Bloggers Bunking Bangkok: The Amazing Race

Ideally what we expected of this trip? One big gang of people going around together camwhoring left right and centre, probably with JL being the tour guide waving around a little flag a la Tour Leader and everyone else wearing thematic clothing ie. all with something in green or stripes.

Of course, knowing that there are 15 people, and that this isn't the first time to Bangkok for some of us, it's quite unlikely we'd all go together as a group/herd/swarm. After all, there's some who'd want to go sightseeing, while others just want to shop, and some who wants to tour the dark and humid places. However, once in Bangkok it was quite clear that we weren't gonna be all touring together, but split into groups.

Team Saladaeng
The group that stayed at Baan Saladaeng. Throughout the entire trip we've not seen Team Saladaeng save one night clubbing, bumping into them at Chatuchak, and dinner together on the final night (even then on different tables as they arrived later). Team Saladaeng went the sight-seeing route and went for some Siam Niramit cultural show. The rest of us gone shopping and went, "WTF is Siam Niramit?". Team Saladaeng consisted of:

Subteam Team Paul - with only a single rabid shopping member but yet the apparent leader of Team Saladaeng. Holding the title 'MallBlazer', he sped through the malls leaving other members desperately trying to keep up.

Subteam Team CamClub - consisting of the more trigger-happy members. As far as we know, winners of the Jumping Pose Photoshoot.

Team Tidur
The group that stayed at Take A Nap Hotel. The majority of us stayed here, broken down into subteams and subsubteams...yes, we choose to complicate it slightly.

Subteam Team William - comprising William and his posse. This team had their own itinerary, and won the Chatuchak Chase (being the first to arrive and last to leave). Kudos to this team for winning the the Best Spa & Massage Discovery Medal!

Subteam Team Ottamon - who suggested the Tour A (shopping), Tour B (sightseeing), Tour C (dark & humid) option. Team members were very well-versed in Tour C and takes the Go!Go!Sauna! Award.

Subteam Team Singles - two (currently) singletons on the trip whose plan for the trip was to follow some group or other, one of them holding the prestigious title of SSSS. Team Singles snagged the Happy Tree Friends Tee Bonus.

Subteam Team PDA - name suggested by the Chief. It could be due to the fact that we kept using the iTouch to keep notes, or that we were notoriously stuck together the entire time. Did a fair bit of walking ourselves doing the Mall Run and probably gotten the Highest VAT Refund Total.

Arrival - When Team Tidur left Suvarnabhumi to get their van to the hotel, Team Saladaeng was already in the lead in their taxi to theirs. Confidence in the driver waned when he drove past the hotel without noticing it, but since we'd paid upfront there was no extra charge.

Mall Run Day 1 - Team Saladaeng took the lead, with Team CamClub one step behind Team Paul every step. Team Tidur was already an hour late and thus headed straight to Central World to shop and dine, before all teams met to discuss the Club Cruise Challenge.

Club Cruise Challenge - Team Tidur (sans Team William) arrived first while Team Saladaeng slowly trickled in much later after the shows. Team William sat out of this challenge.

Chatuchak Chase - Team William took advantage of sitting out of the Club Cruise Challenge to get up and leave early for Chatuchak on Sunday morning! The rest of Team Tidur arrived second to be followed by Team Saladaeng. Team Paul deplores Team CamClub's lack of bargaining, and Team Singles snagged some Happy Tree Friends t-shirts! Team PDA decides to head back to the hotel to drop their purchases, rest and freshen up before using the free time to head to Siam Paragon and MBK for dinner and shopping together with Team Singles.

Cultural Show Craze - Here Team Saladaeng and Team Tidur took totally different challenges! Team Saladaeng headed for the Historical Cultural Show (the costumes and puppets kind) while Team Tidur opted for the Industrial Cultural Show (the chicks and ducks and ping pongs and candles and aquariums kind) instead.

Sightseeing Sprint - All teams sans Team Ottamon took part in the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. Miscommunication between Team CamClub and Team PDA showed in the texts:
Team CamClub: We're going to grand palace today :-)
Team PDA: We're on the way there. Team William is currently leading. :D
Team CamClub: Where are you guys going today?
...Team CamClub arrived at the Grand Palace after all other teams have left, if we're not wrong.

Mall Run Day 3 - With everyone more or less with their own plans, Teams PDA and Singles headed back to do another Mall Run at MBK and Siam Paragon - with much better results!

Seafood Dinner Surprise - Kudos to Team William for finding out this gem of a place - Lek Seafood. Touted as "Affordable yet delicious," and so we decided to join them for dinner. 'Course, seeing how it's been three days in Bangkok now and both Team Tidur and Team Saladaeng have yet to do something together, we received this text:
Team CamClub: We all should have a final night gathering dinner together, all of us.
We advised Team CamClub to liase with Team William. Unfortunately the seafood dinner didn't turn out to be a full gathering dinner too, as Team Singles and a member from Team Ottamon was stuck in the middle of a massage, and Team CamClub showed up as the rest of us were finishing dinner, and Team PDA had to leave immediately after dinner to head for their massage.

Mall Run Day 4 - Not much shopping save to have lunch and bumping into Team Paul still blazing about in Siam Central.

Departure - Finally, only at Suvarnabhumi Airport did we get to take a group picture of everyone! Thanks to Team Shell (whom we bumped into at the airport!) for being the photographer!