My tour to Thailand and Singapore with my Family

Jairam R Prabhu
Sep 4, 2018 · 13 min read

On 3rd August, I woke up knowing that finally this day has come, but unfortunately it was working day for me. The packing and preparation had just begun a week ago. There was no guarantee that it would have been completed with absolute perfection. My mom and dad had never let a stone unturned when it came to perfection. So they took the leave on 4th just put everything in proper condition. It was also my first overseas trip since I was an infant, so excitement was always there.

After the college, I reached home roughly at 6 pm. We had just 3 hours more before we had to leave for the Airport. Tickets were prepared by Mom’s aunt Lallu Mousi as we call her, who also runs the Tour agency Anand Tours and Travels in Kochi. She, along with her Son Rajiv had accompanied the entire team for the Thailand trip.

With everything set, we caught an Uber cab at 9:30, from Aluva to CIAL, which took 20 minutes to reach the destination. At 10:15, we entered the terminal 3 and proceeded for baggage check-in. At the same time, we were joined by 33 members of the group who will be travelling with us together for the next 4 days.

Immigration and security check was completed within an hour, and the long wait began for the 1 am Air Asia flight to Old Bangkok Airport. Lallu Mousi had two big bags of supper, packed ready. The Flight was delayed by a few minutes and the wait was over at 1:45 am.

Thailand and Singapore

Savatika, Thailand!

At 6:40 am local time, we arrived at the Don Mueang Airport Bangkok, fairly an old-style airport with very little facilities. The Thailand Visa has to be applied and get issued from the Airport itself. Due to delay in procedures, it took 2 hours to get our Visas ready, along with Immigration procedures. Finally, we exited the airport at 9:30 and took a double decker Bus to Pattaya.

On the bus, we were introduced to Ben and Annan, who was our Local Guide and Driver respectively. At 12:30, we arrived at Tiger Zoo, where we were provided with Indian-American mixed Breakfast, which was satisfying. At the same place, we enjoyed the Crocodile and Tiger Show. Here the animals were trained to entertain the audience with their skills. Tigers were made to do specialised stunts. We also saw many animals like rabbits, camels, donkey, deer, etc. We were also given the opportunity to touch and take a photo with a tiger cub. Unlike India, there are no strong laws with regards to animal cruelty.

On the bus, we had a self-intro session along with talks on different topics. The only children in the bus were me and my brother, rest of them were all adults whose 70% of them are above 55. Despite this we never felt isolated or left out.

We reached the city of Pattaya at 3:30 pm and had lunch at Indian Restaurant Vedaa. The Hotel which we had to stay in Pattaya was 4-star Nova Platinum. We kept our luggage in the rooms at 4:30 and left for Alcazar Show scheduled at 6. The rooms were very big and luxurious for an average Indian. The TV set had all big international news channels which kept me satisfied for two days. The main attraction was that the keys were in the form IR sensor cards. It was also a headache for us as we tend to accidentally close the doors with card key inside. The Alcazar Show is conducted by the Transgender community to highlight the Thai culture in the form of Skit and Dance along with presentation of beautiful sets. The entire show has a special place where it is done everyday for one and half hours.

The dinner was at Mumbai Great Punjabi. At 10, we reached back to the hotel after seeing the lively nightlife of Pattaya streets. The streets were filled with shopping centres, restaurants, pubs and bars.

On 5th morning we woke up, on a gloomy rainy morning with flooded streets. By an hour, all the stagnant water had vanished. We had our American Breakfast from Kiara Hotel opp. to Nova. All our plans were delayed by an hour due to bad weather.

At 8:30 we reached the Coral Islands, where we did Paragliding, Underwater Walking, and Jet Skiing. Coral Islands are scattered in the sea, and which are to commuted by hi-speed boat. It also had a beach for you to relax. Underwater walking was a 20 minute long experience. Each person is provided with a Scuba Helmet with constant oxygen supply. Due to oxygen pressure, you will feel comfortable underwater. Each group is accompanied by a guard to take them to various locations under water along with feeding the fishes and a glance on marine coral reef. Jet skiing included a high speed water scooter ride for 5 minutes around the beach, accompanied by a supervisor.

By 2 pm we reached hotel Annapurna, in Pattaya for Lunch. The next spot of interest was The Sanctuary Of Truth. It is a Centuries old Wooden temple which is being renovated. It highlights the ancient Asian culture especially Hindu and Chinese. Various sculptures of gods namely, Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, Indra and may Indian gods. While going back to Pattaya, we stopped for a roadside tea stall for drinking Indian tea. We also had our dinner from Vedaa and reached back to the hotel at 11 pm. The Elderly had gone for authentic Thai massage.

Next day we left Pattaya for Nongnooch village on its outskirts. This village houses Elephant show & Thai Cultural show in an 8000-acre park which was artificially built and is still under the process of construction. Nongnooch Pattaya International Convention and Exhibition (NICE) building was also situated close to the park. It is believed to have constructed for the protection of rare plant species and as a commercial botanical garden. The park also has various statues of animals and has shuttle services. Lunch of Indian Cuisine was provided in the park itself.

