Bangkok or Krung Thep (City of Angels) as the Thai’s call it themselves is the capital of the Kingdom of Thailand. The city is located at the Asian river the Chao Phraya-river and nearby the Golf of Thailand. With a population of over 13 million people its a ever lasting 24 hours cycle of traveling people by car, bus, subway, sky train, taxi, motorbike (taxi) and tuk tuk’s.

Travelers to Bangkok might feel lost inside a big Asian jungle at first. The huge office buildings, impressive condominium and hotel skyscrapers, the many commercial shopping malls, the heavy traffic you immediately notice after leaving Suvarnabhumi airport (Bangkok’s international airport) shakes you awake from the airplane journey and makes you realize made it to Thailand, Bangkok.

Bangkok is a good travel destination all year round. Raining season or not, its always hot in this pure Asian city. Travelers can find the joy of visiting the huge luxury shopping malls such as IT Mall Pantip Plaza, MBK Center, Union Mall Ladprao, Central Ladprao and India Emporium, with the most famous and luxury of them all; Siam Paragon, day & night markets such as Chatuchak Weekend Market, Sukhumvit night market and Patpong, beer bars, traditional Thai massage parlors, go-go bars, gay bars, packed night clubs, street food stalls and other modern public buildings. For those in search of history of Bangkok’s colorful past the city offers temples, old homes, the floating market and museums can visit the Bangkok, Chinatown area.

Travelers to Bangkok must have a valid passport and visa. American Citizens will receive a visa valid for 30 days upon arrival. If you wish to stay longer than 30 days in Thailand you need to obtain an Thai Visa. Bangkok is a safe travel destination, although its advised to look after your belongings and stay away from occasional scam artists who might approach you offering; tours, sex massages and shows, cheap Viagra or cigarettes.

The MBK Center is different from the other shopping malls in the Patum Wan district, most of them are luxurious, with high-end brands only while the shops at MBK offer copies of high-end brands for low-end prices. And because of this very reason, it can get quite crowded in MBK, with an average of 100 thousand shoppers a day 7 days per week.

The shopping mall MBK has an total of 8 floors, with about 2000 stores, restaurants and entertainment including a 4 floors Tokyu department store. As every other large mall in South East Asia, the MBK center also has an food court, supermarket, fast-food joints, an entertainment plaza and cinema to watch movies. Shops include just about anything imaginable from clothes, bags to accessories for computers till hair, electronics, barber shops, ice cream vendors to high end restaurants. There’s several floors dedicated to electronic devices as cellphones, PDA’s and computers.

One of the unique factors about this mall is that you can actually discount your products on the higher levels/floors. It seems that the prices get cheaper as you go up. This is because most of the vendors sell similar goods as on the street markets where the price is also negotiable, but most important because regular Thai people shop here mainly.

Opening Hours Mon- Sun 10 am – 9 pm

MBK Center
444 Phayathai Road
Patum Wan 10330
Bangkok, Thailand
+66 0 2620 9000
www.mbk-center.co.th

Despite the fact Siam Paragon can be crowded at times the mall remains fantastic high-end shopping mall located in the heart of Bangkok surrounded by many sightseeing attractions. The spacious stores and walkways make it comfortable walking around even during peak times. Siam Paragon offers anything imaginable for sale spread over 6 floors, besides regular department stores, shopping facilities, a grocery store and restaurants it also offers entertainment at many levels, such as the multiplex movie theater (average price per ticket 140 baht, about $4,25us) consisting of 15 large size theaters, which of the main theater has largest screen and biggest seating capacity in Asia. As well the Siam Ocean World (underwater world) located beneath the Siam Paragon shopping mall which holds the largest aquarium in South East Asia, the mall even has its own exhibition hall and a Thai Art Gallery, as well an opera concert hall. On the top floors, there’s several entertainment centers where you can play games and win toys, a large bowling alley and karaoke center named Blu-O Rhythm & Bow.

When going to Siam Paragon for grocery shopping, or a quite bite enter upon street level for the food court and the huge gourmet supermarket. There’s not many supermarkets in Bangkok that compete in size. For a more convenient way of entering the mall, walk the spacious elevated walkways of the BTS Skytrain, for easy access to the Siam Paragon elevators. Be prepared to walk through metal detectors prior to entering the mall with security checking bags.

A few of the exclusive products sold in the Siam Paragon mall are expensive jewelry, watches, clothing and even cars from high end international brands such as Gucci, Hugo Boss, Burberry and Ferrari just to name several. As earlier mentioned the mall has a total of 6 floors, here’s a complete breakdown (in the back of the building there’s the Siam Paragon Department Store, covering all floors).

