Trip: Thailand, Bangkok

Introduction

Greetings from Thailand, Bangkok. The place that every woman must go once in their life as one of the shopping heavens in the world. Of course Thailand is not just all about shopping, but the city of Bangkok on the other hand is practically just shopping and shopping and shopping. But wait! Ain't all malls the same where they have all the same stalls selling roughly the same products? The interesting part of Bangkok shopping malls as compared to Singapore shopping mall is that  they have very many different kind of small stores all around the place and of course although there are some repeats, in general, every shopping mall will have its charms and product for every person, except those that hates to shop.

Some details of the trip so you can see if it is relevant to you. Our main objectives for the trip was a university friends get together in a simple free and easy trip. Since the group make up was 2 girls 2 guys, it was fine that we all go for some sort of shopping trip without too much physically straining activities. Travel all around the country was not part of the plan of the trip.

With that, lets go into the detailed review of the trip to Bangkok. Do note that the location I used for this post is in between about 3 or 4 main shopping malls so if ever you wanna choose a place to stay during your trip, you could choose that area.

Activities 3.5/5

I have actually done up the itinerary for what we did when we were in Bangkok for the 4 days 3 nights stay and so if you need a reference on what to do during your holiday, you could use the google sheet as a base reference. Click here to take a look at it. Note that this details was done up only AFTER that trip. We had an initial plan and on the 2nd day we didn't follow anything on the plan any more. Anyway, the final trip details (what we did in the end) would be the most accurate cause it was exactly what we did in our limited time there and note that there are ways to make even fuller use of your time and squeeze in some other activities here and there.

Bangkok Trip Details

In a nut shell, what are the things you can do/should do/plan to do in Bangkok. I would recommend this place for the following activities

1. Shopping
2. Visiting shopping malls (its different from shopping)
3. Massage
4. Food

If you are looking for other activities such as scenery and water sports, this is definitely the wrong place to be. No doubt this place was made for the people who loves to shop and you will see more details in the shopping segment. Visiting shopping malls would be the alternative to scenery exploring in Bangkok because there is NO particularly unique scenery in Bangkok. However, there are many themed or different styles of shopping malls so it does add quite some fun in seeing how one shopping mall will differ from another.

Massage styles and types

For the massage enthusiast, we chose Health Land spa and massage for our 2 hour traditional thai massage. Thai massage is the one where you remain clothed (wearing their provided shirt and huge shorts) and they will twist your body. This is not the swedish oil massage. Of course there is the option over here in Healthland but in Thailand, you should at least try the massage. I won't do a review of the massage activity itself as it is not the purpose of the review, but just note that this can be one of the many activities that you choose to do.

Food will also be covered further down in the respective section

There are other stuff that you can do  that are similar to things you do in malls such as catch a movie. Its not too disgustingly priced and you can use the picture below for reference

Ticket prices for movies

All in all, choose this trip if the above attracts you. There are no theme parks, no beaches, no sceneries to talk about but for the activities of shopping alone, this place does exceptionally well. Look at this as an extending shopping spree type of trip.


Scenery 3/5

The panoramic view from our hotel

The view of Bangkok is simple, a city type of view with fewer high rises but still highly urbanized. This is the scenery that you will be familiar with for the whole of the trip. Nothing natural, nothing spectacular. Buildings are all just functional looking.

On the bright side however, some shopping malls actually put in some effort in making their malls look unique and special. Of note is this place called Terminal 21 which is themed as a airport that brings you to different country with their unique structures and cultural stuff. Hence there are a few photo opportunities if you want to take pictures. Shopping wise though.. you will read more further on.

San Francisco's Bridge

London and their bus

Night view out of the hotel

Night view wise, is also simple urbanize view. There is no particular place that you need to visit at night for any great photo taking opportunities.

Overall, as stated above, this is not a place with unique scenery both natural or man-made. At least where was some minor attempts to make certain malls stand out from each other but all in all, not a pull factor to come to Bangkok for. You may keep your professional cameras at home.

Shopping 4.5/5

Of course this is the whole draw of Bangkok. If you come to Bangkok without any interest of participating in this activity, you are absolutely wasting your time and should read up more before you plan on where to go for holidays and for what activities! Honest!

