Bangkok - Days 1,2,3
On the 5th day, we caught an early flight to Bangkok from Phuket. We had arranged for a taxi service from Patong beach to pick us up from the hotel but the guy did not turn up. Amari’s front desk stepped in and quickly made arrangements for us at the last moment with the hotel taxi.
Regarding our stay in Bangkok, I do not really have an excuse as to why there is only post about the entire stay. It was all my own doing. I threw away our entire itinerary for Bangkok the minute I realized what kind of shopping was available to me. No temples, no floating markets, no weekend market either (stay within the air-conditioned MBK mall for the same price). I was hooked on to the shopping and we stayed in the best possible hotel for that purpose - The Pathumwan Princess Hotel. The hotel is attached to MBK mall. in fact, they have a special entrance to the mall for the hotel guests near the hotel lobby. I bought 10-20 handbags (one for each one of my friends and family and several for myself, sandals and shoes, a loadful of dresses for Sanika, toys for Sanika and for our close friend’s kids. Then, we bought gemstones, MP3 players, T-shirts for all the men in the family, a Thai Silk shawl for MIL, japanese fans, insense stick holders and other such trinkets for anyone who dropped in to enquire about our trip back home. You will find a lot of fake (or export reject) branded watches, clothes, handmags etc. but if, like me, you don’t care about them, there are non-Gucci and Chanel stuff by Thai brands that are very stylish and priced reasonably. Look for them and you will be happier without a fake Louis Vuitton.
It took me all 3 days to finally take a look at all the shops and stalls within the mall and their superb food courts kept us well fed. My husband and daughter were content to stay in the room watching DVD and playing games on the laptop respectively, as I chose to tire my feet and shop till I dropped in the mall. The only place we went to, besides shopping in MBK were the Siam malls (Siam Discovery, Siam Center and Siam Paragon - all connected), on the opposite sideof the road and the FABULOUS Ocean World in the humongous basement of the Siam Paragon Malls which was somethin Sanika still remembers. Siam Paragon also had about 10 premium car showrooms that were a treat to watch.
Bangkok, with MBK in view. Picture taken from the skytrain station that connects MBK to the Siam malls
Seeing sharks from the water tunnel and the diver feeding Sting Ray fish. We also saw penguins, giant crabs, water rats (HUGE rats), starfish (touched them), sea horse, turtles, water snakes, jelly fish, scorpions and thousands of colorful fish.
Tuk Tuk - Travel the Bangkok way for the first experience - shift to the similar priced air-conditioned cabs later.
There were many more malls to visit, but it was difficult to visit them all with Sanika, so we stuck to MBK taking turns staying with her in the hotel room while one of us shopped. Rohit only shopped at the gadgets floor and it was me who was rarely seen in the room. As Rohit puts is, we should pay my part of the hotel charges to MBK instead of Pathumwan Princess. There was some more duty free shopping at the Suvarnabhumi Airport and we finally came back.
The Bangkok shopping and all the lovely stuff I collected from there still makes me happy to see it but (as I always knew from the beginning) it is Phuket that still keeps coming back to me - Breakfast at Rim Talay, the emerald green waters and limestone caves, snorkeling, picture perfect views, a fully drenched, out-of-breath Sanika playing at the beaches on Phi-Phi Islands, canoeing in calm waters under the caves and relaxing in our balcony at Amari resort taking in the lovely view of the ocean. But that’s not saying that I am not going to another Bangkok shopping trip later this year with me friends!
