My first visit to Bangkok was 22 years ago, much too long. I went on a guided tour that time with my university classmate on vacation from UK. All I can remember of that trip was that the tour guide spoke a lot of Mandarin, he offered to take us to a “tiger show” which my naive Western friend thought was part of a circus act and the old man on a cane from our tour group who took up the tour guide’s offer. The next morning, he walked more sprightly, that much I can remember.
Of course, my intention of going to Bangkok was for shopping and food, in that order. I can have tom yam kung for breakfast, lunch and dinner as I love Thai cuisine and during that first visit way back then, I knew that Thailand was the only country where I could indulge in Thai food at a portion of the cost in other countries.
I’d done a bit of research on the Internet to check out the must-visit shopping malls and narrowed them down to just a few. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to do much sight-seeing if I was to concentrate on the malls. Besides, I had already been to Wat Arun, the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Temple on my first visit so these weren’t top priority on my to-do list.
Upon landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport, it was easy enough getting a cab to the 3-star Ecotel Hotel located at New Petchburi Road, Makkasan. There is a 50 baht surcharge on the cab fare and the cab driver took a toll road which added 25 baht to the fare, total amount was 270 baht which is still a lot cheaper than the cab fare to KLIA!
As the Ecotel is a 3-star hotel, the room has just the bare amenities, no kettle for boiling water but 2 bottles of drinking water are provided in the fridge daily. It’s also a stone’s throw away from a 7-11. Food is plentiful within walking distance from the Ecotel (anyone staying there should take note of the 2 surrounding hotels, Ramada and Bangkok Palace because sometimes cab drivers only know these 2 hotels and not the Ecotel) and prices are reasonable. The tom yam kung at the first restaurant I went to was superb but then again I never had a lousy tom yam kung during my entire stay, not even at the various malls’ food courts. Sure, the tom yam kung was a little watered down at food courts but you couldn’t fault them for taste.
There seem to be quite a lot of unmarked taxis around the Ecotel even though licensed cabs are always in plentiful supply on the main road. I was approached by a young man while walking towards the main road on Sunday morning. He asked whether I was heading towards Chatuchak Market (who isn’t on a weekend?) and offered to take me there for 40 baht which is very cheap.
After hopping into the cab, he asked whether I’d mind helping him by taking a detour to a gem factory where I had to spend 5 minutes and I didn’t have to buy anything. He would get 5 litres of free petrol if I did him this favour. He persuaded, cajoled and begged but I managed to get out of it by saying I didn’t have the time as there were friends waiting for me at Chatuchak. The cab fare to Chatuchak is 140 baht and I’d rather pay the normal fare than go to an unknown destination which wasn’t on my agenda.
Chatuchak Market is chaotic, confusing and colourful. The cab driver dropped me off at the entrance of JJ Mall, I walked out to the Market through the mall’s back exit and walked through “Animal Alley”. There were all kinds of rodents, reptiles, birds of the common and exotic kind, fish and beautiful, bouncy puppies which I wanted to scoop up and take home.
There have to be thousands of stalls selling all manner of products in this market. Navigating the narrow warrens wasn’t easy. It was stuffy and extremely hot both inside and outside. I’d say it is impossible to look at each and every stall in just one day, I’m not even sure if one weekend is enough to have a through and proper look around in there.
Feeling tired? No problem, just hop on one of JJ Mall’s trams, the ride is complimentary and it’ll take you right back to the Mall for a respite. The mall’s food court operates on a card system just like most malls in Bangkok. Generally, the card is loaded with 100 baht credit which gets deducted accordingly and you get back the balance upon exiting the food court. Some food court malls have a coupon system but the principle is the same.
It didn’t take long before I felt quite exhausted after walking through “Animal Alley” again to get back to the clothing section of the market. I got into a cab to go to Platinum Mall and this time was well and truly hijacked. A few minutes into the ride, the driver said he could get free petrol, 5 litres of it but I had to help him by visiting a gem factory. Now where have I heard that before?
This time, there was no getting out of it. The gem factory was apparently located on the way to the city centre, how convenient! He’d charge me 40 baht if I spent 5 minutes in the place. If I purchased something, he’d get 15 litres of free petrol. The gem factory did have a lot of visitors, no doubt all hijacked by their respective drivers. I was there for less than 5 minutes because I had no intention of buying anything and I dislike having to take a detour.