In our time there, you could say that about 2/3 of the time was spent in shopping malls whether it is eating or shopping itself. Furthermore, many of these shopping malls are close to each other and in our case, whenever we wanted to go to anywhere we had to walk thru the shopping mall itself.

The reason why we stayed in our area however was that our area has at least 5 main shopping malls and in reality, we only actually spent majority of time in 3 of those 5. Meaning that even in a 4 day 3 night trip, we didn't have time to go to the other two malls. The malls that we went to are Central World, Platinum Mall and Siam Paragon.

Below you can see that Central World is your traditional very huge shopping mall complete with food and movie options. It's like our Vivocity in Singapore with the larger international stores. They also have a bazaar outside of the mall from the morning and it is worth a short exploration walk.

Bazaar outside Central World

Door way linking the BTS to Central World

The other two malls was Platinum mall which is similar to our Bugis street. All the shops here are tiny 1 store lots with a big variety in clothings, accessories, shoes etc. Fortunately for us we stayed in Novotel Platinum which is just above this mall and so we could come down and shop when ever we had extra time. This is probably the young shopper's mall of choice.

The next mall was Siam Paragon and this mall is more similar to the high class shopping malls in Singapore Orchard area where the food outlets are more premium and restaurant typed and the stuff are more expensive.

Opposite these malls are a few smaller shopping areas like this Siam Square one. This cater more to the younger crowd also but we didn't spend too much time there, but I reckon that the shopperholics will still find something to explore in these malls.

Smaller shopping malls, but still packed with shops

The other two shopping centers in the immediate vicinity were Gaysorn and Palladium shopping mall. I would envision that these malls are similar to one of the malls we have already visited but as you can see, the choices for shopping even close to our hotel are pretty extravagant.

And away from our mall, is Terminal 21. This was supposedly another of the recommended mall and like I said in the scenery section this mall is made to be photo opportunity. However, shopping wise, this shop is probably more like the Central world and probably about the same size. That means it caters to the slightly above average group however and does not have many of the smaller thailand specific shops that you see in Platinum mall. All in all worth a visit but we didn't see anything here that was worth buying when compared to the previous mall we visited.

Terminal 21, a air terminal themed shopping center

Besides the shopping mall types, there is also the hot hot outdoor chopping area of which the famed one is the Chatuchak weekend shopping market. From the name, it might be true that this market only opens on the weekend so if you want to pay this place a visit be sure you plan ur trip properly to have a day during the weekend.

Enjoying the hot sun, Chatuchak style

The many many small alleys in Chatuchak

As you can see, all the little little squares are all shops, and there are plenty

Take a look at the Chatuchak map and you can see the amount of content it has. It is divided into sections and I would say you could probably spend like 4 hours if you wanted to shopping over there. I told my companion that the only limit you have in Chatuchak is how much heat you can take cause it does get really hot there. There are also places you can eat over there so if you were planning, aim to reach there about 11 and you can have your lunch at 1 and shop a bit more till 3 or 4 before coming back. I am not sure whether you could visit this at night but I think it closes at 6. 

Chatuchak weekend market did carry a lot of items that we could not find in the urban malls and we only explored 1/8 of the mall in the 2 hours we were there. So this should be a interesting place to add to your itinerary.

Now.. to the money killer... In our trip alone, I probably spent about 200 dollars on Naraya. Naraya is a Thai brand whereby they have various patterns such as strips, elephants, spots etc. For each of the pattern, the have various bags and accessories from tissue holders, to cosmetic pouches, to wallets, purses and all the way to full fledged bags. Its a souvenir and woman dream come true. Granted they won't be expensive (they range from about 30 baht to up to 600 baht) and so you can buy many many of them for the casual going out. And you can get them in all the same pattern.... There are two Narayas near our area, the first is in Central World and the 2nd is in Siam Paragon. If you were to ask me, try to check out the Siam Paragon one first as it is less crowded and there are bit more variety and organization over there. The Central World one was just jammed packed and it was difficult to even get a hold of the staff to ask questions. Definitely a must visit there and perhaps you can just buy something cheap in memory of the visit.

