Day 3 - MBK Madness

The morning call was set at 8.30am this morning since we weren't in any particularly hurry. We've been watching this mini-series on Star Movies the past two nights. It's pretty interesting though we hadn't heard of it before. It's called The Lost Room and it's... oh go read about it. It's a three parter, so we'll hopefully catch the last two hours tonight and see how it ends.

However, I bizarrely wake up at 5.30am and don't go back to sleep. I kill time by watching Friends reruns till daybreak. I make a mental note to catch more next time. Sitcoms are passe, true but we did have fun while they lasted. Nowadays, it's all Lost and Prison Break and CSI and not so much Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier. People are getting bored. They either simply stop following one day or buy the DVD boxset.

But I digress. Back to Thailand. Breakfast today is an improvement. There's samosa, fried bread and the porridge actually looks good. There's still a thousand and one kinds of sausage. No pineapple juice today, so Tian starts preaching on the goodness of watermelon juice. We eat our fill, then pick up our bellies and stagger downstairs to the lobby.

We enquire at the concierge/cum porter desk about places of interest within the vicinity. MBK? Check. Siam Centre? Check. Siam Paragon? Check. Central World? Check. The porter manages to tell us about Emporium which is like 5 train stops away (with some difficulty and lots of gesturing). My sis is excited to finally ride the Skytrain. She's been yapping about taking a ride since Day 1.

A single trip train ticket to Phrom Pheng (Zone 3) costs 25 Baht. That's about one Singapore Dollar. The train is packed, but mercifully not as crowded as the one going in the opposite direction. The people on board don't shove their way in and out either and show a strange quirk of giving their seats up for little children. At one stop, three little kids enter the carriage and the fastest one scrambles for an empty seat. Immediately, the lady beside him stands up and without a word, steers his brother into the seat, likewise another lady does the same for their sister opposite. No words are said at all, and the Indian mother doesn't even acknowledge it.

Emporium is still closed. It'll open at 10am but we're 15 minutes early. We can see the guard sitting on the other side of the locked entrance from the skytrain walkway. We walk down to ground level and take a walk around the building, ending up inside Emporium Suites, which is apparently some kind of workplace, where businesspeople scurry to and fro. I buy a Strawberry Smoothie from au bon pain which is like everywhere in Bangkok. I wonder what's the significance of it's name. Here comes the Pain?

It's finally 10am and we head in to the welcoming coolness of the building's interior. Looks like high end stuff on the ground floor too. It's open and spacious and Tian wants to window shop at ground level. I head for Level 3, where there are two bookstores, an Internet Cafe and a Sports shop for statters.

They actually serve cookies and coffee with your internet! Only for 100 Baht. I think I'll pass.

There's nothing much to be bought and we soon head back to the hotel for a breather, once more via the Skytrain. We'd originally planned to visit the Grand Palace but found out they close at 3.30pm. That's mighty early, isn't it? What are they going to do after? Scrub the floors?

We decide to give MBK another shot. Painful as it might be, we've still got stuff we want to buy. Bargain or no bargain, we're going in. We stop for lunch at a Japanese outlet called 8, which serves ramen which tastes like instant noodles. Thankfully, it's instant noodle affordable too.

We get some shirts and Tian buys a skirt or two she's been eyeing since the first visit. Unfortunately, negotiation isn't her forte. She shows the EQ of a wombat. Let me explain.

When the shopkeeper's fierce, she tends to make her offer sound like a question.

*Cue soft voice* "200 Baht?"

"No! 1000 Baht"

I tell her she needs to be firm so she tries it out.

Next stop is a Chinese snack store. She marches up to the counter.

"100 Baht!" She snaps. Sigh, I give up.

Tian misses her sunflowers back in Singapore.