Shopping - Extreme Sport

Siam Paragon, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

This morning D woke up feeling pretty crummy, so we decided to do what we thought would be more low-key – go to one of the many mega-malls in Bangkok to wander around and possibly see a movie. Shopping is a big deal here in Bangkok. We settled on the few malls that are adjacent to the Skytrain’s Siam station. (This is vaguely similar to the Powell Street station in SF) It is also the place to transfer to the other Skytrain line, which makes it one hectic place. Here there are 3 giant malls attached to one another, each crazier than the next. We had stopped and had dinner at the Siam Center (which seems to cater to the younger, teenager crowd) on Friday, but today we decided to go to the Siam Paragon, which is right next door. I’m not sure that words can even describe this place. It’s like the over-the-top of Vegas times 10. The Paragon is 5 stories with a 10-screen movie theater on the top floor and a huge food court and grocery store on the bottom. Each floor then seemed to have it’s own theme. Clothing, home furnishings, stereo/TV equipment. The floor we came in on was filled with high-end retailers – Burberry, Louis Vitton, etc… all way out of our price range and not things we would buy anyway, so headed down to the food court to see what the different offerings were. One of the amazing things about Bangkok I’m discovering is the vast array of food offerings. In this food court, you could find pretty much any kind of food you could imagine and then some. (My favorite quote from D when we passed by a Dairy Queen “I can’t get this at home, but I can get it in friggin Bangkok.”) Thai, Italian, Japanese, and French baked goods, and so many places offering sweets from all over the globe. (D has told me that the Thais have a huge sweet tooth.) It was so awesome and so overwhelming at the same time. We settled on falafel wraps for lunch, which were garlicky and delicious, and then I had a Japanese steam bun filled with BBQ pork as a snack. Yum! After fueling up, we ventured in to the grocery store. Both D and I were curious to see what it was like, since we will eventually be leaving the cushy-ness of the hotel. We were both pleasantly surprised. It was a cross between a nice Western grocery store and Uwajimaya (one of my favorite places on earth!) So many different kinds of things, tofu, noodles, and a meat counter that had 100s of different kinds of sausage (which I thought my brother would love). Lots of familiar brands from home too; Smuckers jam, La Victoria salsa and even Magic Shell! Granted, this is a fairly upscale mall, so it is catering to a certain crowd, but it was nice to know that if we were homesick for something we could go there and probably find it.
We wandered the mall a bit more, did some window-shopping, and checked out movie times, but nothing that we wanted to see was playing until later and D was feeling pretty lousy. We hopped back on the Skytrain to head back to our hotel. Dinner was leftover Italian from the night before, and another early bedtime.