Naraya... the money sink

Overall, a quick comparison as advisement to all. The items in Chatcuchak are actually the cheapest, about 20 baht cheaper then those in Platinum for shirts. Variety is also better. Comparing Platinum to Terminal 21, the items at terminal 21 are about 50 baht more expensive then Platinum. So i recommend if you go to Chatcuchak, buy most of the stuff there, if not shop at Platinum mall first for all their local goods and products. Shopping wise, this place has everything for everyone of every budget and this is what Bangkok is all about.

Food 3.5/5

Food in Bangkok as expected is mostly thai based. Even their food court noodles and stuff all have certain kind of thai flair to them. Our first dish that we tried was the Phad Thai noodles and as expected, the food court flavor is similar to what you will get in Thai express in Singapore and at a clear cut fraction of the price.

Phad Thai

Beef and beef ball soup

Besides the food courts, there are also the usual steamboat restaurants, and japanese cuisine. In fact Central world has strangely quite a lot of Japanese eateries for some reason.

Beef Sukiyaki

MK Steamboat

There are choices of food for everyone as the choices are similar to any of the food you can get at the local malls.

Do note that overall, the food may be generally cheaper, but their portion is slightly smaller then what we were used to especially in the food court. They also required that we purchase using those cards with stored value and not via cash.

On the 2nd last day dinner, we actually went extravagant and went to eat at Siam Paragon Manna restaurant. This restaurant had all the accolades and reviews and stuff, but we ate and spent way more then we expected. The food nonetheless was nice, but it was pricy. Do be aware of this especially when eating at the more luxurious looking malls and do not over buy.

Hello Kitty Cafe...

On a side note, there is a Hello Kitty House near the area at Siam Square and you could go there and take some pictures and stuff if you are a fan. Do note that the stuff there are WAY WAY WAY overpriced... Guess you are paying for hello kitty and the atmosphere.

All in all you could say that the food is relatively cheap and relatively nice. However I was not impressed and it was not as easy to find food that tasted great in the malls and being malls, the standard were just the same standards that you expect from the main shops some of which you can even find in Singapore.

People 3.5/5

You will need to communicate and mix around when you shop

The people in Bangkok are generally used to tourists and are pretty nice. About 3/10 will actually have a good enough grasp of english to be able to converse while the rest are able to just tell you how much their items are priced at. Don't be afraid to try to bargain but most of them already have clearly written prices and they generally will stick to the quoted values. Even if you reject at that point though, they won't be offended and are rather neutral. They are also not too pushy about selling their wares. The locals will also keep to themselves and when ever they bump into you, they tend to all be nice and apologise regardless of whether it is their fault or not.

The whole place also feels safe as it is tourist infested and hence bad eggs won't go about trying their luck with so much security and tourist presence.

Hotel staff are quite good at speaking and understanding english and are able to keep their smiles on even when faced with unhappy guests or customers and they seem sincere in wanting to help you enjoy your stay.

Accommodation and Ease of getting around 3/5

Walk, car, taxi or even take their train

Bangkok is a place filled with vehicles. Even from the first ride to the hotel itself, we were already faced with the infamous jams. We attempted to take a free tuktuk from our hotel to the nearest BTS (train) station and it took almost as long as walking there ourselves due to the jam. They had a few roads that had 4 lanes in one direction and only 1 lane in the other direction. Nonetheless, they do have a good train station to get you to where is necessary but if you actually stay in the same area as the shops, I would say that walking around would be good enough.

Still, taking their taxi do require a bit of skill. about 60% of the taxi drivers will rather go by a fixed fee and this is DESPITE you taking the taxi from the airport itself even. When we got on the taxi at the airport which we told the airport attendant that we wanted them to go by the meter, the driver still attempted to lie his way through and said that Big Taxi no meter even though the meter was right in front of us. Fortunately the airport attendant will give a piece of paper with some numbers and details that you can jot down and when my driver saw this, he gave up and asked if we wanted to go by the meter but we have to pay for additional airport toll as well as any tolls along the way. Nonetheless the 475 baht that we paid in TOTAL is a far cry from the initial 700 he wanted to charge us. A few taxis will be like that but don't fret if they do not want to go by the meter cause they are generally really over charging by about 1.5 times the real amount. 

They are very happy when you give them tips though so prepare a lot of small change like 20 bahts to tip them and end on a good note. 