Basement floor: Siam Ocean World
Ground floor: Food Court, Gourmet Supermarket.
M floor: Beauty Hall, The Luxary
First floor: Fashion Venue, The Lingerie Salon.
Second floor: Paragon Men, Sports Mall Global (as well public showrooms Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari cars).
Third floor: Read and Write, Paragon Kids.
Fourth floor: Paragon Mall Ultra, Paragon Living, A passage to Asian Arts and Crafts, IT City.
Fifth floor: Multiplex Movie Theater, Paragon CinePlex, KrungSri IMAX, Blu-O Rhythm & Bow, Edutainment Center.
Sixth floor: Siam Opera, Edutainment Center.

Spread out over the five actual floors (the Siam Opera isn’t part of the actual mall) with Siam Paragon, in-between and next to luxury shops you will find literally hundreds of restaurants, from fast-food joints, ice cream vendors to high-end restaurants with about any international cuisine you can think of.

Opening Hours Mon- Sun 10 am – 10 pm

Siam Paragon
991/1 Rama 1 Rd, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Tel: (+66) 0 2690 1000
www.siamparagon.co.th

The 6 floors shopping center offers a wide selection of stores, selling about any electronic or computer related accessories including printers, digital cameras, MP3 players, cellphones and TVs. What Pantip Plaza is (in)famous for, is it’s piracy of DVDs, games and software being offered for 100-150 Thai Baht (about $3.00 to $4.50us) per CD, starting the moment you walk into the mall.

When looking for a specific item such as an wireless mouse, webcam or USB stick it’s advised to take a stroll and compare prices from the many vendors within the mall, allowing yourself to find the best deal. It’s also an handy stop when your having issues with electronic devices while on travel, as most of the shops offer instant repair service on no cure no pay basis. Spread within the mall, next to and in-between the many hardware shops are the restaurants of Pantip Plaza. Just as in every Bangkok mall there’s literally tens of restaurants from fast-food, food-court, ice cream vendors to complete restaurants offering À la carte menus.

Pantip Plaza is an great place for buying electronic devices, although as an traveler you need to be aware that products such as new laptops, phones and cameras will only be a fraction of the costs less than elsewhere in Asia, Europe or North America. Think ahead of time when buying electronic devices on your holiday as you will most likely inquire problems when required after sales assistance back home.

Store, vendor and restaurant owners in Pantip Plaza are free to operate own hours within the Pantip Plaza opening time, therefore most of the stores close down by 7:30 PM to 8:00 PM. Although you might not be a techno-freak, it’s defiantly worth visiting for it’s high fascinating value.

Opening Hours Mon- Sun 10 am – 9 pm

Pantip Plaza
604/3 Petchaburi Rd. Petchaburi Ratchathewee
Bangkok, Krung Thep Mahanakhon 10400, Thailand
www.pantipplaza.com

Shopping at Happy Gift is truly a kids and adults fantasy, if you are looking for something specific may that be mouse pads, clothing, jewelry, pillows or chocolate paper clips from Hello Kitty to Disneyland. You will find it all, if you can’t find, get lost or in need of any help or information inquire one of the at least 50 employees they have throughout the store. At the 1th floor next to the cashier there’s an information counter where you can contact Mr. Wassamol Naktham the area manager.

The brilliance of this store and they way to display their merchandise, also due to the fact it has five floors makes you feel guilty not buying anything from the store which is like most shops in Chinatown opened from 9 AM in the morning till 6 PM evening.

The exact address and contact details you can find below.

Happy Gift, IT Works CO LTD.
303 Wanit 1 Road.
Chakkawat Samphanthawong
Bangkok 10100

T: 02-2226-0299
C: 08-9110-8778

The main street of the Chinatown area is Charoen Krung which means “Prosperous City” and actually was Bangkok’s first paved road, it’s English name “New Road” therefore couldn’t be more inappropriate. Now just because the road was paved first, doesn’t necessarily mean they maintained it. Chinatown streets nowadays are bumpy, there’s trash everywhere especially the narrow market roads, not to mention the smell of the street food vendors.

Chinatown is known for its food carts and small shopping roads like Truk Chom where you can find anything from flowers, kids toys, souvenir, fashion accessories, kid clothing, rugs, furniture cotton to whole sale shops. Walking the narrow streets watch out for fruit vendors and motorbikes passing by, there’s small signs placed all over Chinatown by the police to watch out for pick pocket thieves. Believe it or not the narrow streets even have multiple ATM’s on each side of the street.

Most of the shops in Chinatown are opened from 9 AM in the morning till 6 PM evening, most of the street vendors will start clearing the day around 5 PM. When visiting Chinatown, one of the recommended shops, actually department store to visit is called Happy Gift. Another popular Bangkok travel destination nearby Chinatown is called Wat Traimit (The Temple of Golden Buddha).

These pictures date Saturday 24th of October 2009 Chinatown, Bangkok.

Right when entering the India Emporium Mall you’ll find yourself in Indian atmospheres, little vendors in the middle of the main hallway as far the eye can reach. The mall itself isn’t very large and has a total of 4 floors. The ground floor had diverse merchandise and just 4 restaurants which included Black Canyon Coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts and Oishi Delivery and the smallest MK Restaurant in Bangkok. Funny enough there were no Indian restaurants present. The second floor was more specific and sold Indian furniture cotton, bed sheets, curtains and rugs.

