Sat. Jan 19th - Bangkok

Today, we had intended to visit the Grand Palace, then take the Sky Train to the famous weekend Market.  But, when travelling, plans can and do often change depending upon the events of the day.

Before heading out on our planned day, we attempted to get bus, train ticket to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand at the G.H. desk.  This proved futile as it seems the tickets were sold out. This seemed like a significant setback in our plans.  So, we decided to go to the train station to get a ticket.
The train tickets were sold out, so we proceeded to the bus station where we were successful in getting tickets for the overnight bus to Chiang Mai.


Before heading out into Bangkok, we went back to the street market, near our hotel.  We ate at one of the local restaurants/street 'cafe'.  We had the traditionally Thai soup sitting across from a very quiet police officer beginning his day with breakfast.  The meal cost us $$3 total including our drinks. 

As our plans had changed, we decided to go to the Sukhumvit area to find a tailor to sew some clothing for us.  We found the C&P Tailors, two sisters who have been in the business some 45 years.  The oldest sister was soon retiring as she is 75 years old.  We ordered our clothing to be picked up upon our return to Bangkok on February 8th.  The sisters told us that they would be closed during the Chinese New Year on February the 9th. 

As we were close to the areas in Bangkok famous for their malls.  We decided to explore Malls Bangkok style.  Truly, it is an unbelieveable sight.  The Siam Paragon is the biggest and glitziest of Bangkok's shopping malls.  It is more of an urban park than a shopping centre.  When we attempted to find the Food Court in the basement or third floor, we were told that the Food Court was on the 6th and 7th floor of the Mall.  The Food Court was truly worth seeing.  It gives more meaning to opulent as we found out when we had lunch there. 

We decided to view the MBK Centre known to be the cheapest place to buy mobile phones and accessories.

MBK Center, also known as Mahboonkrong (Thai: มาบุญครอง), is a large shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand. At eight stories high, the center contains around 2,000 shops, restaurants and service outlets, including the 4-story Tokyu department store.

It was another colossal mall of some seven floors filled with anything and everything you could think of. 

 After a day of 'sightseeing' we decided to head back to the Banglamphu area for dinner upon the recommendation of an Australian traveller.  The cab fare cost us $2.50 for about a half-hour ride.

 The Hemlock restaurant provided us with yet another excellent Thai meal for $3 each together with a very lovely atmosphere.

We then explored the area's nightlife which was very exciting -- places to shop, places to drink, places to hear bands, places to get foot massages on the sidewalk.  It was the scene of a lively beach resort on steroids in the city, tables for people all over the sidewalks and the streets.