Next on the list was the visit to Underwater World, an hour-long exploration of an artificially built marine ecosystem. A variety of fish, rays, octopus were all present along with sea otters. The moment you enter the place, you get the feel of aquarium like experience.

The Gems Gallery in Pattaya was also an important attraction, especially to all gem and jewellery enthusiasts. It included a 15-minute long train ride through the history of the formation of gemstones and 15 minutes walk through the real ring and jewellery making demonstration by experts. It was followed by a sale of jewellery at factory price just any other shop.

Later on, we arrived back to Bangkok, a Modern and cosmopolitan city after a 2 hr long drive. A shopping session was planned at Watergate Market which houses many Indian stores and an Indian restaurant India Gate.

That night we checked in at Royal Benja, 35 storeyed 5-star hotel on 39 Sukhumvit Road SOI 5, where Sukhumvit Road is the most important road in Thailand. En-route to the hotel we also encountered the Pakistan High Commission Office. The rooms were much bigger than the ones in Nova Platinum Hotel. Despite that Nova Platinum still seemed to be more appealing to me.

On the Final day of Thai tour, We had our breakfast from the Same hotel. It had more than a hundred dishes for us to wake up our taste buds like toast, cornflakes, fried rice, noodles, egg varieties, juices etc. We left for Safari World, a place where animals are kept in a zoo and are also trained to perform shows. We witnessed the Orangutan Show, Sea Lion show, Cow Boy Stunt Show and the Most exciting Dolphin Show. The orangutans did a wrestling match, rope-way ride, and friendly gesture with the audience. Sea Lions did various movements like playing with balls, loops, etc. Cowboy stunt show was done by trained people which included a story presentation along which included horse riding, usage of guns, usage of dynamites, use of ropes, pulleys in the form of stunts. We also had the lunch at the luxurious Indian restaurant inside. The dolphin show had dolphins which were trained to make long jumps out of the water, deep dive, carrying people on its back, feeding, catching the disc, playing with toys etc. It was followed by a Jungle Safari ride through forest housing wild animals.

In Bangkok City, we toured two Buddha Temples, one standing Buddha and one reclining Buddha before leaving for the dinner cruise along the Phraya river which is the sole river of Bangkok. The boat was fully packed with Indians and had tasty Indian food along with melodious Indian songs playing in the background to entertain us. It also had a DJ party for us to participate. The view of Bangkok was truly stunning and an out of the world experience.

With that our official tour of Thailand came to a close. There was mixed feeling- sadness of leaving Thailand and happiness of going to Singapore. We stayed overnight at the hotel and early in the morning of 8th, after breakfast we moved to New Airport, Suvarnabhumi which was much better than the Don Mueang. There, we four of us bid bye to the rest of the group members who are heading to Phuket and Phi Phi Islands. Then we all moved towards our next spot, Singapore!!! At local time 10:20 we moved for the Scoot flight heading towards Singapore from terminal 3 of Suvarnabhumi.

Onboard 2 hour Flight, we spend our time filling Departure cards of Singapore.
Good Bye Thailand, may we see you soon!

Welcome to Singapore!!!

Finally! We were at the Lion City. Landing at the Changi Airport runway itself gave the air of arriving from a third world country to a first world country. Changi Airport is the best airport in the world, winning the title for 7 years in a row. It has 4 terminals and one under construction, which can be equated to large airports like the Heathrow.

E-visas were booked by Bala Sir, who was my dad’s friend who arranged our stay in Singapore. So it made our process much easier than the one in Bangkok. Immigration was completed by 3 pm. We later exited the airport and called for an online Grab Taxi Cab. It took over half an hour to reach Strathmore Avenue from The East. Streets and roads were neat and tidy compared to other Asian nations. Singapore has 4 languages, English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

Block 59, the building on the Alexandra Road was our destination. We had planned to stay in Sir’s home for the next 5 days as well. There, we were served homemade lunch, a simple south Indian meal after 4 days of American Breakfast and endless North Indian Lunch. After that, we took MRT, which is the Singapore Local City Train to Gardens By the Bay.

The gardens were artificially built 3 years ago, with a park and two artificially built domes. These domes showcase plant species brought from different parts of the world. They are namely Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. The domes boast of contributing towards the sustainability of the Planet and fights against Climate Change.

The significant part of the trip was reaching Singapore on the eve of its National Day, celebrating 53 years of Independence from Malaysia. At 8:45 pm we saw the most colourful light and sound show in the garden telling more about Singapore. Way back we walked through the World Famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel to reach the spot where we can see the Merlion and entire CBD. Walking through the Helix bridge we crossed over to the CBD and went back home by the city bus.

Next day, 9th was the National Day. We woke up to see flags being put up on the streets. Our travel was to Sentosa Island maintained by the Resorts World, by MRT to Sentosa. It is a major place of Tourist Interest. Sentosa also provides free shuttle buses throughout the island for easy commuting.

