Skytrain\Shopping Day

Sunday 27th January Well first full day in Bangkok and I had to do a bit of shopping. And where better to do it than the Chatuchak weekend market. This is a large market on the Northern outskirts of Bangkok, and it is unlike any other market you have seen. There is no way to describe it, there are 9000 stalls. It is a feat of navigation just to get through it, and if you see a stall and think I night come back to that one later, then good luck. Although actually I did find my way back to the shoe stall I had seen the best bargain at. Speaking of bargaining, I don't seem to have the hang of the haggle yet. I'm fairly sure most of the stall holders were laughing at me as I walked away. I'd just round their price down to the nearest 20 or 50 (depending on how big). I should be more adventurous. Pretty much anything you want can be got in Chatuchak. I'd about 7 things on my list, and I got 6 of them. The one thing I didn't get was a plug adaptor, I guess they were there somewhere, I just couldn't find them. Of course it might have been more helpful if the map I got when leaving the market had been given to me as I went in. As Chatuchak is at the end of the Skytrain system I decided to get an all day pass for it and make the most of it, visiting all the big sights along the way. The only problem is that I think the Skytrain was paid for by the shopping centre owners, because it seems to be best at linking these. One thing to note about the Skytrain is its use of massive amouts of concrete, which is not pretty. It would never get built in Dublin, it is a bit of an eyesore. But it does provide cover for pedestrian walkways, and in this heat that is more important. Anyway not having a power adaptor gave me an excuse to go to MBK, which is a large shopping centre, but effectively it is a big indoor market, as all the shops are little stalls as well. This centre is well divided into zones, with all shops in a zone alike. Its pretty handy, but also a little weird, especially when you get to PhoneZone, and there are 100s (and I do mean 100s) of shops selling mobile phones and accessories, with maybe a little iPod stuff thrown in as well. I couldn't figure out how so many shops selling the same items were needed, but to be fair the place was packed so they all were doing business. After I had got everything on my list I decided to actually do a bit of sightseeing, so it was on to Jim Thompson's house. He was the CIA's man in Thailand in the 50s and he went native. As a rich foreigner he was able to build a massive house and fill it with all sorts of artifacts. Then he disappeared, so it is now a museum. It was interesting enough. I did see my first canal as well (more about them tomorrow). After that I decided to finish the whole shopping craze off once and for all so I went to CentralWorld. This is more of a conventional shopping centre (from an Irish point of view) and it is massive. Bigger even than MBK. It make Dundrum look tiny. After that it was back to the hotel and then out to watch more football. Avoiding Irish bars this time I ended up in a so called 'backpackers' inn. It was good for watching football, but I didn't meet any other backpackers. Of course this is probably because the inn was on the outskirts of Nana, which is not an area that the backpackers hang out in. Nana is one of the notorious areas of Bangkok, but when I went through it for a look I didn't think it was that bad. A few dodgy looking places, but I didn't get much hassle trying to pull me into any of them. Except for one bloke, who ironically was wearing a ManU jersey. So I tried to make a joke saying I'll go if there is football not girls, and that was his opening. Rule 1 - Never show any interest or it takes ages to get rid of them. Anyway I eventually did (by running into the normal bar with football on), and it was then a firm no for all the rest. I did get slightly scammed on the way home, the taxi cost me about 200 baht, when it should have only been half that. I was too tired to argue over 2 euro.