There is a dearth of tall stature in Bangkok. I feel like Gulliver in the land of the smalls; however, I am still dwarfed by the city itself. We are staying on the 18th floor (of 32) of the 'Park Residence' - sandwiched between the very hip, middle-class Sukhumvit and the malls of Siam Square.
Yesterday we took the air conditioned Skytrain out to the Jatujak market and spent a few hours roaming the thousands of stalls, a melting pot of clothes, crafts and cheap-eats. After blowing the day's budget like any good government we dragged ourselves back to the train (did I mention it's air conditioned?).
Sufficiently perked by a siesta we headed back out for a different kind of shopping experience at Siam Square. There are four malls here which get progressively cheaper as you go along (perhaps reflective of the class system in Thailand). With little money, not that it would have made a difference, we hit the Paragon Department Store first (Prada, Gucci, Louis V etc) where an exotic flower competition was being judged. We thought it reasonably expansive until we realised we were only in the atrium and hadn't actually entered the main store at all so we left before we got lost in all the jewellery.
We decided to eat at the 'food island' in the final mall, as you do when you have no money left. Here the meals ranged from $2 to a very classy $5. We sampled holy-basil roast duck (very spicy) and sweet and sour pork (the safety net).
Too full for dessert we headed home just in time to sit on the balcony and watch a thunder storm roll over the city. Traffic came to a standstill while it poured down for twenty minutes before the organised chaos of Bangkok resumed.
- David
Yesterday we took the air conditioned Skytrain out to the Jatujak market and spent a few hours roaming the thousands of stalls, a melting pot of clothes, crafts and cheap-eats. After blowing the day's budget like any good government we dragged ourselves back to the train (did I mention it's air conditioned?).
Sufficiently perked by a siesta we headed back out for a different kind of shopping experience at Siam Square. There are four malls here which get progressively cheaper as you go along (perhaps reflective of the class system in Thailand). With little money, not that it would have made a difference, we hit the Paragon Department Store first (Prada, Gucci, Louis V etc) where an exotic flower competition was being judged. We thought it reasonably expansive until we realised we were only in the atrium and hadn't actually entered the main store at all so we left before we got lost in all the jewellery.
We decided to eat at the 'food island' in the final mall, as you do when you have no money left. Here the meals ranged from $2 to a very classy $5. We sampled holy-basil roast duck (very spicy) and sweet and sour pork (the safety net).
Too full for dessert we headed home just in time to sit on the balcony and watch a thunder storm roll over the city. Traffic came to a standstill while it poured down for twenty minutes before the organised chaos of Bangkok resumed.
- David
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