Images of Singapore is a show comprising of a verbal presentation of the history of Singapore and its continuation by a boat ride. Madame Tussauds Museum is an interesting place with wax statues of famous personalities across the globe. Modi, SRK, Sachin and many more Indians had also got featured in this wax Museum. It was followed by a 4D Avengers Show which was a 20 minute video with 4D effects.

After lunch, we proceeded to Tiger sky ride, a ride where we were made to sit a closed circular room with glass windows, which takes us up and rotates at the same time to show the bird-eye view of Singapore city, Sentosa, The Singapore Port and the faraway Indonesian Islands. Then we took the shuttle bus to the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia. We also had nice scenery of the Ocean from the beach. Due to a surprising event, we had planned, we had to wind up the Sentosa Chapter. On our way back we saw the Le Meridian Hotel, the venue where Trump and Kim Jong Un met on 12th May.

At 7:30 pm we reached the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, to see the Fireworks show in connection with the National Day. Later, we took the MRT back home and had dinner. The sad news of Landslides in Kerala made us panic.

Next Day, the 10th was solely meant for the Universal Studios Singapore in the Sentosa Island. It’s a great attraction for all fun lovers. Being a rare place, the ticket price is also a bit high. The Studios is made on the theme of American cartoons and on Hollywood films. It is more like a mini township where you have a lot of fun rides, 4D movie shows, restaurants, souvenir shops, people dressed up as cartoon characters and many more. Still, we could only go on half the rides as the place was totally crowded with tourists. On our way back we got into Saravana Bhavan in Vivo city where we had tea and snacks. We reached back home, ate food and slept.

On 11th, it was a bright morning and it was the most exciting day for me. The first destination was the Jurong Bird Park. We caught a grab cab and reached there. There we could see cute little birds do entertaining shows for us, like parrots singing songs and eagles flying above our heads. The shows were called as High Flyer’s Show and the Birds of Prey Show. We also saw penguins, vultures, parrots etc. Then we took a local cab to the Singapore Science Centre at 1: 30 pm. The entire place will take over 6 hours minimum to check out everything related to Science, Technology and Arts. It also conducts Timely Shows like Tesla show and Climate Change Show. We also had our lunch from McDonald’s inside the centre for $10.

We reached home at 6 pm by taking MRT from Jurong to Redhill. After having Tea, we went for walk along the Alexandra Road to the IKEA store, The Main Road of Singapore City. It had all important luxury car showrooms namely Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, And lots more. IKEA is a world-renowned Home Furniture Store, it has much more than just “Furniture” like small electronics, kitchen articles, food outlets etc. The entire day was satisfying except for the fact that we could have managed our time well.

On our last day 12th, literally, a sad day as we never wanted to go back home. Also being the last day, we had no time to waste as we have only covered only half of what we had already planned. After Breakfast we left for the drive through the Outram Road and Tallin Road, the area with a lot of foreign embassies, malls and banks. Then we got down at Merlion stop, clicked the photos and walked to see the buildings of DBS, UBS, Citi bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered etc. We also visited the nearby Chinatown. From there we headed for Little India, where we had lunch from Komala Vilas restaurant along with Bala Sir’s family.

After 10 minutes walk, we went to Hanifa Store to buy Souvenirs. Now we had no more time left to enjoy, so we went back home, packed our bags and left for the Changi Airport by 6 pm. We reached the terminal 2 and got our Baggage checked-in. Then we went on for an hour visit around the terminal 3 of the world’s best airport. The Terminal is indeed worth seeing once in a lifetime.

By 8 pm we proceeded for Immigration check and then went for boarding gate F-32 and waited for our Scoot flight back to Kochi. We also encountered a free gaming station, a sunflower garden and a movie theatre inside the terminal. At 10:20 we began our journey back to Kochi. Nothing much to do on the 4-hour flight, I took the notepad and starts writing the log of my Singapore trip. A big bye to Singapore.

Back Home!!!

At 1:30 pm Local time we arrived at Kochi, safe and sound. Took an Uber back to home in Aluva.

Acknowledgements

After the trip, it makes me feel excited to go ahead with my plans for more foreign tours. I would like to Thank Lallu Mousi and Rajiv annu for giving us an exciting Thailand trip. I would like to thank my parents for taking all the pain for trying to give us the best. I would also like to thank the entire group for all small and big help they have given us. A special thanks to Bala Sir for arranging everything for our pleasant stay in Singapore and also to Anu aunty and Sangeetha Chechi for preparing us wonderful and tasty dishes each time. Due to Bala Sir’s efforts, we had a homely atmosphere in Singapore. Last but not the least, I would also acknowledge Thai people and Singaporeans who have never made us feel that we were in a foreign country instead we were treated just like how we are being treated in our India.

Thank you For taking your precious time to read this.

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Jairam R Prabhu

Written by

Studies at MEC, Kochi. Part-Time Blogger. Wants to travel around the world. Best Blogger-Vlogger Excel-YKA Spot-On. Writer at IEEE CS blog, YKA, Paperkin.

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