloom for few months in year namely in the month of November to January. These sunflowers not only attracts the tourists but they actually plant it to get the seeds (kuaci), sunflower butter and sunflower oil which then sold commercially to the locals and exports to other countries. Apart as a food sources, the sunflower also can be used for medical i.e to treat fevers, lung ailments, diarrhea as well as diabetics.

We went to two farms, Jumpee Sunflower Park and the other one i forgot the name. The entrance fees were THB10 and THB20 respectively. We spent around 30 mins in each.

Sunflower model 😁

The seeds that can be eaten as snack and processed for the oil and alternative to peanut butter

Sellers selling snacks and sunflower products. Sunflower seeds are sold at THB100 for 3

The machine used to harvest sunflower 

The field

We went to the Muslim stalls nearby the field to have our lunch. Not much menu except for noodle based meals. I ordered kuay tiow soup. Tastes not bad. Pure Thai food.

After the meals, we went to Prang Sam Yod, Lopburi. This monument was built when Lopburi was under the control of the Khmer empire from Angkor. The monument was likely founded in the late 12th or early 13th century during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. This monument was built to serve the Mahayana of Buddism.

Fee entrance THB150. They provided a bamboo stick for each visitor to protect and chase the monkey. Do you think it works? It doesn't, really. The monkey jumped onto my bag while i was snapping pictures, ended up I was shocked and jumped also until they ran away. 😂😂

 The three Khmer holy Phrang which aged 800 years old. The middle are the tallest among the three. 

Monkeys are everywhere. Go closer to them and they will jump over you! 

After spending time with the monkeys, we make a move. Other than sunflower field, Lopburi also well known as monkey city. The monkeys are spotted everywhere in the city, get fed by local people and sometime can be aggressive by stealing food or anything from passers-by people. 

Where were we went next? 

We went to Somdet Phra Narai National Museum. The museum was built in year 1666. 

Ruins of King Narai's Palace, known as Wang Narai locally. It exhibits prerequisites from prehistoric times 3500 years ago found from archaeological sites around Chao Pharaya River Basin to present as sequence event. 

In this compound also, you may see the ruins of King Narai's Palace. King Narai was King of Ayutthaya during the second half of the 17th century.

The Palace was designed by French architects, mix of Thai and European architectural styles. Construction started in 1665 and completed in 1677. The entrance fee combined with the museum is THB150.

It is clean and well maintained. Less monkey here so i can calmly walk and spend my beautiful evening here.. Hehe.   

The artifacts exhibited in the museum. Kind of axes used by pre historic people. 

Part of the National Museum's building 

Artifacts exhibited. Stones and ruins of the temples/monuments

Ruins of the Palace

The Map of Siamese and Malaya Kingdom, once upon a time ago

The Statue of King Narai at the centre of Lopburi Town

Its getting dark and we need to make a move to Kanchanaburi. Our resort located nearby Kwai River and we did not expect to reach late at the resort. 

After 3hrs journey, we arrived at the resort at 8pm. We checked in, dropped our luggage and have a rest. I will share about the awesome resort that we stayed for two nights in my next entry.. 

To be continued 

Flying Without Wings

Something cool this morning to best described what I felt. Year by year, i haven't found mine...

Flying Without Wings

Everybody's looking for a something
One thing that makes it all complete
You'll find it in the strangest places
Places you never knew it could be

Some find it in the face of their children
Some find it in their lover's eyes
Who can deny the joy it brings
When you've found that special thing
You're flying without wings

Some find it sharing every morning
Some in their solitary nights
You'll find it in the words of others
A simple line can make you laugh or cry

You'll find it in the deepest friendship
The kind you cherish all your life
And when you know how much it means
You've found that special thing
You're flying without wings

How to survive when you travel in New Zealand??

Some asked me to provide tips for New Zealand trip. I am neither expert nor perfect traveller. I have posted in detail my journey to New Zealand in previous post. So, these are my two cents that i can share with you:

1) Visa
~ On arrival visa for 3 months at no cost
~ If you wish to travel while working in New Zealand, you may apply for working holiday visa for 6 months if you are in between 18 - 30 years old.

Auckland Airport

2) Transport/Driving
~ A lot of car rental and caravan company. We hired a car since only 3 gals on trip. If you wish to rent a caravan than, its best for you to know how to maintain it (recharge the power, dump the waste and etc) and not forget where you can park the caravan. You may refer here: Caravan
~ We rented Go Rental in North Island & Apex Car Rental in South Island. Both good.
~ Please spend for full coverage insurance unless you are risk taker
~ International license not required if your license is latest version issued by JPJ which has English translation.
~ Right hand drive as Malaysia. No worries
~ Road signs almost standard with Malaysia except for priority single lane bridge and few more. You can refer to https://www.drivingtests.co.nz/resources/regulatory-signs-in-new-zealand/ for details
~ Speed limit max at 100kmj. So, don't expect to have a race like you did so in Malaysia hehe
~ Single Lane Road almost of the route. During the last trip, I couldn't see any highway with more than 2 lanes (except for takeover lane) along the route.
~ Petrol station is not available everywhere especially in rural areas. You only can find the station in every 100km of your journey. Be prepared and ensure that your fuel is always full and enough for your journey. The petrol stattion is not so big but normally there are signboard before reaching it. Be alert!

