Day 1 - 4: Khao Yai
Day 5 : Ayutthaya
Day 6 - 9: Bangkok
The Start of our 2019 Mid-year Trip!
We took the Thai Lion City Airline this time round, as the timings offered were better than JetStar, or Scoot. The tickets costed approximately 1.3k for 5 of us, and the flight there was at 1240pm, and the flight back at 4+5 pm. This was probably the first time our whole family made it early to the airport. We checked in, and went into the departure zone through the super efficient Singapore Airport custom clearance. We managed to catch our breakfast at the usual Wang, and papaTan even had time to visit his favourite Rolex shop, and some time to take a nice photo prior to the flight!
First Meal In Thailand - Don Muang Airport Food Chain!
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Car Rental - BizCar
PapaTan was trying to negotiate the price, and mamaTan told PapaTan to walk away and try the other car rental booth. Perhaps one of the booths will allow us to use our e-format of license. We asked the Budget Car Rental, and we were rejected. Hopelessly, we asked another booth, and the receptionist told us that it is possible to use our e-format, but they had no more cars for the day. With a bit of hope, PapaTan went on to ask the 4th company, the BizCar Rental, and luckily, they accepted the e-format as well, and there was available cars.
Nett nett, we managed to book the same car, an Toyota Altis 1.8, which PapaTan originally had reserved. And the price was not hiked, it was the approximately the same price that we had reserved at Axis, at the price of 6600bahts. Seriously, the car rental shop was a saviour to our trip. At least, we can continue our planned itinerary as per normal!
Tip of the day: Remember your license. Even if you forgotten about it, it is always good to keep a digital copy of your license in your google drive! That might probably save your day, just like what we had.
Dinner @ Stargio's italian Restaurant สตาร์จีโอ้
The journey was not smooth nor jam, we took about near 3 hours to reach near to Khao Yai, travelling at 60-90kmph throughout the journey, and took one toilet break in between.
Second Tip of the Day: Use the toll highway to get out of bangkok faster. However, don't get too stress to get onto the toll highway, you will still get out of bangkok eventually as the distance from Don Muang Airport to the last exit was not that far actually.
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We chanced upon this italian restuarant, while we were searching high and low for the Texas Steakhouse, which PapaTan bookmarked for dinner. However, going round and round the area and we concluded that the steakhouse had probably closed for good. We were hungry and papaTan saw this restaurant and we decided to give our hungry stomach the cure.
To our surprise, this was probably one of the best meals in our Thailand trip. The italian food was authentic but somehow, the shop design was more towards the american style. Every of the dishes was remarkable, yes even for the soup. We felt this restaurant deserves more attention than to the mediocre number of reviews in google reviews! So if you drop by Khao Yai, do give it a try!
The Valley - The home for the next three days
When we were researching about Khao Yai, there are pretty many hotels along the main street of Khao yai, but none suited us as we have a family of 5. We booked this BnB, the Valley condo that is located about 3km from Palio Plaza, and 10km to the turn where you enter the Khao Yai main street. We recommend this location as the place
(1) is big (about 60m2),
(2) has 2 toilets with one bathtub in total,
(3) has a mini kitchen,
(4) has an internet TV, which you could connect shows and watch,
(5) clean,
(6) friendly guards,
(7) welcome tidbits, and
(8) and you stay at the level 1 where you can just access the condo's swimming pool.
The only two downside for the stay were that there was no room service to clean the room and replace your towels, and there was no breakfast. Having no breakfast was not really an big issue as there were plenty of breakfast joints in Khao Yai.
1. The Birder's Lodge
2. Primo Plaza
3. Ban Mai Chay Nam Restaurant
4. The Ozone, and finally
5. the Midwinter Green.