Just came back from Bangkok for meetings with a client and some partners (and partners-to-be). Actually, I was just there to accompany Migs and provide technical consultation.
We arrived wednesday and spent the time walking around a mall called MBK. It’s main attraction seems to be a HUGE mobile communications shopping area. While walking around, I noticed that there are MANY pretty Thai women (heck there are even some pretty Thai men!). Bangkok was nice already! Later in the evening, Migs interviewed a Thai who is interested in working with the company.
Thursday was all meetings. We met with the client, met with a partner, had lunch, met with another partner, then another. I mostly listened since technical issues didn’t come up. But it was still hectic and quite tiring. We ended late in the evening and simply crashed when we got back to the hotel.
We woke up late friday morning. It was a holiday because Thailand was celebrating the 60th anniversary of the king’s ascendance to the throne. Meetings had been cancelled. So we decided to go shopping. First we went to the much vaunted Siam Paragon. It was a good mall. Wide open spaces, good lighting, good design, and really good shops.
Paragon also has an IMAX cinema where we watched Sharks, a documentary on, well, sharks. IMAX is awesome!!! The screen is concave and the projection area is 10 times larger that conventional cinemas. It is also 3D! We saw trailers of Happy Feet and NASCAR 3D. It was simply mind-blowing. IMAX is the future of cinema. Can’t wait for Superman Returns 3D. I hope it will be shown at the SM Mall of Asia’s IMAX cinema.
After the movie we walked around Siam Square just in front of Siam Paragon. While walking around the mall, I noticed a few things: First the Thais seem to love and revere their king and this can be seen in their wearing of yellow shirts to symbolize their solidarity with the celebrations. Prices of the shirts were high at around THB500 and some shops have long queues of people wanting to buy more of the shirts. More because they were ALREADY wearing yellow shirts.
Second, medicine and food are cheaper. Migs had a headache and we decided to drop by a pharmacy for some paracetamol. We were shocked at the low cost of the medicine. It was waaay cheaper than medicine here. The pharmaceutical companys really are screwing us. The same is true for the food, Migs and I were able to get a good lunch for THB135 or about PHP190. On this one, I don’t know who’s screwing us :P
Third, Bangkok seem to be also famous for supposedly inexpensive custom tailoring. We passed by quite a few custom tailoring shops and eventually we were directed to one specific custom tailoring shop by a Thai lady. We were met at the door by the smooth-talking Indian proprietor named Mickey. He quickly went about his pitch and admittedly he was quite good at it. He was not able to sell us custom tailored suits but he was able to swindle
Our next stop was supposedly the night markets of Patpong and Suan Lum. But they don’t open till 7PM so we went back to Paragon and hung around Starbucks. We were looking for localized drinks but didn’t find any so we just got the usual stuff.
Just before 7PM, we walked along embassy row to Patpong. When we got there, we saw the stallkeepers lining up along the sidewalk and holding candles. We asked and it turns out it’s part of the celebrations. We lined up with them and lit and held candles. After listening over the PA at some government official (“Maybe the PM.” said a stallkeeper) and some enthusiastic singing, everyone cheered and put their candles on the sidewalk. It was quite inspiring.
After the ceremony, we resumed our bargain hunting and eventually moved over to Suan Lum. It was past dinner time by then and we were quite hungry. So we went to the first restaurant we saw and ordered some food that turned out to be spicy… really really SPICY. Good thing we had the local Tiger beer to cool down our burning palates.
After dinner we, started strolling around Suan Lum. It was HUGE. There are supposed to be 3,500 shops in there and by 11PM we had just gone through like just one cluster of stalls. At that point and with most of our shopping done, we decided to leave and avoid the closing time rush. We tried to get one of the famous Tuk-tuks but they were charging an arm and a leg so we decided to just get a cab back to the hotel.
Our shirts were waiting at the reception desk. We claimed them and proceeded to fit them. They fit very well and are reasonably good in terms of quality. They’re not bad really. But I think they’re still a bit too expensive. Anyway, the shirts are there already so I guess I’ll just have to be content with them.
The next day, we proceeded to the airport for the plane ride back and here I am.