The view that you can see while driving

3) Accommodation
~ Airbnb, motel, hotel, hostel are everywhere. Check out your own budget. Can try camping if you dare. Why not? a lot of campsite available for campers.

Backpackers hostel at Fox Glacier

Airbnb at Lake Taupo

4) Food
~ The restrictions almost same as Australia. Check out this web for details: https://www.biosecurity.govt.nz
~ Prepare food declaration list for customs checking. You can bring Sambal che nor, sardin, nasi putih, beras, megi. No harm. Just declare it in the lists.
~ You can bring mini pot to cook. No worries. Otherwise you can buy Tahirah soap for samak if you wish to use hostels or Airbnb cooking utensils
~ You can buy groceries, vegies, eggs at PAKn' Save, Countdown, Fresh Choice. It's everywhere and the price also quite reasonable.

Macaroni cheese, strawberry and chocolate. All bought at Fresh Choice 

5) Language
~ English. Cakap melayu pun boleh xde orang marah.

6) Itinerary
~ Most of the places in New Zealand promise you beautiful scenery but need to have a walk or trekking for more than hours. So plan your itinerary carefully. Enjoy the day and view. There are no specific itineraries. Most of the place I went is not in the plan and we just stopped by during our road trip.

Mount Cook

7) Currency
~ The currency used is New Zealand Dollar. I think none left in my hand and I forgot to snap any picture. Sigh. 1NZD equivalent to RM2.78 approximately. 

So, thats all my sharing! Happy weekend!

What you should know when you have intention to travel to India??

Many of you travelled to India before, some yet and some planning to, soon. I would like to share some humble tips from my journey to India recently (including Kashmir). We might went to the same country and states, but the journey won't be the same. 

1) Visa: For Malaysian, the cost for 1 year multiple entry visa is RM462.56. You may visit Online Visa Application to fill up online visa application form. The form later on need to be printed out for the submission to Visa Centre together with the following:

a) Photograph size 2 inc x 2 inc (white background).
b) Passport
c) Return air ticket to India (not compulsary) 

Effective from 1 April, the centre has been relocated to Wisma Chase Perdana, Damansara. 

Refer to this website for updated info, time for visa application and collection time etc Visa India - Malaysia. Normally, it will take 3 days for the visa to be affixed to your passport.

Please be careful in filling up online application form since one mistakes can cause you to pay RM30 for corrections.

You also may apply e-Visa which is valid for 4 months with costs RM320. You may fill up the form and make online payment here e-Visa.

How the visa looks like. It will be affixed to your passport. Google picture. Of course i won't put my pasport here hehe.. 

2) Injections: Thyphoid, Meningitis, Hepatitis B & Malaria would apply but depends on your antibody system. The cost of injections however depends on clinics or hospital you are going. Klinik Kesihatan DBKL for example offered Thyphoid injection at a cost of RM41 and Meningitis injection at a cost of pada harga RM120 for Malaysian.

2) Injections: Thyphoid, Meningitis, Hepatitis B & Malaria would apply but depends on your antibody system. Aku kene inject sebab perut cap ayam

3) Food: If possible, unless your antibody is damn strong, please avoid street and uncooked food. The dusts, unsafe food preparations and the dirt environment is enough to cause your diagnose diarrhoea or any related viruses. If you stay in hotel, i can say the food is save for you to consume. 

Hawker selling foods at the road side

Wash cleanly should you bought this

4) Activities: India is too wide and contains a lot of hidden germs. Golden triangle is normal. You can try the other part of India such as Jodhpur, Amritsar, Chennai, Udaipur and many more. If you are nature lover, Jammu & Kashmir also Ladakh is attractive and enthralling enough for you to go for trekking (summer and spring) and having snow activities (winter). 

5) Transport: Various of transports including charter car, busses, trains, metro, tuk tuk and auto rickshaw, but is still depends on which city or state that you arrange going. For example, metro not available in Jaipur and Kashmir. So, do some research for city that you are going to. If you travel on the road, please spare a bit of your time for traffice jam since it may cause delay in your journey. 

I haven't tried the local transportation in my last trip since we book agent to drive us here and there. I should try in my next trip 😁

Taj Mahal in foggy morning view

6) Language: Most in tourism industries are fluent in English. The rests are nehi nehi. Its good for you to know basic Hindi as well. Worst case, you can download google offline for Hindi Language. 

7) Drinking water: Drink bottled and mineral water only. But, i have tried Chai during my last trip, the famous milk tea in India. Tastes good and give no harm to my stomach. 

Bottled water sold everywhere

8) Toilet: Most of them have bidet. But be prepared with wet tissues as well.  In my previous trip, i only used toilet/washroom at the hotel, airport and restaurants. The cleanliness is rated as acceptable and quite clean. 

