Shopping Centre shopping in Bangkok
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A
Mahboonkrong (Mbk)
This unbelievably immense shopping mall is quickly becoming one of Bangkok’s top attractions. Half of the city filters through the glass doors on weekends, stutter-stepping on the escalators, stuffing themselves with junk food or making stabs at individualism by accessorising their mundane school uniforms with high slits or torturous heels. You can buy everything you need here: mobile phones, accessories, shoes, name brands, wallets, handbags, T-shirts. The middle-class Tokyu department store also sells good-quality kitchenware.
The 4th floor resembles something of a digital produce market. A confusing maze of stalls sell all the components to send you into the land of …
reviewed
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B
Siam Paragon
Paragon epitomises the city’s fanaticism for the new, the excessive, and absurd slogans. The ‘peerless’ venue is the second-largest mall in Southeast Asia, sprawling over 500,000 sq metres, and is a showcase for luxury retailers, like Van Cleef & Arpels and Mikimoto, who had not previously had a pedestal in the country. There’s a Lamborghini dealer on the 2nd floor should you need a ride home, and one floor up a True Urban Park ‘lifestyle centre’ featuring a cafe, internet access and a shop selling books, music and camera equipment. Bookworms will fancy Kinokuniya (3rd floor), the largest bookstore in Thailand, as well as an expansive branch of Asia Books (2nd…
reviewed
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Central World
Spanning eight stories of more than 500 shops and 100 restaurants, Central World is one of Southeast Asia’s largest shopping centres. But it suffered a huge setback in May 2010 when its centrepiece Zen department store was torched by fleeing protesters. Other parts of the complex were largely unaffected, but at press time the specifics of the reconstruction had yet to be announced. We hope that, in addition to a new Zen, the mall’s funky F section and Thai Knowledge Park, a multimedia library meant to cultivate reading and learning habits in children, will be operating as normal by the time you read this.
reviewed
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C
Siam Center & Siam Discovery Center
These linked shopping malls are surprisingly subdued, almost comatose compared with frenetic Mahboonkrong. Thailand’s first shopping centre, Siam Center was built in 1976 but, since a recent nip and tuck, hardly shows its age. Its 3rd floor is one of the best locations to check out local labels such as Fly Now, Senada Theory and Tango.
In the attached Siam Discovery Center, the 4th floor continues to be a primary outpost for the Thai design scene. Panta creates modern furnishings and objets d’art out of uniquely Asian materials, such as water hyacinth and bamboo. Bangkok-based French designer Gilles Caffier and his store, 2 Gilles Caffier, sells hand-beaded vases, p…
reviewed
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D
Gaysorn Plaza
A haute couture catwalk, Gaysorn has spiralling staircases, all-white halls and mouthfuls of top-name designers. The 2nd-floor ‘Urban Street Chic’ zone is a crash course in the local fashion industry. Established Thai labels including Tango, Fly Now and Stretsis have outlets, or you could head over to Myth, an umbrella store for smaller domestic labels.
Stores on the 3rd floor offer the same level of sophistication for your home. Thann Native sells locally inspired soaps and shampoos fragrant enough to eat. The open-air D&O Shop is the first retail venture of an organisation created to encourage awareness of Thai design abroad.
In addition to shops, Gaysorn also offer…
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E
Siam Square
It doesn’t look like much, just an ageing open-air shopping area divided into 12 soi (lanes), but Siam Sq is ground zero for teenage culture. Pop music blares out of tinny speakers, and gangs of hipsters in various costumes ricochet between fast-food restaurants and closet-sized boutiques. Digital Gateway, a new and imposing mall, stocks everything electronic, from computers to cameras. DJ Siam carries all the Thai indie (like Modern Dog) and T-pop albums you’ll need to speak ‘teen’. Small shops peddle pop-hip styles along Soi 2 and Soi 3, but most outfits require a barely-there waist. Centerpoint plugs in on weekends with concerts from the latest bands, b-boys (b…
reviewed
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F
Central Chidlom
Central is a modern Western-style department store with locations throughout the city. This flagship store, Thailand’s largest, is the snazziest of all the branches. The ground floor carries all the big names in cosmetics, with eager perfume spritzers and the token ladyboy sales agent who pulls off blush better than those born with XX chromosomes. Foreigner-sized clothing is one of the shop’s strengths. The helpful sales staff will bluntly steer you to slimming colours and relatively huge sizes to fit your sturdy frame. A decent selection of English-language books and magazines, not to mention stationery and music, is available at B2S on the 7th floor.
reviewed
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Promenade Arcade
A low-key but noteworthy stop, Promenade Arcade shelters several of Bangkok’s influential décor designers. On the 2nd floor, Gub features the creations of ML Chiratorn Chirapravati and Kongpat Sakdapitak; the pair, along with other like-minded designers, have created a bright, irreverent world of lamps, chandeliers and paintings, and their showroom is like a thrift store on acid. Sakul Intakul, the acclaimed floral designer, displays his flower vessels (that’s a ‘vase’, kiddo) that bring couture to home arrangements.
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H
Emporium Shopping Centre
Once Bangkok’s most chichi shopping centre, Emporium is finally starting to show its age. The ground floor is filled with Euro fashion labels, like Prada, Miu Miu and Chanel. The 2nd floor is more casual, with homegrown contenders, such as Soda, which has snipped punk into haute wear, and image-maker Greyhound. Staid Jim Thompson even gets a facelift with its branch here. On the 3rd floor, indigenous kitschy-cool gifts and home decor can be found at Propaganda.
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I
Erawan Bangkok
Bangkok’s chichi crowd has a new stomping ground: the shopping wing of the Erawan Hotel. Luxury matrons occupy the 1st floor, while street-smarts chill on the 2nd floor, fusing the generation gap with a shared closet. The top floor is a dedicated wellness centre, should conspicuous consumption prove hazardous to your health. The ladies who lunch can often be found in the basement-level Urban Kitchen or the 2nd-floor Erawan Tea Room.
reviewed
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Baan Silom
This open-air colonial-style shopping centre is the art-school kid brother of Bangkok malls. Changing exhibitions of contemporary art can be taken in at La Lanta Fine Art, and ultra-funky Thai-designed necklaces, rings and bracelets are available at Kit-Ti’s Jewellery. Art and design books are available at a branch of B2S.
reviewed
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K
River City Complex
This multistorey shopping centre is an all-in-one stop for old-world Asiana. Several high-quality art and antique shops occupy the 3rd and 4th floors. Old Maps & Prints offers one-of-a-kind rare maps and illustrations, with a focus on Asia. Although the quality is high, the prices are too, as many wealthy tourists filter in and out. Many stores here close on Sunday.
reviewed
