18/2 - Shopping spree

Yesterday culture, today commerce. Let’s stimulate the Thai economy a litte. I plan to visit a number of locations rather spread out of the city, and my first stop seems to be rather close to a subway station. When I get out on Sukhumvit, a huge street that runs through the entire city and makes Oxford Street look like a back alley, I’m rather dismayed to find out it’s still a 15 minute walk. That may not seem like a lot, but in a sweltering 35 degree and a pavement that looks like a model of the Alps, it’s not much fun. My first port of call is The Emporium. I’m done here pretty quickly; it’s mainly fashion, and rather expensive fashion at that. One can get better deals on clothes in this town.

The good thing about The Emporium is that it’s on the SkyTrain line. I hop on the train, which gives a nice view of the city, and ride it along Sukhumvit to Siam Square. Siam Square is mindboggling. There are four huge shopping centres, Sukhumvit is about 8 lanes wide here and it’s the intersection point of the two SkyTrain lanes. It looks like an alien spaceport. I get off and walk straight into the Siam Paragon. The Paragon is the latest and greatest addition to Bangkok’s already impressive selection of malls, and it’s stunning. Marble and glass everywhere, 8 floors of it. I do some guesstimating and draw the conclusion that Hoog Catharijne in Utrecht would fit about four times in the Paragon. But the Paragon is in a league of it’s own. Only upscale stores here. Every floor has a theme: Jewelry, interior decorating, electrical appliances, fashion (two floors, naturally), boys toys, entertainment, a cinema, a monstrous foodcenter and a huge aquarium (with salt from the Red Sea, the posters read). This place has it all. Lisa, Kenzo has an End-of-Season sale. Hurry! As for me, I’m happy with some bargain-prices DVDs I find in a music store. They see to be the only reasonably prices items in the Paragon.



The boys toys floor tickles my interest, naturally. On stepping off the escalator I see a store entirely dedicated to high-end audio. No el-cheapo B&W or Arcam kit here. Pass Labs amplifiers as large as coffee tables and gorgeous looking and sounding dCS CD players. Next door is the Denon dealer, rather more affordable. I continue past the Marantz dealer, then the BOSE dealer. I think to myself that the order is rather logical: from nice stuff to crap stuff. However, the Siam Paragon strikes back with a vengeance: Next to the BOSE dealer is a Ferrari dealer. A shining red new Ferrari winks at me. The Rotunda the shop is part of further holds Bentleys, Jaguars, Lamborghini’s and Maserati’s.

The Paragon attracts it’s fair share of tourists; I see more Europeans and Americans here than in any other part of the city so far, except the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. It annoys me slightly: They remind you of being on holiday with thousands of others instead of being alone in this wonderful city. Some of the older male tourists also serve as a reminder of the teeming prostitution business in the city; a disproportionate number is accompanied by very young and pretty Thai girls. Still, it’s a toss up who’s screwing who: the ladies are well-dressed and do serious shopping in the Paragon and other upscale outlets. Somehow I doubt they pay for it themselves. It seems only fair they get something out of it as well.

Starbucks is ubiquitous in Bangkok. Good thing too. My lunch consists of a mango frappucino (that’s mango juice, green tea and crushed ice) and a slice of lemon cake.

After the Paragon it’s on to Mhoon Ba Krong, or MBK as it’s called. MBK stands to the Siam Paragon as McDonalds stands to a three-star restaurant. No marble avenues or shining facades, but 6 floors of cramped passages filled with small stores selling everything from jewelry, t-shirts, bric-a-brac, electronics, cellphones and make-up. The connection: It’s all sold at bargain prices. I get some more DVDs, some handicraft (for which I pay too much) and… some black market DVDs. These are made to order: you pick from a catalogue and you’re told to come back for them in 20 minutes. When I got back in 30 minutes, sure enough, a bag with DVD covers and nicely stickered DVDs was waiting for me. It all looked very professional. I had my doubts from the start, and this was just an experiment, and sure enough, as I found out that night, some of the movies were crappy camvids. Out of 6 DVDs, two were unwatchable, 2 were watchable but rather low quality and 2 were decent. I paid 500 baht for them, and at these prices it’s hardly worth going the illegal way: I paid around 120 baht on average for perfectly legal Thai DVDs of equal quality as American or Dutch DVDs. Honesty pays when it’s so cheap. Still, if you can’t wait to see the latest blockbusters, this is the way to go. I’m not the person to watch that crappy camvid of Hannibal Rising, but you may be (but don’t, it’s supposed to be a crap movie anyway).



After MBK I have to make a decision. The Weekend Market beckons, Chachutak. It’s a mythical place, where the ultimate budget shopper just HAS to go. It’s also huge, cramped, full of people and very hot. Should I go? Of course I should. I get to Chachutak at around three, and after two and a half hours of getting lost in the myriad of little shops, while carrying an everincreasing load of cheap stuff, I jump into a cab and crash into the seats. When I get back to the hotel, I dump my stuff and do some quick powershopping at the IT mall next door. Lord of the Rings Extended DVD box (12 DVDs) for 1200 baht, or 26 euros? I’ll take it! I see a Hewlett Packard Dachshund promotional toy, but the store keeper won’t sell it (call HP, mom!). After that I take a nice swim in deserted 12th floor pool. It seems like a good way to end the day, but there’s one more place I’d like to see before I leave Bangkok: Suan Lum Night Bazaar.



The Night Bazaar is Chachutak for people without stamina. The lanes are wider, the crowds smaller, the temperature is lower (duh, it’s at night!) and the paving is tiled, instead of a concrete imitation of swiss cheese. There’s also a podium on which a girl does pretty good renditions of Garbage songs, and the square in front of it is surrounded by eateries. Some TV screens show a live game in the Premier League. I grab a papaya shake and a plate of sweet and sour pork and watch Van der Sar doing his job for Man U. The Night Bazaar is nice, but after Chachutak everything’s a bit… quiet.



I get back to the hotel, again by cab. The driver is annoying and refuses to start his meter: ‘I take you for 200 baht!’ I tell him I paid 100 to get there, and threaten to get out if he doesn’t agree. It helps. Along the way he tries to get me to a full body massage place and when we get to the hotel he doesn’t have enough change from my 500 baht bill… I take all cash (or whatever he claims to have) and tell him he’s lucky it’s my last night in Bangkok and I’m in a good mood. He’s up 30 baht on the trick, or about 75 cents. It annoys me afterwards. People are lining the streets in Bangkok begging for a couple of baht, and this moron cons me out of 30 of them in such a cheap way. It could feed someone for two days in this country. Putting it in perspective with my own spending spree makes me feel even worse, so I simply stop thinking about it… I’m a bad man.

But you see, I have my own problems. My huge case that wasn’t ever supposed to get full, is, well… full. Two days down, almost six weeks to go: I need to send some stuff ahead…