9) Scams: Too many. Be careful in every of your steps, words and actions. While the car stopped at the traffic lights or while you stucked in the jam, there will be a lot of people knocked down your car window, selling stuffs and some are beggars. Don't give anything otherwise a bunch of the same will come to you soon after (You can do so if you are kind enough to entertain and 😬). 

If you plan to ride tuk tuk or rickshaw, careful also in bargaining the price. Preferably you made a research first rather than zero knowledge.

Don't ever exchange your money with the stranger to avoid chances in receiving fake notes. 

10) Price Negotiations: Please do even in a boutiqe or established shops 😁.

Pashmina sellers

11) Sim Card: You can buy it through Lazada or any online based shopping cart. Other than that, you may purchase it at the airport upon arrival (if you are not roaming). 

Vodafone is widely used as compared to other operator. 

12) Donations: Contrary to No 9 above, if you go to Kashmir, please reserve some portions as they are Muslims and deserve for it. You can give as a tips for their tourism service or by saffron or pashmina from them since some of the villagers are selling pashminas and saffrons at very cheap price. 

1g of Saffron sold for Rs100. Super cheap! 

13) Expect the unexpected: Some tourist attractions can be closed without early given notice. I experienced this when Qutub Minar closed due to ticketing system down in the afternoon and Red Fort also closed due to the cultural performance held next door to the Fort. What a bad day!

• Kindly share yours. Would love to read it! 

Incredible India Final Part

Being the last day in Kashmir and second final day in India, we woke up at 5am and get prepared to ensure we reached Srinagar Airport by 7am.

It is time to say goodbye to Kashmir. Again, we need to fill up departure form at the Airport. Will do come again, in the near future, of course!

Being a state of isolation, it is difficult to get internet and mobile connection here unless you bought local sim card, Airtel. You cannot roaming with your home country network and the best to get connected is by using Wi-Fi at your hotel. Please be reminded that boat house not providing you with Wi-Fi connection hehe.

Before leaving the boat house

The boat rider picked us at house boat at 6.15am while Fajr Adzan reverbed from the surrounding mosques. The boat ride to the road side took 20mins. The driver reached 10mins later and headed us to the airport.

The Shikara 

We reached airport around 7am. Airport gate was closed. We, and other vehicles waited outside the gate until its opened. After passing the gate, we need to go out from the car and get our luggage to the inspection belt for immigration inspections. We took back our beg and proceed to the airport main entrance.

We queued up at the main entrance for 30mins before the army allowed us to get into the airport (of course we need to pass through one more immigration inspection just after the entrance), and proceeded to the gate for boarding. And as usual, the flight got delayed again, for hour.

Kashmir from the air 

We, finally reached Delhi at 12pm (yeah, again!), picked up by Lucky Flower's driver. We supposed to go to Agra directly today. But, as usual, it is Delhi. We stucked in the traffic for almost hour before we exit to Yamuna Expressway.

Usual traffic conditions in Delhi

Stopped by at the road side stall to buy snacks. We skipped our lunch to rush to Agra but yet unlucky

We stopped by rest and relax plaza a long the way. Nothing much there except for the food and drink stalls. We had chai before leaving.

The guy selling Chai at rest and relax along the way to Agra 

A cup of Chai can keep away your worries for not arriving Agra on time hahaha

I worried actually that we couldn't make to Agra Fort and Taj Mahal this evening since we were still on the road at 4pm. Both monuments closed at 5pm. Either we let it go or visit either one the next morning before off to airport. At least something rather than nothing.

As expected, we reached Agra at 5.30pm and everything closed. The guide which waited us at the hotel brought us to tour the Agra Fort from the outside. What a bad day again! We could see the gate only of course!

Agra Fort. This is believed as Shah Jahan's room during his reign. 

An evening in Agra

We stopped by jewellery shop to look into rubbies and watch musical bands before back to hotel with high level degree of frustrations.

Hoping that it is fine, clear wheather early morning tomorrow.

Day 6

So, the final destination on the 6th day is Taj Mahal. We were given only 30mins to visit Taj Mahal and took pictures.

Me, in the background of Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal gate

The Taj Mahal is also known as "Crown of the Palaces". It is an ivory-white mausoleum made of by marble on the south bank of the Yamuna river in Agra. It was built in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658), to house the tomb of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

How lucky Mumtaz, but in fact, i, myself don't need this. The truth of love is trust, respect and loyalty. That's it. 😁.

We rushed back to Delhi after half hour in Taj Mahal. It's not our luck again to snap good picture since it was a hazy morning. It's ok. Redha.

Our flight to Malaysia is at 1 pm Delhi time. We reached Delhi Airport just in time at 11.00am. Today, the driver aware the urgency as compared to yesterday, if not we might miss or late to catch the flight.

That's all about India journey. We missed a lot of things and places but it is not the sign that we are not going to repeat India. The visa damn expensive, so I need to fully utilise.

I will share the tips for India in my next post.

Full of uncertainty.

THE END.