Remembering Amazing Thailand

Huh? What does that mean? Oh well, I had the same question when I first saw it. It means like anniversary sale. But I don’t know why they don’t use the word anniversary. Well, I thought that they would soon learn the proper term but seven years later and I still saw the same posters. I thought it’s kinda amusing, though.

Well, a lot of us get attracted when we see the “Sale” sign on a shop window. Since I am a very practical buyer, I love to buy things when they are on sale as long as I need them like shoes. So into the shop I went but I was surprised the prices seemed unchanged. They were still too expensive for me. So I would end up putting them back on the shelf.

Later on I realized that they were just tricking us. Well, I actually saw it with my two eyes. One time I went to a mall and saw a beautiful pair of sandals. But they were too expensive — 499 Baht. A couple of days later I passed by the same mall and saw the “Sale” sign–50% off–on all shoes so I went to check. Guess what I saw? A new sticker with 900 Baht and the supposedly reduced price was still the same — 499 Baht. I wanted to laugh out loud by what I deemed a humorous discovery.

This was going to be my favorite place to shop while stationed in Muaklek teaching EFL for a couple of months. As what I have mentioned earlier, when we go send the kids back home most of them lived in the town center, Saraburi and on the way is a Tesco shopping mart. 

I found it really favourable to find some of my favourite noodles like the Korean spicy kimchi ramyon. Also the fruit salad they prepare with a sweet salad cream was superb. 

Sometimes when Karoline and me are not on the school van duty we still went with the van almost every day just to get out of what we considered a miserable campus. 

Well, if you lived in a place where there’s no tv, no radio and there’s absolutely nothing to do to entertain yourself, it was like living in a prison. Good thing the van had always a place for us and if it was full we carried the littlest ones on our lap.

My next topic is still about markets and this one’s cheaper than Pratunam. Bobae market is more on wholesaler but they are really cheap. They only sell clothes. I like compare Bobae with Divisoria in the Philippines and Pratunam with Baclaran. Bobae market is where Bobae Tower is located. It is also accessible by river taxi.

We would go to Bobae at around 2 am because it’s when the trade is really cheap and they sell on the street. By sunrise these night sellers are gone and they are replaced by the morning traders who sell at slightly higher price. This is where we buy those souvenir T-shirts.

Chatuchak is a favorite weekend market especially for foreigners, tourists, and locals alike. They sell a wide array specially of crafts but there are also other stuff to buy like souvenirs, plants, pets, ornaments, wedding tokens and so on and so forth. Located near the Victory Monument, Chatuchak is now accessible by MRT which is excellent because it’s a bit far from where I worked and lived.

The only thing though that puts me off is that it gets too crowded making it hard to walk freely from one stall to another.

Despite this I still found my way to Chatuchak several times especially when buying in bulks because you can buy them really bargain here. This is simply a one-stop shop especially for crafts which I am very interested in.

MBK stands for Maboongkrung, a big shopping mall of everything–souvenirs, electronics, furniture, house accessories, shoes, bags, you name it they have it. When I first got there, I was overwhelmed by the crowd and the stalls which seemed endless. It was night time when we went but it seemed like day. No matter what time of the day it is always crowded.

MBK is one of my favorite hangouts. Me and my friends would go to the sixth floor where the cinemas are located but not to see a movie.  We go there to eat at Sizzler’s Restaurant.

Although prices are relatively high in MBK I sometimes fancy to shop here because of the convenience of aircon considering Thailand is almost always hot. And if it rains I don’t worry about getting wet and walk on the puddles. On top of all of these MBK is accessible by MRT, the sky train, or by river taxi (boat) which is such a good thing because of the traffic condition in Bangkok.

Literally, Pratunam means watergate, but Pratunam is a common market place in Bangkok. A couple of days after I arrived in Thailand I was taken to Pratunam to exchange my money. That time the conversion was 1 Baht to 85 centavos. It wasn’t that bad considering that the peso-dollar rate was 52:1. So we went to Pratunam and I had never been in such a crowded place like that before. We had to inch our way through a very narrow aisle that’s so fully packed with shoppers on a typical Sunday morning. Pratunam is also the location of the current tallest building in Thailand.

Pratunam is a bargain market where many people come to buy especially clothes for all occassions.