July 12, 2017. Asia's "Mall of America", only better!

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Bangkok, Thailand

WEATHER:  Hot and humid.  Rained during the night.  Highs 95

 

Our cat is still in the pet hospital; we are waiting to hear from the homeowner about picking him up.  

So, we had the day free again to go exploring.  Today's destination was Siam Paragon, labelled the "best mall in Asia".  

It is quite elegant.

I was glad to see these middle Eastern shoppers as the stores need lots of business to keep open!  

There are many of these indoor malls around town.  This is how our guidebook described it....The high end shopper’s paradise, a hugely popular shopping mall that houses many different shops for high-end fashion designers, Southeast Asia’s largest aquarium, a huge multiplex cinema and enough restaurants to feed you for a life time. There are over 250 shops inside the mall, most of which are frequented by the well-heeled Thai’s and foreigners. Various car manufacturers including Ferrari and Lamborghini also have showrooms within the complex so if you have deep pockets you are sure to find what you are looking for.

 

First up was lunch.  We went to the ground floor which is entirely made up of restaurants, anything you can dream of.  We ate in a Thai one --- their famous curry.  This one is green curry with crab with Thai vermicilli and vegetables.  We weren't sure if you are supposed to eat the leaf or not, but we did!  

Each floor has a theme.  One floor had luxury cars - Masaratti, Porsche, Bentley, Rolls Royce, etc.

Another floor had jewelery and leather high end shops.  They must be doing well as this Louis Vuitton shop had a line outside its door...

One floor was dedicated to technology; another one clothing; another one perfumes; another one furniture, etc.  

We're not sure if we even saw all of it.  We took the escalator up to the top and found an entire floor full of Japanese restaurants!  All busy! 

 

I read that these malls are a phenomenon that have created community spaces for the Thais, partly due to their air-conditioning.  This day care group was having a field trip.  So cute!

 

 

Shopping is so tiring!  We left the mall, only to encounter two more malls just like it across the street!  This one had some odd architecture....

After seeing so much delicious-looking Japanese food at the mall, we decided to go out to a neighborhood Japanese restaurant for dinner.  Initially, we were looking for sushi, but stumbled upon this yaki-tori restaurant.  We loved eating yaki-tori when we lived in Japan.  It is chicken skewers cooked on a special grill along with anything else you can think of to go on a skewer.  (In Japan, whole grilled crispy baby sparrows were quite popular).

We had various chicken parts - gizzard, liver, breast, neck, and unidentifiable body parts.  All very tasty.  This restaurant is also a sake liquor store.

We tasted two different sakes.

A very nice evening!  

 

Back home, we spoke with the homeowner, and we'll be able to pick up Bronson our cat from the vet tomorrow.