Monday, June 12, 2006
Thoughts on Bangkok trip (3 - 5 June 2006)
What a difference a week ago when I was in Bangkok, jostling with the crowds in the streets and malls there! Before that I attended the Singapore HR Awards which was a gala award dinner event and upon my return I'm off to a team retreat! Now I truly enjoy the peace and the opportunity to pen down this item!
It's my first trip to Bangkok, but perhaps it's twice or third visit for my pals. We did what most typical Singaporean would do there which was activities such as shopping, eating, mingling with crowds.. However I'm more of a browser than a shopper. My travel mates had a shopping list and they've got lots of fabulous bargains there! And they've each got me a gift there to thank me for shopping with them 8) For me, it was only at the last moment that I got myself a Kipling at the Thai airport duty free shoppe before heading home :p
What I can say about Bangkok is that it's a land of contrasts & extremes and a bargain center haven.. High end to low end. When it means high end, it's even better than ours! At the low end of the scale we have the markets, equivalent to our "pasar malam". The markets, surprisingly, did not "surprise" me as it did for the shopping malls there for I have seen similar ones at Cambodia where they call them "psar". I sometimes wonder how the locals would be able to afford or embrace the extreme in lifestyles?
Perhaps it's about striking a bargaining balance?
As a comparison, a bowl of roadside Won Ton mee is 30 baht (or S$1.20) and that from the hotel is 100 baht (or $4) w/o tax. Or how about a leather bag at the malls compared to the markets: say 3600 baht (or $144) cf to 199 baht ($7.96)? Transport-wise, say to Chinatown, a bargained cab fare is 150 baht (or $6) cf to skytrain 20 baht (or $0.80)?
I guess I will miss Siam Paragon the most because it's grand, posh and spacious! Especially so for Paragon Cineplex which is within Siam Paragon! It's not at all crowded as you would have imagined. The movie tix of 140 baht (or $5.60) is considered by far, the most generously discounted amount than any other cinema operator locally. To sum it all, I would say that the trip was enjoyable and pleasant. Took zero pics coz they were all captured in memory 8)
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