Day 2 in Thailand (7/16/2008)

It's Rene's 1st day of training along with 3 of his colleagues at ASTI. We all got together for breakfast at the Hotel restaurant. There are 2 choices for breakfast, set A is bread and butter/jam/marmalade and set B is 2 eggs, choice of sausage/bacon, both choices include a toast, coffee, chilled fruit/juice. Set A costs THB125 while set B is THB165. I am not sure if it is cheaper to avail of the breakfast upon booking the room as the rate is fixed. But since we're going to avail it only once, we just paid this one.

Breakfast at the Hotel restaurant w/ Rusnel, Hertz, Marco and Rene

To pass the time, I was mostly surfing the net in the hotel trying to research on places to see within Bangkok and how to get around. I took my lunch at the cafeteria which only cost me THB35 (THB20 for the rice toppings and THB15 for the black iced tea which I really liked because it tasted like sago gulaman without the sago and gulaman of course). I didn't feel out of place as there were only a few people there. Like any other cafeteria, one orders the food and pays it at the cashier, gets the utensils and condiments, if needed, at specific areas, and after eating, puts everything back to the cleaning area. After lunch, I decided to explore more and take a look at the establishments around the campus.

I passed by the bookstore to look for maps and bus guides and was able to buy one for THB69. It already includes all the bus routes within Bangkok, in English and Thai language. I also bought a snack for merienda at a food store that looked like bibingka (see pic below) but it is made of coconut (not sure what it's called). It costs THB13.

There is also a travel agency near the bookstore and I inquired about their Ayutthaya tour. This is one of my must-see's and thought that I might get a better deal here than in Bangkok since AIT is halfway between Bangkok proper and Ayutthaya. The itinerary for their tour is shown below. The rate they quoted was THB900 per person (day tour with lunch, entrance fees not included).

In the afternoon, we checked out of the hotel and transferred to our new room which is at a staff house costing THB500 per night! Huge price difference from before and yet the place is more than you could expect for that rate. The only difference we noticed is that there is no TV and bathtub (which is ok since we rarely use it).

For the evening, we ate dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant at the far end of the campus almost near the highway. A meal costs around THB25-35. We ordered some fried rice meals and noodles which were really good.

The Arboretum garden on the way to the Vietnamese restaurant

Originally, we were planning to go to Patpong (street/s in Bangkok known as the red-light district). However, it looked like it was going to rain and everyone seemed tired so we decided to postpone it for the next day.

Related Entries:

Welcome to Bangkok! (7/15/2008)
Day 2 in Thailand (7/16/2008)
Day 3 in Thailand: Shopping galore! (7/17/2008)
Day 4 in Thailand: Grand Palace (7/18/2008, part 1 of 2)
Day 4 in Thailand: Dinner River Cruise (7/18/2008, part 2 of 2)
Day 5 Ayutthaya Day Tour: Bang Pa-In Palace (7/19/2008, part 1 of 2)
Day 5 Ayutthaya Day Tour: Wat Mahathat (7/19/2008, part 2 of 2)
Day 6 in Thailand: Inside the Grand Palace (7/20/2008)
Day 7 in Thailand: Future park, Patpong and Suan Lum in one night (7/21/2008)
Day 8 in Thailand: University Life (7/22/2008)