Bangkok's amazing MBK centre
MBK Centre - Bangkok
One of the many delights of Bangkok is the world class worldfamous brand name goods to the knock off counterfeit products, Bangkok has it
all, plus the weird and the wonderful things that only Thailand can offer.
Depending on your budget and your tolerance for the near 100 % humidity, everyone will have a favourite place to go shopping in Bangkok. I'm going to cover the main places that most tourists should see while in the Big Mango as it is affectionately known by the locals.
The most popular area for shopping in Bangkok is definitely
Siam. When I talk about Siam area this includes Siam Square, MBK, Siam
Discovery, Siam Centre and Paragon. It is the fashion centre of Bangkok with
thousands of hip Thai university girls milling around. There is definitely something for
everyone in this area!
We'll start at MBK. This is a Gigantic 7 floor shopping
centre comprising of lots of fake and genuine goods. It's most well known for
its fake goods though, such as DVDs, Computer and Console games, watches,
football shirts and jeans. One of the rules of shopping in MBK is if it hasn't
got a price tag, then you can bargain to get a better deal. Some shops start
with a ridiculously high price ( especially if you are a foreigner ) in the
expectation of the customer knocking the price down. It pays to shop around and
find out some prices from various places because you can guarantee there will
be loads of shops dotted around selling the same things.
DVD movies and games. They are all roughly the same price and quality. Most of the latest movies are poor quality copies but the older ones are all perfectly good and for 100 baht or less it's a pretty good deal. Pirate PC, Play station, Xbox and Nintendo games can all be purchased in the same area. They are all perfect has been modified to play them. If you buy anything that comes on a DVD, you pay first, then receive a ticket, then have to wait around 10 minutes for someone to run and get your purchase from an unknown location !! Don't worry, this is common practice. Another strange thing is that if you arrive on a certain day, all of the shops selling DVDs and games will be shut and covered over! This means that a police inspection is due to be carried out and the sellers have been tipped off!! As the expats say T. I. T. (This is Thailand)!!
Apart from the thousands of shops, MBK is also home to a
multitude of restaurants that cater to people from all around the world.
Tourists missing their home country food c
an delight in McDonalds, KFC and
Pizza Hut, while those wanting to try some more exotic food can delight in
Japanese, Chinese, Korean or Thai to name but a few. The prices aren't too bad
and it's a lot cleaner than the street food outside!
All in all, MBK is a great place to spend a day. There is so much to look at, even if you're not buying. There will be a restaurant to suit
everyone and there is also a world class cinema complex on the top floor showing all the newest movies in English. If you're going to Bangkok make sure you set aside at least one day for MBK.
If you're going to spend any time in Bangkok, we recommend the Lonely Planet 'Bangkok City Guide' It's got all the information and maps you need for getting around Bangkok.