Unfortunately for us, when we wanted to go back to the airport, we utilized the hotel taxi booking service which cost us 800 baht for the trip back (no need to tip this one). Nonetheless as we had bigger luggage and needed the bigger taxis, we didn't want to go through the hassle and risk missing our flight.

Do note that if you want to go any other destinations around, not all taxi drivers are proficient with the route and certain places. We actually spent nearly an hour lost with our taxi driver in hunt for a seafood buffet eating place and he spoke little english. You may use your own google maps or GPS to attempt to guide them but be prepared as the maps may not have thai and they still remain as clueless.

Taking the BTS was also slightly more hectic as their ticketing machine always had queues. We didn't buy the charged cards although that could be a possible alternative if you are going to be travelling on their trains often.

Overall, transport in Bangkok is not impossible and not entirely hard to do, but it has much room for improvement. However, if you stay in the same vicinity as us and don't wonder off to other areas of Bangkok, you can really just walk for all the locations. Do note that if you were to stay in those hotels near Terminal 21, while we were there we noticed that it might be the only mall in the vicinity so do pick a good hotel location to reduce the need to travel via taxi due to bad traffic, or BTS due to human traffic.

Cost 3.5/5

Trip wise, if you are just visiting malls and eating, this shouldn't be a trip that is financially taxing with everything costing less then eating or doing the same thing in Singapore. Transport itself also wasn't too expensive be it taxi or public transport like trains. Most of the movement is done by walking anyway. Massage costs for Thai Traditional 2 hours was also only 500 per pax which is 25 SGD which is cheaper then Singapore's 40 dollars heartland 1 hour oil massages. Note that this is for Healthland spa which is well known by tourists and locals alike. Mall massages seems to still be overpriced at 500 baht for 1 hour or something to that effect and the massage rooms are tiny and may be shared. I would recommend if you want to do the massage, you go for Healthland or those established ones and not just random mall massage palors.

The only place where you will spend money would be the shopping itself, but even then the stuff are quite economically fair. T-shirts would be in the range of 5 to 10 dollars per shirt and their quality is pretty ok.

I went there with 300 dollars changed to thai baht (about 7000) and thanks to shopping, had to change an additional 100 SGD, and cause I wanted to buy something for my mom I used my credit card to buy. I mostly bought gifts actually so about 2500 was the amount I used purely for myself. The hotel itself was relatively pricy as we stayed on top of the platinum shopping mall (just slightly cheaper then Singapore price 500 per room for 3 nights) but you will save on time and cost on transport thanks to its location.

Overall
Activity: 3.5 (Only activities are all linked to shopping and malls. Nothing unique. However, shopping activity is very enjoyable and easy to do in Bangkok)
Scenery: 3 (Only scenery is the urban sceneries and the occasionally well decorated malls)
Shopping: 4.5 (Definitely a place meant for this especially if you stay in the area. Even in our 4 days stay, we haven't shopped all the places yet)
Food: 3.5 (Cheaper then Singapore, generally tasting better, but nothing was really awesome that would make you go to Bangkok specifically to eat)
People: 3.5 (People are nice enough, did not meet any bad eggs or trouble makers, but language gap is still visible)
Accomodation and ease of getting around: 3 (Traffic jam everywhere, even if you want to take the trains, there is a bit of hassle in getting the tickets, but if you walk, its all good)
Cost: 3.5 (Cheaper for food and shopping then Singapore, but hotels are not THAT cheap)

Overall: 3.5 (Bangkok trip is not a trip for everyone, and it is also not entirely a hassle free mind completely relaxed kind of trip. But the shopping and the cost of shopping is therapeutic and enjoyable to the Singaporean shopper as there is no need for too much second thoughts when buying stuff as they are all cheaper in general. There are really many places to shop but I do recommend staying in the same vicinity as us and I cannot guarantee that you will have the same experience if you stay elsewhere as the density of big malls might not be as good. You can still have the occasional massage but massages at the malls might be overpriced. Movies are also pretty cheap. This is a trip to go with friends and you will have sufficient things to do. As family complete with kids and all that, maybe not so much. If your group is full of shoppers who are interesting in helping Thailand economy boom in a win win situation, this is the place for you.)

Let me know of your own experiences in Bangkok and if you have better itineraries! Also let me know if I got anything wrong!