The ATM’s were spread out over the entire mall, at least every floor has one. If you are looking for Indian wedding dresses, traditional Indian shoes, Indian Buddha souvenirs or a Indian fortune teller the third floor is your final destination. The mall does have a tiny small entertainment center with just 5 PlayStation games, ping pong tables and two basketball hoops. There’s no other facilities present such as free WIFI or a cinema. The toilets are free of charge but for the use of toilet paper there’s a vending machine costing you 2.00 TH ($0.05) per package of napkins.

On the fourth and last floor the India Emporium Mall has a food court called “Food Paradise” which has a great mixture of Indian, Thai and International foods as well as deserts, drinks and anything food related you may think of. Food Paradise has the whole floor covered.

The India Emporium Mall can be visited every day from 10 AM till 10 PM, the restaurants on the ground floor are opened till 11 PM. When stopping by in Bangkok, the India Emporium Mall would be nice if you happen to be in Chinatown or Little India. Other central city malls include Union Mall Ladprao and Central Ladprao if you don’t want to be stuck in Bangkok traffic.

These pictures date Saturday 24th of October 2009 India Emporium, Bangkok.

The airport has been designed by Murphy/Jahn Architects and stores the world’s tallest control tower with a height of 433 Ft and world’s third largest single airport terminal with the size of 563 thousand m². The name Suvarnabhumi has been chosen by King Bhumibol Adylyadej and refers to the golden kingdom hypothesized specifically referring to the continental Indochina. From the airport a modern highway is connected for efficient traveling routes to Bangkok and other nearby destinations such as Hua Hin and Pattaya.

For travelers that need to spend time on the Suvarnabhumi airport there’s a lot of facilities available, with over 50 restaurants fine dining shouldn’t be a issue, head for last minute duty free souvenir shopping or have a traditional Thai massage near your departure gate. Wireless internet is available throughout the airport but quite expensive, about 300 Baht for 2 hours, at multiple hours discount applies. There’s special smoker rooms for anyone in need of a cigarette, since smoking is strictly prohibited throughout the airport.

For anyone who has a delayed flight, or would like to spend a night at Suvarnabhumi airport they can check-in at the connected Novotel Suvarnabhumi hotel, with 600 rooms available you’ll most likely be able to get a room.

This mall is actually more trendy than the Union Mall Ladprao across from the street and does have an information center on the ground floor. The problem with the Central Ladprao shopping mall is that’s its so famous its get packed in there really quickly. The escalators to switch floors aren’t spread out well as the downtown shopping malls like Siam Paragon or Central World, it’s also one of the few malls that actually uses actual stairs to switch floors.

One thing this the Central Ladprao mall is good for is shopping for clothes, a lot of fancy and fashion designer stores and non branded stores with fashion clothes for decent prices according to mall standards so whether you are looking for trendy clothing, shoes, bags or a outfit you should be able to fit you needs just fine male or female. Small ice cream shops like Diary Queen and coffee stands as Star Bucks fill up the scene in between the shops.

There’s also a food court located on the top floor with popular Thai and International dishes which also include Japanese and Chinese. The usual restaurants can be found spread across the mall, from junk food to popular restaurants such as MK Restaurant and BBQ Plaza. On the same floor is also a SFX Cinema with 9 cinema screens of course its complete with VIP seating and bowling alleys for enjoyment after or before your movie. Adjoining the mall is the Sofitel Central Plaza Hotel, which houses Bangkok’s first convention center.

The mall is located on Phahon Yothin on the opposite Chatuchak Park in the Lad Prao area and is opened every day from 10 AM till 9:30 PM, on Saturdays its open until 10:00 PM. The mall has an easy access point from Phahon Yothin station (BTS Mo Chit station). If you want to try a mall with a complete different atmosphere, you might enjoy shopping at the India Emporium in Little India near Bangkok, Chinatown.

The union mall houses a 150,000 square meters and 8 floors which of 3 floors are actually used for the shopping mall itself. Its a good location for those who find Central Ladprao or Chatuchak Weekend Market too hot and packed. The mall is filled with over a thousand market style vendors and here and there you find a few regular shops and restaurants.

There’s no facilities such as an cinema and/or a “real” entertainment center, just a small “entertainment” center which houses a couple of games for the youth. Mainly this mall is only good if you are looking for clothing items, shoes, fashion accessories for affordable prices. Many of the other big malls have much more facilities to offer, the mall is mainly for Thai youth to go and buy their clothes. Especially when outside the mall there’s a connected street market open everyday from 5 PM onwards.

In the basement floor there’s a food court and a TOPS supermarket for your grocery needs. The union mall is open everyday from 10 AM till 10 PM, as of latest visit we couldn’t find any information center or brochure to add. If the Union Mall doesn’t sound like your type of mall we would suggest you to tryout something with a complete different atmosphere, for example the India Emporium in Little India.