So it turned out my cab driver didn’t get his free 5 litres of petrol because the required amount of time spent there was less than 5 minutes (I had no idea it had to be precisely 5 minutes or else…..!). He became rather upset and angry and went on about how terrible his life as a cab driver was and having to support his family in his hometown. There was only 1 way to pacify him, offer more money than the cab fare. It worked, he was appeased after the offer was made.
As Bangkok traffic is constantly at a gridlock, there’s no point travelling by cab looking for a nice restaurant, much as I wanted to. Most of my meals were at food courts in malls such as Siam Paragon and MBK. I ate at MBK’s International Food Avenue on the 5th Floor which is expensive and average. The 6th Floor Food Court was better and that’s the one all the locals go to.
Platinum Mall wasn’t that interesting for me, perhaps the clothes were more for the younger crowd. I preferred the shops in MBK and I did spend an entire day there as there was just so much variety there plus it had a foot massage place where I spent one blissful hour. My feet were so sore and aching after days of almost non-stop walking. The foot massage was suppposed to be 300 baht but I got a discount and paid 250 baht, there were so many people of different nationalities in there getting their feet massaged. Even my slight headache was gone after the foot massage session. It was so good I wanted another hour.
One of my favourite places is Siam Paragon’s Food Hall where the choice of foods is astonishing and astounding. I had my fill of the Thai mung bean desserts in the shape of fruits (see above) at 40-60 baht per box, they come in various sizes. I also had some delicious basil sausages, there’s a stall which sells different kinds of sausages.
Every single washroom I went to was clean as a whistle and dry too. More often than not, every washroom had one or more cleaners in there who mopped up as soon as someone came out of a cubicle. Siam Paragon’s washrooms looked like hotel washrooms. The only mall I had to pay to use the washroom was MBK at 2 baht per entry.
Bangkok has so much to offer the beauty addict, there are homegrown beauty shops such as Oriental Princess. Naturally, I had to check out every single Boots outlet I came across even though they were all more or less the same. Having been deprived of Boots for so many years, I could definitely be excused for going a little crazy in there. I’d have bought more had it not been for the intervention of one of the staff who insisted that I buy a more expensive brand when he saw the Botanics products in my basket. Since he refused to leave me alone, I returned some of the Botanics products to the shelves and politely declined what he tried to push on to me.
I did take some time out for sight-seeing. I was feeling a bit jaded from mall-hopping and took the BTS from Siam to Sathorn Taksin. I enquired at the info centre about the day pass for the river boat (150 baht for whole day pass) but was advised to take it the next day since I would only have a few short hours left (I was there in mid-afternoon). The tourist info staff was very helpful and said I could just take the public river boat (14 baht for any pier) which was also at Sathorn and get off at Pier 5 (Chinatown) or Pier 8 or 9 (Grand Palace). If I wanted to go to Wat Arun, I’d have to take the boat across the river from Pier 8.
My first stop was Pier 8 because of Wat Pho, where the Reclining Buddha is. I stopped to look a map outside Wat Pho and was approached by an elderly man who asked me all sorts of questions. He said Wat Pho and the Grand Palace would be closed till 5pm as there was a prayer ceremony (I could see tourists streaming into the entrance of Wat Pho while he was talking). He said I should take a tuk-tuk to Chinatown to view the Black Buddha.
Anyway, I instinctively knew he was trying to divert me away from Wat Pho and I knew it was time to run away when he called one of the tuk-tuk drivers over and tried to bundle me into it. I quickly said that I wasn’t feeling well from the boat ride and needed to take a walk first. At that point, he laughed and he knew the game was up and over. Apparently, many other tourists have been waylaid in the same manner. I wasn’t his first victim and I certainly wouldn’t be his last for the day.
Notwithstanding this incident and the cab driver taking me on a detour, I’d definitely go back to Bangkok where the food is good and the shopping is great. It was an economical holiday and generally, the people are very hospitable and friendly. I enjoyed chatting with stall vendors who were curious as to where I came from and they recommended me places to go to. One just has to be careful of seemingly helpful strangers especially in tourist areas. There’s still a lot more I haven’t seen and done in Bangkok so I am already planning my next trip.
