Bangkok - Day Two

Today I got to see firsthand what 5-10% annual GDP growth rate translates into. I started out the day by returning to the general area near MBK (the seven story shopping mall/food court) to explore. Caddy corner to MBK is a monstrous and luxurious six story building called the Siam Paragon. I read in my guide book that despite the upscale nature of Siam Paragon, the food court is inexpensive and really good. I entered the shopping mall to discover another monstrous food court serving every type of food imaginable for about $2-5 a meal. The entire food court looked like a luxurious restaurant with modern white chairs, fish tanks, and blueish lighting. Attached to the food court was a gourmet grocery store and incredible bakeries.

However, my true shock came when I walked around the shopping center further. The luxury of the food court paralleled the most upscale restaurants in the United States. However, the rest of the six story complex held every designer label imaginable. The mall like nothing I have ever seen in terms of luxury and fanciness; there is nothing even close in the U.S.  and one could easily spend $20,000 on one day's outfit. I probably walked around with my mouth half wide in shock. At the top of the mall was an iMax and regular movie theater, and the basement held a full aquarium where one can scuba dive with sharks.

After leaving Siam Paragon, I walked another block and was shocked to find another one of these luxury shopping mall complexes! In fact, there were two more within another two blocks, albeit less luxurious. The rapid economic growth combined with a lot of foreign investment and international consumerism has really made Thailand boom. I can say with certainty that one can get anything here that is available in the United States, but the opposite is not true.

I also had a meeting with the Vice President of PDA to get acquainted with the organization and talk a little about how I can be the most helpful. He actually got his Master's in Public Health at UNC, so I was comforted by a local Tar Heel. PDA is one of the largest NGO's in Thailand and is extremely well established. They have both domestic and international programs that run on a really large scale. Beginning as a HIV/AIDS prevention organization, the World Bank estimated that seven million lives were saved from HIV/AIDS through the intensive public education and prevention program designed and introduced to the public through PDA. Now PDA does everything, including corporate social responsibility and rural microcredit. I will be heading out pretty soon for Lamplaimat, a rural town close to the border of Cambodia to work in a school set up by PDA and help local organizations with sustainability and fundraising.

After my meeting, I decided to walk and explore the opposite direction that I typically have been going and came across another small albeit extremely luxurious shopping complex. On a spur of the moment decision, I bought a ticket for Angels and Demons. 

Upon returning, I decided to give street food a try. There is an abundance of street vendors everywhere in Bangkok, but tourists face two challenges in regards to street food. The first is that the food is sometimes kept out longer and more likely to give an unaccustomed visitor food poisoning. The other problem is that it is extremely difficult to actually know what you are getting. The street vendors market to locals, so there typically aren't menus and the vendors don't speak much English. But, I found a place close to my room that offers a variety of dishes for about $1-2 per meal. It was actually much more flavorful than some of the other meals that I had and less than half the price. I definitely will be going back soon!