Bangkok; Day One.

I don't know how to begin to tell the story of how this trip came to be. I remember being a really obnoxious daughter years earlier, always asking my parents to bring me to Bangkok. Unfortunately, on the year that I was very persistent on wanting to visit this city (even though I know very little about it except that it has awesome mangoes and Chatuchak) was when the country was going through political rafts... or something.

I apologise profusely for being so uninformed.

We were actually supposed to go as a family, but however, under some circumstances; it didn't happen and only four of us went - my mother, my elder sister (Lisa), my younger sister (Nadia) and myself.

Our flight left from the LCCT the morning of 27th August and we were to stay in Bangkok for two nights.

Upon arrival we were more than pleased to have discovered that my dad (being the charitable person that he is) had booked us a room at The Peninsula, which offered us the amazing view overlooking the Chao Phraya river and the Bangkok city skyline.

Bless you, Ayah.

The next best thing about the hotel are the shuttle boats that will have become our main mode of transportation over the next 3 days. Or at the very least; the most crucial.

My beautiful Mama.

It is from the hotel 'jetty' that we board the boat to get to the Saphan Thaksin BTS station across the river. And from the BTS station to everywhere else.

At the Saphan Thaksin BTS station, headed towards National Stadium.

Our first destination was MBK Mall, which we went to for one very particular reason; Monthong Durian Chips. My family first discovered it when we went to Koh Samui, and from then on have fallen madly in love with it.

My parents buy us stock whenever they visit Bangkok (or Thailand in general), and if not, they make it a point to ask anyone else to get them for us as a favour when they come by the city themselves.

With our bags of kerepek durian, headed back to the hotel.

We didn't do anything other than visit MBK to have lunch and buy crisps in the day because everyone was so exhausted for some reason. For me, the reason was that I only got an hour of sleep the night before. 

So after returning from MBK, we just rested until it was time to leave for Asiatique, where my sisters and I will be watching our first cabaret show, and my mother; her fourth. 

To get to Asiatique, we had to get on our hotel's shuttle boat, to the Saphan Thaksin boat station and  then board the free shuttle boat that brings you directly to Asiatique. Mind you, Asiatique only opens at night starting from 6pm onwards, if I'm not mistaken.

Bangkok by night.

We had more than 2 hours to spare before the show starts, so we stopped by the first restaurant we laid our eyes upon (literally, since it was the first you'd probably see upon disembarking the boat); Baan Khanita.

We had Tom Yam Goong for starters followed by a few dishes of seafood; food in Bangkok isn't as cheap as I thought it would be. I'm not expecting street food prices in restaurants, but I definitely did not predict spending 480 Baht for a bowl of Tom Yam Goong.

So yes, it was very fortunate that my mother was around to act as 'The Banker'. *hihi*

Afterwards we walked around the area and shopped a little since we had roughly 30 minutes before the second cabaret show (the one we had tickets for) of the night starts.

The first show begins at 7.15 pm (I think) and the second at 9.45 pm.

Inside the theatre, you will be seated on chairs around a small table. The room was lit with red lights, and not long after you are seated there will be waiters and waitresses coming to take your one free order of a choice of drink.

And so the show begins.

To be completely honest; I expected the 'girls' to look more like... well... girls. They look most feminine in long dresses but once their legs are out or they're in pants; the fact that these people were men was embarrassingly obvious.

But real men or not (mostly not), the show was entertaining.

The final picture is probably my favourite performer of the night. When he first came out in a different costume than the above, we thought he was a rather ugly 'woman' because well, we didn't think he's tried hard enough to look even slightly feminine.

Turns out that he IS a man - who isn't trying to be the opposite gender *phew* 

Well at least for all we know.

After the show all the performers would line up along the exit and they would call you to come close to take a picture together, but neither of us did. 

We luckily managed to get on the last shuttle boat leaving to Saphan Thaksin from Asiatique, and returned, again, to our rooms.