Day 47, Summer in Asia, Bangkok, Thailand
Today’s our last full day in Bangkok, so we did our best to max it out. There was steady rain all day, so we rejigged the plans as we went, according to how much water was falling from the sky. Our first goal was to mail a package home with extra clothes and items we’ve accumulated, but when Paul got there it was closed for the King’s birthday. Hopefully, they’ll be open tomorrow, on a Saturday.
We live in a large American city that has its share of huge shopping. In Miami, we live within a few minutes drive of the 9th largest Mall in the country, Aventura Mall, and a short drive to the 4th largest, Sawgrass Mills Mall. Seems like you could stuff both of those into some of the malls we’ve visited in Asia this summer. We’ve also seen expansive outdoor markets, night markets, and the largest weekend market. Manila had some monsters. Bangkok has Siam Paragon, MBK, Central C, Union, the list goes on and on. But today, I found my favorite mall of all times, Terminal 21. Kier described it best as the Epcot of shopping.
Terminal 21 has city themed floors, except for the basement floor which was the Caribbean, a region. The main floor is fancy Paris, floor 1 – Tokyo, floor 2 – London, floor 3 – Istanbul, floor 4 – San Francisco, floor 5 with the movie theaters – Hollywood. This whole scheme could have been very tacky, but it works. The escalators are framed as arrivals and departures signs for specific cities. Departure: Tokyo, Arrival: London. It’s all tastefully done, and my new favorite mall.
The Tokyo level had the fancy Japanese toilets. I’ve never seen instructions in English–these could have come in handy many times over the last few visits to Japan.
Paul wondered what Post Nerd meant and Kier said CEO.
The San Francisco levels is where the largest concentration of restaurants are. The floor has an impressive Golden Gate Bridge.
This restaurant gets the award for being the strangest. Inside are little teddy bears hung by nooses.
For lunch, we searched many food levels to find a real ramen shop, which isn’t easy to do. Nothing makes me happier.
From Terminal 21 we took the Skytrain to MBK, where Paul had ordered some progressive multifocal glasses. In a tiny stall tucked in the textile area, surrounded by elephant print pants for the tourists (since I’ve yet to see any Thai person wearing these), is where an Optometrist has set up shop. He has all the different machines crammed in his cubby. There was another international man from the Middle East completing his order when we came in. Paul priced these glasses in the States before we came. The frame was priced at $500 and the progressive lenses almost doubled that price, coatings put it over a grand. He got the same pair done here for under $175. Our Qatar plane tickets were round trip $760, we would still come out ahead. He was very very happy.
From MBK we took a Grab to Khao San Road, backpackers central. It was raining, so we grabbed a drink in a very loud bar and watched the parade of packers in ponchos. We could not have a conversation, so we just sat there with watered down drinks, feeling the bass of bad covers pounding through our organs. We walked the full distance of the street, looking at plates of fried Scorpions and tried to minimize the sad offers of prostitution by not letting Paul get too far ahead on his own. If we stuck together as a group, he didn’t get approached. Enough of that. We all agreed that we prefer Pub Street in Siam Reap since it has a less seedy feel as compared to Khao San Road.
We tukked to the Hard Rock to hear some live music. The Hard Rock owners, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, is based close to where we live, we like supporting the brand wherever we are. I haven’t had a Ceasar salad all summer, and I wanted one. Paul heard the live band playing a few nights before, and found them decent. Unfortunately, he was there for a much later in the night set which was more classic rock stuff. We were there for the dinner hour set and thought they should be renamed, “Only Adele Should Sing Adele Songs.” They did a Nickelback song pretty well and a few others. It was still a fun evening of conversation. We talked about top 5’s. Top five food experiences, top five cities you would live in, top five coffee experiences.
