Day 222, Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok offers a broad range of shopping experiences, from the crowded weekend Chatuchak market, to MBK which combines a market style with smaller stall like stores and larger well known brands.
Today we went to Siam Paragon, a power mall, with every type of store you could want from Jimmy Choo to H&M. There is also an aquarium, a gourmet grocery, and many restaurants, some familiar but mostly not. In the food court, I felt like a little kid at Christmas. They specialize in my favorite foods, and the choices were paralyzing. A whole restaurant will specialize in something amazing, like dumplings. That’s what I had for lunch, dumplings by someone who has made it their life’s work to perfect these cute pillows of happiness for your mouth. I gladly would have stayed there and eaten my way around the food court. But I was told there were other things to do.
Our family loves to go to the movies, and since many of the big ticket movies are still produced in English, we are able to continue to go to theaters around the world. The Thai subtitles, by the way, are the prettiest I’ve seen so far. We
decided to see The Fifth Wave at the Paragon Cineplex in the VIP theater. If you are a movie buff, this is something you have to do at least once in your life. You ticket is an extended experience with a movie in the middle. You start by
entering through a grand entrance into a section for only VIP goers. This leads you into a lounge with posh couches and fancy pillows.
The waitresses offer to go next door and get you any drink you want from Starbucks, a generous pour of wine, fancy juice drinks, sodas, cupcakes, cookies, or other snacks.
You’re welcome to indulge in a complimentary massage, which of course, we did. Cali and I did the foot/leg rub, while Madi and Paul did the neck/shoulder rub.
The girls said they felt like the first family of Thailand. Even the toilets were posh. They were big round comfy thrones that when you flushed them, the bowl filled with happy bubbles and a fresh scent. Never before have I wanted to linger in a stall watching bubbles and smelling the air. But the movie was about to start.
The chairs in the theater are in pairs of huge comfy recliners, with a pillow and blanket. There is a call button so you can order snacks, drinks, entire meals, and they are brought to your seat. The popcorn in this theater was the best I’ve
ever had with subtle flavors of cheese, sweet, and salty. It was like a complex wine but in popcorn. I was going to order a meal but couldn’t stop eating popcorn. The menu was extensive and reasonably priced. It’s difficult to imagine how we could top this movie going experience, but we’re always happy to try.
After the movie we shopped until the mall closed, walked around the gourmet grocery, got some ice cream. Then we had an extended adventure trying to find a reasonably fair taxi ride home. We know what the actual meter prices are by now, and don’t mind paying the tourist tax if it’s double, even triple that. But a six hundred percent mark up is approaching unreasonable. It’s a well-known fact that pms + trying to negotiate a fair price with a taxi driver = me wanting to throw noodles at the driver, resulting in possible visit to a Thai prison. So I stay clear of the taxi talk and let Paul’s cooler methods prevail. He got us home with a shred of our pride intact and me still a free woman.
