Day 4 Digest from Bangkok, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

Day 4 was a relaxed day. Both me and my travel partner were a bit tired so we decided to take it easy. Hence, it was a late wake-up call, a late breakfast and a lot of photo processing and email catch up happened. Then, we took a relaxed lunch at Jenny’s on Samsen Soi 4 (near Khao San). The food is so good at Jenny’s that I am almost a regular here.

Post lunch, we decided that it was time for us to explore some of Bangkok’s famous shopping districts. And at the same time, we wanted to go on the skytrain just to experience it. The hidden agenda was my friend had to buy some gadgets and electronic gear for himself and hence off we went to MKB Mall, one of the top gadget malls in Bangkok.

So far in Bangkok, we had walked all the way except for taking the cab from the airport to the hostel. Hence, this time around, we decided to experience the Tuk Tuk, something other tourists had recommended for the hair-raising experience. But, since I am a mad driver myself, I felt completely at ease. Though, the boom boom silencer sound on pressing the gas pedal is something I like a lot.

MKB Mall is a place you will get lost if you are a gadget. Iphones are almost littered everywhere. There are 5 apple branded shops in that mall. You will find everything from phone covers to batteries, cameras, phones, sim cards, unique numbers, laptops, tablets and all the gadgets that you can imagine. The place is huge and each floor is designated to a type of gadget. I had to remember my way and follow the signboards judiciously to prevent myself from getting lost.

After tiring ourselves at MKB, we walked towards another gadget mall called Pantip Plaza. The walk took us right below the skytrain and we decided that we should take the sky train right after we get out of Pantip. Pantip Plaza is also very much like MKB in terms of gadget diversity, but it goes into more depth and you can find local produce too. One needs to be sure of the genuineness of the product while buying here, though good deals can be struck.

By the time we were done with Pantip, my legs were tired and my mouth was dry. I decided to address both by sipping into two ice cold tender coconuts and sitting in front of the mall. The ice cold tender coconut drinks are one of my hot favorites in Thailand and this is something that you need to indulge in whenever you are in Thailand. After re-energizing, we walked to the MKB sky train station, figured out the ticket process, got ourselves a ticket worth 30 THB that would take us past 6 stops and got into the train.

The train was pretty crowded as it was peak hour in Bangkok. The journey was pleasant, quick and fairly uneventful.On our way, we noticed a beautiful mall. We quickly decided that we should give this mall a visit too, given that we have visited only gadget malls so far. We got down at the 6th stop and got ourselves a 20 THB ticket to take us to the Terminal 21 mall. The return journey was comparatively less crowded and we could find a place to sit in this uber clean mode of transport.

This mall, one of the biggest in Bangkok is known for its designer wear. Each floor is named after a large global city and stocks brands from that city/country. The place is really fabulous and the price tags are even more fabulous. We were not here for spending any money. So, after a quick round of window shopping, we got out, found ourselves a metered taxi and returned to the hostel. The funny thing is that the metered taxi cost us lesser than the tuk tuk we took during our onward journey.