FASHION DIARY: BKK Day 1

[Day 1] – Siam Paragon / The Club Khaosan

Oui Amphorn

Alexis Peplum shorts

First day in Bangkok, we still had not decided where to shop yet. So we went downstairs to the receptionist and asked for directions. There I met Oui, our hostel staff and I saw her wearing a peplum short. I was so inspired I asked her advice where should I shop and she suggested I shop around Siam Square.

Photo by HY Chan

Then we went out to get a taxi but we were offered a tuk tuk ride for 20 baht only to take us to Siam square with one condition, that on the way to Siam we take a stop to visit the tuk tuk sponsor which is Gem Production co. store.

So we stopped at that Gem store, they sell souvenirs from aromatherapy soaps, wallets, caps, bags, watches, to gem jewelries. We did a little shopping for cheap watches. After, the tuk tuk driver showed us that he got a stamp for gas by dropping us there. He said he could have gotten more had we shop for jewelries. I think that Gem store sponsors all the tuk tuks in Bangkok! Nice activity Gem store! After we finished our small shopping, we had to wait because it was raining. Take a look at these vehicles parked in the store garage. Can you tell what they are?

After the rain stopped, we’re back to our initial itinerary..shopping at Siam. But we didn’t drop by Siam square. We went to Siam Paragon mall instead.
In the mall, there were a lot of aromatherapy brands selling their product on floor displays. It seems like the aromatherapy business is big here. We had late lunch and finished much later around 4.30 pm. Damn such a long lazy lunch we had!

After lunch, we strolled into the department store. It was a HUGE one, I think I saw more brands than the ones sold in Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur or Singapore! Even the premium brands are sold in the department store in Bangkok. Not sure why everything was on SALE, even though their initial prices were higher than Singapore or Jakarta, my friend successfully bought 5 pairs of shoes while me, I just got two pairs of discounted Steve Madden. Also I found out this Frankie(I think?), the accessories brand, which I thought very edgy. But I can't find their website..how frustrating!

In a sudden we ended up with 6 big shopping bags, we were exhausted and dehydrated. A quick market visit to the supermarket made us realize that Bangkok is a huge market looking at their sales on big pack and multipack products. Bangkok is also a huge personal care market, not so sure about the market stage of the category.. but with so many varieties and range of products with par price points, I’m thinking it could be on saturated stage by now. How so advance! 

It made me recall that almost 10 years ago I went to Bangkok and discovered about Watsons (read about in on Wiki here) and they already sold cold strip wax cheaper than Singapore and Watsons were not there yet in Jakarta, not until 3 years later perhaps? And I still couldn’t find cold strip wax sold in Watsons Jakarta. Am I right or am I right? Anyways we bought 5 litres of bottled water because it’s the smallest one pack bottled water sold. A 5 lt which equals to 5 kgs, how heavy!

So since we got too much in our hand, we decided to take a break on a Japanese café called Bake a Wish. My take on this café, it serves delicious strong coffee and even more delicious cheese cake in just 90 baht? Yummy! 

It was already late and the mall was almost closes down when we saw Boots store whose celebrating their 15^th anniversary by the super deadly Buy 1 Get 1 promotion! And that was the first of our many Boots stops later. H-A-P-P-Y-!

We left the mall a little beaten by the bags, the shopping bags, and couldn’t stand for a long taxi queue so we decided to take a tuk tuk instead. It costs 70 baht from Siam to our hostel. We dropped our bags, took a shower, prepped up, and we’re ready to start the night.

We met Jonny and two Israeli guys, Leon and Amir, whom we shared a cab to Khao San road, the most popular backpacker hangouts. Jonny acted as our guide, led us to The Club Khaosan, where we met Keith, a staff of our hostel and also a Foursquare mayor of The Club. After the drinking (Jagerbombs with too many Red Bulls in it), dancing till the club closed at 3 am still not enough! The Red Bull was still raging inside us, so we took a walk and headed toooooo..a duck soup noodle hawker! Simply because the guys felt hungry. The funny thing, Leon followed me pouring out all of our soups onto my laps, how ridiculous. Filled with warm soups, we took a cab back to the hostel. And that my friend was how my night ended.

Read more about Moments captured on Bonjep's Lookbook!