Bangkok Times, pt. 1

It should say: "Bangkok, City of Shopping"

Bangkok. After three weeks of living here, I'm still not really sure what to say about it. It's wild, that's for sure. Unique, also, but bearing resemblence to a lot of other places I've been. It's a strange thought, but it seems like the more places I travel to and experience, the more alike they all seem. Maybe I am just getting better at spotting the similiarities..



But anyway, Bangkok is a giant mall. Seriously. If we've ever met, you know I am prone to hyperbole, but I am not exaggerating when I say that EVERY inch of free space in Bangkok is taken up by vendors, selling fake purses, mystery meat on a stick (tastier than it sounds), fingernail clippers, shirts, ties, counterfeit watches, fresh squeezed juice of various varieties (as tasty as it sounds), tailored suits, fake jerseyes, fake shoes, pirated dvds, coin purses, everything you could ever want, need, or imagine you might someday want or need. And those are just the street vendors.

You can buy fresh fruit on the street....

...or even Krispy Kremes !!

The famous Khao San Road, the backpackers
 hub of southeast asia.

Bangkok has the most outrageous malls I have ever seen, and their abundance is astounding. In our area, Bangkapi, if you left from our street, soi 23, you'll hit a mall within 5 minutes. That is, you'll hit a mall in five minutes if you leave in the middle of the day, before the night market traffic raelly kicks up. The sidewalk is so thick with vendors and shoppers that a 5 minute walk at noon is a 25 minute walk at 9 oclock. If you take a right from our little street, you'll pass 2 malls before you get to the big mall, aptly named "The Mall," which is so large that it is on both sides of the street connected by a pedestrian overpass, complete with moving walkways (like the ones in the airport). I bought some slacks at this mall, they were really nice and they hemmed them right there for me. This mall is pretty classy, but it's nothing compared to the ones downtown.

How many stories?  No idea.

In the Siam area, they put on no airs about their utter devotion to commercialism. This area is literally mall after mall after mall after mall. From what I can tell, there are at least 6 malls mashed right up on top of each other, each more elitist than the last. We found a shop that sells bagels in the MBK, so the time we spent in this area was primarily absorbed in wandering the 7 stories trying to relocate said shop. It is at least 7 stories, there easily could have been more. The place is such a maze that it's really hard to say.

  When we did venture out of the MBK, we discovered a whole bank of additional malls, the Siam Center, the Siam Discovery, and the Siam Paragon. The Paragon truly lives up to it's name, as a model mall for all other malls to aspire to.  It's the kind of mall that is more space than product, with a single item to a shelf and track-lighting everywhere.  Every designer brand you can imagine has a store-front here, and when I say designer I mean names like Rolex, Chanel, Philip Patek, Gucci, Lambhorgini (yes, that Lamborghini), Armani, every Parisian-Milano trademark you can think of.  This mall is equipped with an imax theater and even, I kid you not, an aquarium.  You can practically taste the pretension in this place.  The auto-administered moniker of this preeminent purchasing paradise is, "The Pride of Bangkok," but when you happen through any other part of the city, or even just the sidewalk out front, you can't help but think of what a minuscule minority the mall actually serves.

  As an outsider, my impression of Bangkok makes me think they should take pride in the multitude of life and culture that thrives here, and the vast amount of activity that takes place all day every day and deep into the night (perhaps with some exclusions to be made in the latter category).  Possibly the most amazing and undoubtedly mystifying aspect of this city is it's system of transportation, by some miracle existing simultaneously as simple and complex, archaic and forward-thinking.  Their transportation network makes the human circulatory system look like the track at the Daytona 500.  It operates on an astounding number of levels, the lowest being (naturally) the subterranean.  Their system puts BART to shame, it is immaculately clean, fast, prompt and frequent.  It's escalators are outrageous, I saw one that must have gone at least 200 yards.  I say at least, because I literally could not see either end.  I'd have taken a picture for you, but none are allowed down there.

  The next level up is a system of canals with commuter boats.  This is our main link to the rest of town, and is an exciting experience.  It is loud and it smells horrible, and often gets very crowded (example at right ==> ).  You wait on a pier and occasionally have to dodge a sewagey wave, and have only a moment to leap on before they churn off to the next pier.  On our first attempt we weren't aware of the necessary swiftness, and watch, perplexed, as the boat bumped the pier and chugged off again, leaving us scratching our heads in its wake (pun intended).

no more time, got to run mid thought... will finish this later!