Bangkok, Day 2 - Siam Paragon Mall and Suan-Lum Night Bazaar

Hubby's off to work again. I am left to my own devices for the day.

After eating breakfast at the hotel, I make my way again to the BTS Skytrain and get off at Siam Station to see the Siam Center Mall and Siam Paragon Mall.

If you're in Bangkok and you plan to commute via Sky Train, I suggest you buy the BTS Sky Train pass for BHT160. BHT100 is for the actual pre-paid load on your card, BHT30 is for the deposit and the other BHT 30, which is non refundable is for the cost of the card. Pre-paid loads are sold in increments of BHT100.

Honestly, the malls in Manila are much better and more entertaining. I got bored looking arount the Siam Center Mall and proceeded immediately to Siam Paragon Mall and browsed around its department store, (since I cannot afford to shop at the Valentino and Cartier Stores there, he he he). I had a fabulous time at the Gourmet Market located at the Basement 1, there I found a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, salads and other Thai gourmet items that I wanted to take home with me. I purchased some pasalubong for the office and some for my mom and my in-laws.



The selection of food and sweets at the Food hall located at the basement are endless. You're sure to find something that will satisfy your cravings.







These colorful mini fruits were made from jelly beans!



I had lunch by my lonesome at Cafe de Tu. My lunch consisted of Avocado Salad with Shrimp Roe and Paad Thai. A noodle dish that's mildly spicy with some prawns and bean sprouts. Yummy. I love the Paad Thai specially.





For dinner, hubby and I decided to go to the Suan-Lum Night Market located at the Lumphini station. It was such a hot night and we ate at the first air-conditioned restaurant that we saw. I forgot the name but it's Italian and the food was expensive and lousy. Forgettable name for an equally forgettable food, oh well.

The Suan-Lum Night Market is a huge covered night bazaar with a lot of trinkets, thai silk and fabrics, knock-off bags, shoes and watches. The place is certainly big but it was extremely hot inside. We personally didn't like this place since most of what you can buy here is available at MBK (where it's air conditioned). We were very disappointed and only walked away with just one small purchase. Typical temperature at midnight is 30 degrees centigrade, six degrees hotter in Manila! Yikes.



On the other side of the market, there's a huge beer garden where all kinds of street food were sold. When we arrived, there was a mini concert going on and there were a lot of people there. Too bad we already had dinner, I'm sure the food at the beer garden is much more interesting than the Italian place that we had dined in.

Bangkok, Day 1 - MBK, Siam Paragon and Hole in the Wall

My second day in Bangkok was jam-packed with shopping, a movie and eating!

I started my day by taking the BTS Skytrain to National Stadium Station where MBK is. MBK as I mentioned in an earlier post, is a Greenhills Tiangge (Bazaar) type of mall where you can find everything from bags, shoes, watches and a cornucopia of other products. If you don't mind buying knock-off bags and watches, this is the place for you. Knock-off bags start at BHT199 (US$6.00), I was able to buy one with wheels (to help carry my load, he he he) for BHT199. Pretty good deal.

Thai skirts, gauzy blouses and dresses range from BHT199 to BHT499. Long embroidered dresses cost a bit more, around BHT1,000 and up. Most stores have credit card and the whole mall abound with money exchange booths, just in case you run out of Baht. They don't exchange Philippine Peso though. Dollar bills of $50 and $100 have a higher exchange rate than the $10s and $20s. Be sure to only bring large denominations when you visit Bangkok.

After browsing through the entire mall, I wanted to sample some Thai fast food. I saw this restaurant called Yam Saap (which sounded like Yum, Sarap in Tagalog) and tried it out. I had Seafood Tom Yum soup with flat glass noodles and some green mango salad with crispy crablets in spicy Thai dressing of lemon juice, fish sauce and chili garlic sauce. Both dishes were mildly spicy (per my request) and nice and I actually finished the Tom Yum. They're also affordable. I only spent around BHT250, including a watermelon shake and a bottle of water.





After scouring MBK, I proceeded to Bangkok's most famous mall, The Siam Paragon Mall. I take the Sky train again and get off at Siam station. There, I watched Angelina Jolie's movie, Wanted. The funny thing about Thai movie schedules is that they post the movie screening time say, 4:10p.m., you go in at 4:05p.m. to make sure you don't miss the start of the movie, only to find yourself sitting for 45 minutes watching Thai commercials and other movie previews. The theatre was swanky, seats recline and there's plenty of room for people to pass by. Rates vary depending on the location of your seat. The cheapest and closest to the screen costs around BHT150 and goes up when you seat gets farther from the screen.

For dinner, hubby wanted to take me to this hole in the wall restaurant near our hotel called Lek's Seafood (get off at Chong Nonsi Station). A lot of locals are eating there and the place is always full. The place doesn't look much but the food is great and the prices are very reasonable. We had fried fish (lapu-lapu I think) with a sweet spicy chili dipping sauce (this is hubby's fave), noodles with shrimps and cilantro, sizzling oyster cake and sauteed morning glory leaves. All were very good and tasty. I highly recommend Lek's Seafood if you're in the area.









The photos don't do justice to the fabulous meal that we had. Our meal only cost us BHT500 (US15) and that includes three drinks and rice :-)