Monday, March 31, 2008

Our First Grocery Shopping Day (+ rant about our delayed package)

Our package hasn't arrived yet (no thanks to Nippon Express!) so there's nothing to unpack, nothing to cook and nothing to eat! We survived our first day mainly on room service and food delivery (which is a lot harder than we thought because the person who answers the phone does not speak english). Thank God we brought enough clothes + one set of Richard's uniform (thanks to the domestic goddess in me!).


But that doesn't mean Nippon Express is off the hook. This kind of delay is unacceptable! We were supposed to schedule our sea freight on the first week of March but they said it's too early because it only takes two weeks to ship the items to Thailand. So it was moved to the third week. We were expecting to see our package in our room when we arrive but when we got here, not a single box was in sight.
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Same thing with our air freight. They picked up our stuff four days before we left Manila and it's still not here. Richard called Nippon Express directly and asked his boys over at TMP to call their Manila Office and we were told that the earliest that we can get our package is on Thursday. We can't order room service forever because it's too expensive and getting delivery is such a hassle! We were left with no choice but to head to the nearest supermarket to buy supplies. Richard and I need retail therapy to relieve the stress that our shipper gave us.


So off we went to Tesco Lotus. It's only a couple of minutes away and the good thing is, Oakwood provides a shuttle that can bring their guests to Tesco Lotus, Central Mall and the BTS Sky Train Station.
Tesco Lotus is like SM Supermarket - from the items that they sell (the usual grocery items + clothes + appliances) and the number of people that go here. Back home, a lot of people were telling me that "masarap mag shopping dito sa Bangkok kasi mas mura kesa Manila". And they're right! I found Colgate toothbrush for only 8 baht. When converted, that's like 10 pesos! They also have nice storage items for as low as 30 baht. I also saw shrimp at 148 baht per kilo!


But there's a catch - most of the items that they sell there are written in Thai so we just relied on logos that looked familiar to be able to identify them.


We tried to stick to the basics or stuff that we needed immediately, but the longer that we stayed there, the more items we placed in our push cart! Our only relief was we did not spend much even if it was a cartful.




Inside the lobby waiting for the shuttle. We're taking the 2:30pm trip.
The shuttle should be here anytime now. I wonder what it looks like...

It looks normal from the outside, but inside -- whoa! Pimp my ride!
Check out the screen and speakers on the ceiling!

On the cab on way back to Oakwood.


Alyannah's pasalubong for Becky!
Look! I bought Barbie toothpaste and Hello Kitty toothbrush!
We scream for ice cream!

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