Shopping my way through Bangkok

Trip Start Jan 03, 2008

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Thailand Bangkok, Thailand
Monday, May 26, 2008

Andrew and I finally arrived in Bangkok at 1AM after a four hour ferry ride and a nine hour bus ride. Needless to say, we were exhausted. We took a taxi to Khao San Road and found a pretty nice little hotel. We decided to splurge (it was $18 a night) and it was great. It had soft sheets and my own bathroom with a flushing toilet (rare) and a hot shower. This is the first hot shower I have had in six weeks. I also had a tv with three English channels!!!

We slept in and then decided to go to the MBK mall since it was raining. That mall was insanely big and had tons of food places from home (BK, McDonald's, Sizzler, Auntie Anne's pretzels, Dairy Queen, Dunkin Donuts). It also had a bowling alley and a karaoke section. They had all of these little Karaoke boxes that you could rent. They had a couch, table, tv and were soundproof. It was a really neat concept. We decided to go see a movie, "What Happens in Vegas" with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kuthcher

Karaoke box

. It was so nice to sit in an air conditioned movie theater. No Dad, I did not sneak my own beverage in. It was only $5 for the ticket, popcorn and coke. Crazy, huh? The inside of the theater reminded me of the Cheesecake factory. Very impressive.

After the movie, we continued shopping. They have everything fake that you could imagine (perfume, clothes, shoes, bags, make up, etc). When you ask if it is real, they all answer the same way "Same, Same." Really the perfume is 1/5 of the price back home and it smells exactly the same. I also bought some make up since my original supply is dwindling.

For dinner, we found this all you can eat sushi place. For $7, you could eat as much sushi, tempura shrimp, gyoza, ice cream, and drink as much as you want. So delicious and so cheap. They also bring you over a pot of this soup stuff. You could control the heat and everything. Basically, you took meat (beef, chicken, shrimp, etc) off of the conveyor belt and cooked it in your pot. It reminded me of the Melting Pot restaurant but at 1/10 of the cost. We ate so much. I just couldn't get over the quality of the food and the cheap price. It was definitely worth the hour wait for the table.

After dinner, we decided to head back to Khao San Road. Basically, it is a backpackers street with tons of restaurants, bars, internet cafes, travel agencies and shops. There are also tons for food vendors and sidewalk stores. We walked around for a bit and then decided to get some sleep.

Andrew got food poisoning so the next day I went shopping in some department stores and to the street markets. I took it easy and actually found a restaurant with air conditioning. That night, I took the 12 hour overnight bus to Northern Thailand (Chiang Mai). It was okay other than the fact that the old hippie in front of me had the worst body odor ever and my personal air conditioning didn't work.