Over the past week I’ve been talking about my trip to Bangkok on a daily basis, touching upon the memorable, the mundane and the surprising! We are down to the last two days!
Day 5: Walking in the rains, bits about shopping and Reflections a plenty!
The second last day of my trip begin with little sleep and another early ‘work’ morning, but a few hours later I was done. One of the nicer things about this trip has been the lovely weather in Bangkok. Unlike its usual tropical heat, the last week has been filled with sporadic rain and cloudy skies, which has made it an absolute pleasure to walk around in the streets. 
Whenever I am travelling abroad, one of the my favorite past times is to put on my headphones, turn on my music and just randomly start walking in the city. It gives me a lovely flavor of the dynamics of the people and the heartbeat of the city. It’s also strangely relaxing… my love for music and walking combined! So today when I decided to do my music/walking session, the fact that it was drizzling slightly (as a result of which the traffic was totally gridlocked) helped in no small means for me to make up my mind. 
With the traffic gridlocked, the public transport system was more full than usual, but no amount of waiting in lines to get change for money or to get tickets for the SkyTrain from a ticket machine (which suddenly decided to stop working) frustrated the people around. The Thais seem remarkably patient and mellow people.
Needless to say it was a brilliant walk in the lovely slightly chilly breeze, with the drizzling rain and the shiny drenched streets.
Some of the songs in my playlist were Gotye’s Heart’s a Mess (from the Great Gatsby OST this is a song that has been in my ear throughout this trip),Titanium, Daft Punk’s Digital Love, U2’s the Fly, Franz Ferdinand’s Ulysses and Calvin Harris’ Sweet Nothings to name a few.
A bit about shopping in Bangkok (and I’m just going to put in the places which I feel serve a certain purpose, not necessarily all the places to go to in Bangkok): in my first post I wrote about Chatachak, and that is certainly a very nice place to buy trinkets, artifacts and actually all sorts of things. From handmade stationery and bags, to floating lanterns and candles and even shoes; this is a good place for varying tastes. If you want to visit night markets, the one in Nana which I wrote about in my post from yesterday is one, and another one (possibly the most famous one) is Patpong. Now the thing about Patpong is that it is essentially the red light area of the city, but there is a thriving night market where you can get some very nice stuff rather cheap. Things that stand out are oil paintings and masks. Both Patpong and Nana’s Arab street stay up after 11.30, so good place to go in the night.
If you want to buy branded items, then the Siam Paragon is the place to be. Almost any brand that you would like to get your hands on, you can find it here; but my suggestion would be to look up the location of the brand’s shop within the mall first online because the mall is humongous and very easy to get lost in. This mall also has the biggest Cineplex in Bangkok, including the IMAX 3D and a 4D cinema, so worth a visit for sure if only to window shop. If you want to buy cheaper items , including t-shirts, clothes, shoes, bags or even electronics, then visit the MBK mall. You can find some very nice discounts here, and branded stuff as well as knock offs. But the key is to have a good eye for what you’re buying.
Speaking of the 4D cinema, I ended my day with a visit to the said and it proved to be quite an interesting experience. The cinema has chairs that move, lights in the theatre that spark, smoke effects, water spraying onto you, and even a kick from the back when someone was stabbed! Fantastic… although the 3D is not as good as the IMAX one. The movie we saw was Percy Jackson 2, and the little I say about it the better. Suffice to say the only reason I saw it was to experience the 4D.
Finally, one of the themes of this trip in terms of what I wanted to do and what’s been talked about at a number of places in a number of situations (life has a way of connecting experiences and coincidences) has been personal reflection. A trip is a brilliant means to move away from your life and it’s good and bad… a great way to gain perspective and to find out what the bigger picture is. It gives you a chance to consider what’s working for you and what’s not, what you want to take with you and what you want to leave behind. Its a great way of letting go of excess baggage. Reflection in turn is the way to go towards the everlasting journey of finding yourself.
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