Bangkok has been known as the city with much similarity with Jakarta, though I might say it's totally different. One of the differences is that, Bangkok has been a super friendly city towards the tourist and it's no wonder that so many foreigners come to Bangkok to enjoy their leisure time and have much fun shopping and hopping around mall to mall.
This time, I would like to give you a short shopping vacation trip, maybe for you who wants to spend a day or two at Bangkok. We arrange this trip by ourselves and there is no tour guide at all. For transportation, we rent a van (Hi-Ace) which is rent for tourist with rent fee calculated per day for maximum 10 hours/day. The rental agency will charge for the overtime per hour. Based on what I've been discussing with our driver, Mr. Chai, he said that the van is being subsidized and arranged by the transportation department in the Ministry Department to help tourists in exploring the city, which sounds powerful to me. I really hope that our Governor and Minister to be able to transform Jakarta as a tourist destination and support the tourism industry more like Bangkok.
The van is enough for 9 person, but you have to consider if you bring much luggage, then the van can fit up to 7 people in the car comfortably. Our driver is very nice because he doesn't charge us for the overtime, though we still give him more for his super excellent service. Can you imagine that he is willing to wait for us for more than 6 hours of shopping and bring our shopping bags to the car?
After arriving in Bangkok, please be prepared as the immigration takes quite some time, same like Jakarta arrival section. Even us for Indonesia, we still have to wait. Though they did improve as the queue is not that long anymore and the staff did the job quickly. Spare 30 minutes for immigration and baggage waiting. Once you exit the immigration and take your luggage, there are few people who will offer you phone number with internet for your stay. They will usually sell for 300 THB or around Rp 120.000,- for unlimited data for 7 days.
So, the first and second day were spent for shopping. Maybe you will ask me where we are going for that much of shopping. Then I could tell you, it's Platinum Fashion Mall in Pratunam area. This mall is like Mangga Dua but in a more sophisticated way. You can start exploring from 5th floor, as 6th floor is the food court if you are tired and hungry, you could always go there. They sell everything which you can just spend the day there.
For fashion hunting, I think it was best if you start as early as possible because this mall is quite big and you need at least two days to finish all floors there. FYI, Platinum opens from 10am in the morning till 7pm at night. So, be prepared! You can also bargain for price in Platinum as they sell the clothes in wholesale price, thus, you get cheaper price if you buy in wholesale (more than 3 pieces). Some of the shop owners is very cocky and arrogant, so don't get shocked when they don't really welcome you. From what I learnt, I think that's because they can't understand English...too bad...they should have learnt about that since the Nation has opened their door widely for foreigners. Though in the end I found a shop in UG floor with handsome owner who seems intelligent enough and can understand what I need.
