Thailand Mega Fam Trip 2008 - Siam Niramit, Wat Arun @ Bangkok

Let's skip my Australia trip for a while and hope to two months after my OZ trip.

Two months ago (back in Oct), I was invited by TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) to its Thailand Mega Fam 2008,




a grand event where over 2000 agents and medias around the world were invited to Thailand to experience the seven wonders of Thailand.




There were two main routes given out to different media of different countries: Chiang Mai and Isan.

Seeing that I have never been to Isan province, the North Eastern part of Thailand, it was 6 days 5 nights of road trip to Nakhon Ratchasima for me.


Isan Province in the red~


Day 1

After checking in to Swissotel Le Concorde on Ratchada-phisek road, we proceeded to meet at the lobby to head out for dinner.

For me, it was talking a 5 mins taxi from my apartment to the hotel instead of 3 hours flight.




Anyway, Siam Niramit is one of those must do touristy thing in Bangkok.




I've seen a fair share of live stage performance in my life. Some of the grandest can be found in China. However, Siam Niramit prides itself to have the biggest and tallest indoor stage in the world.




The show package usually includes buffet dinner outdoor,


Ours is indoor because we're special :p


and an adult ticket to the cultural village and show.

It's not allowed to bring camera into the hall, so here's a little snippet of what you might see during the performance.




Be amazed, for I was. There are few highlights in the shows that would put you in awe. Imagine an actual river, and elephants (note the plural) all indoor!


Feel free to finish dinner early so you can walk around the cultural village before the show starts.


Pretty fountain



Traditional Thai girl cooking



Sexy Thai aunty sewing



Live dancer - posing for photos


and oohh... Thai boys~




Sorry, I don't find guys in blings blings attractive at all.


After dinner, a few of us, including Richard (marketing manager of TAT Malaysia) decided to hire a few taxi to go clubbing. Woo~~


Khun Richard is damn cool ok! We're like best of buds!



cam whore


We chose Soi 4 because the receptionist at the hotel said so.

And landed in some, well.. dodgy, yet cool, yet dodgy, pub, where all the waiters wear funny costume.




Something must be wrong with me, or the fact that they were playing Thai music all the way, or the fact that it's cultural shock for me. I got tremendously bored after a while..



see how bored I was?


Blow face~


Who's hand is that?! OMG, I just saw that when editing this photo!


So I decided to grab a hat from a random waiter to play...


He looked damn stoned. Kakaka


Day 2

Morning came, after reluctantly woke up from my oh-so-soft bed, I quickly washed up and went out to tour the city of Bangkok with my Malaysian travel agents.

We went to Chao Phraya River for a boat tour.




Had a few floating boat selling fruits and souvenirs came up to us.




And fed some of the fattest catfish I have ever seen.




I mean, these catfish were gigantic! If only I can catch them and pass them to the cook. Yum~




Respect these fish, for they belong to the king? or the monks? I think. All I knew was that you couldn't kill them.


Moving on! We went to visit the infamous Wat Arun.




The temple reminds me of these headdress the Thai loves to wear with their traditional costume.




Correct me if I'm wrong, but everytime I see the Thais wearing traditional Thai costumes, I feel that they're wearing a temple on their heads.


Yes? no?


Wat Arun has some lovely cravings back in their times, like these dancing figurines on the wall.




And this is me emulating them figurines.





This is how you cam-whore at 30 meters above sea level. (was it 30? bah, who cares)


Soon it was almost dinner time. We were asked to put on our best dinner suit/dress because it was going to be a grand gala event. The Minister of Sports and Tourism would be present too!


So I rushed to Pratunam to get myself a lovely black necklace and went back to put on my favourite evening dress, two sparkly teddy earrings.




Twirled my hair and stuck a chopstick in it.




Done!


I met Somboon (PR manager of TAT Malaysia) there. He was leading a group to Chiang Mai.




During the cockail session (or the pre-dinner minggling session), we had a look around and found a lot of amazing showcase of Thai culture.


No, apart from the beautiful Thai women.


Eh hem... couldn't resist. *cough*


Like these skillful fruit carvings live!




I mean, these fruits were so pretty I wondered if anyone would ever want to eat them at all.




Imagine me biting into this delicious looking apple that looked exactly like a flower.




Seriously, sometimes I think these arts are simply waste of food.



And there goes another good honey dew.


One of my favourites was this three people doll performance.




Basically, one controls the left hand, the other the right, and the middle one controls the legs.

Don't ask me why they need so many people to control a doll, but by god, the doll did act pretty lively. As if it was a real life human, only smaller, and if you could overlook the fact that there are three huge human in black behind.


Soon, it was time to move into the ballroom for some wicked dinner.




I was sure somewhere along those periods, the Minister himself did appear on stage, I could have remembered some parts of his speech, but then again, what would I know?

I was too indulged in the table next to me.




Hoo Hoo Hoo!!!! I think I drowned in desserts that night.