Mall Rat

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Road weary, overloaded on mental experiences and looking for a few creature comforts, I stumbled into Bangkok. A brief but necessary doctor's visit confirmed what I already knew. Armed with medication but still needing the beautiful white porcelain to assist my battle with a gastrointestinal infection, I had to figure out what to do with myself.

I decided I would have an All-American day. I hit the Starbuck's for the morning paper and coffee and then wandered off to the mall. Malls have always intimidated me. All the lights, the barrage of bright colors and the hordes of people with lots of baggage and smiles has always made me feel as if I am missing out on the experience. Today however, I was thrilled to be going to the mall. Not only was it air-conditioned but it had toilets on every floor.

Once inside the mall I found myself in my usually state of awe at the scene playing out before me. Mobs of people floating between floors carrying their latest purchases passed before me as I walked to the escalators. Slowly it began to dawn on me that the majority of the people inside the mall where Thai. I am not sure why I found this odd, I guess I just assumed the mall phenomenon was an American thing.

As I dined in the mall food court with thousands of other people, I realized that this was probably the most authentic Thai experience I have had. Sure I went and visited the Grand Palace to check out results of European and Thai architecture built into one building. Yes I enjoyed seeing the emerald Buddha and the six guardians protecting it at Wat Phra Kaew. The surrounding half-man and half-roosters were also visually entertaining. I even wandered over to Wat Pho to see people giving alms the length of the reclining Buddha (which is almost half a football field long). These things were all amazing and wonderful but they just didn't feel typically Thai. The mall on the other hand felt right.

Slurping on Dairy Queen blizzard, the subtle differences between cultures slowly came to surface. Yes I had ordered my frosty treat as I would in America, but the DQ was different. Gone was the dingy roadside pull-up and in it's place was an attempted restaurant. I was given a number for my blizzard and then had it delivered to my table. Bussers were eagerly awaiting to clean tables and remove wrappers, cups and plastic trays as soon as you had finished your dining experience.

Atop of the mall was an amazing entertainment complex and fitness center. The center had bars, a bowling alley and the fanciest movie theater I have ever seen. Bangkok has taken malls to a whole new level. There were concerts outside the malls, car shows inside and a fashion week festival kicking off between two of the malls. I even noticed that malls were given their own symbol in the legend of Bangkok Tourist Maps as I had dinner in another mall food court (Remember I was really sick and needed to be near bathrooms). There were seven malls within a 2 kilometer radius of where I was staying. This lead me to change my plans a bit and spend some time in each of the malls. Over the next few days I wandered through the malls of Ploen Chit and was impressed with the variety of things going on. Concerts were held outside as well as Korean TV show auditions (lots of dancing in school girl outfits). It was a lot more fun than I ever thought a mall could be. Maybe malls are like this everywhere and I have just never fully explored them? But the heck with Kho San road. I am off to explore the real Bangkok. I am off to the malls.

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Photos

Floating People
Everyone looks sedated

Buddha is watching
Reclining Buddha Wat Pho

Guardians of the Emerald Buddha
I wonder if they would have protected the emerald buddha if they knew it was made of jade?

Chedi or Stupa?
Not sure what the difference is but this is Phra Siratana Chedi

River Taxi
Much easier than the road traffic.

Wat Arun
Temple of the dawn that opens at 9.

Nightmare for kids
They won't sleep for weeks after seeing these faces.

Comments

[Cate]

Malls
Loved reading your Thai mall experience. I like the feet massage options which are peppered around. What a good idea for somewhere to go if your drinking chalk by the bucket. I will remember that. Hope you are better now. Cate

[Josh]

The names are awesome
Temple of the dawn that opens at 9?! That's great!

[Tami]

Malls
It must be an Asian thing because I was taken to 6 malls in my first week in the Philippines. By the time I left, I visited about 12-15 malls, and not because I wanted to.

[Ross]

Isn't that a Zep tune?
Temple of the Dawn? Isn't that a Zep tune? Kidding of course, glad you are getting back into the Americanzi way of thinking. Miss you and hope your quest for fire. I mean restrooms is successfull.