The area around Siam Square has become the undisputed center for shopping in Bangkok. It stretches for a km or two from MBK-Center in the West to Central Chidlom in the East. Most, but not all, shopping malls and department stores are close the the skytrain stations of Siam Square and Chitlom.

While having the largest number of big shopping malls in Thailand, the area is not overly appealing. It would be, for example, not quite suitable to compare it with Orchard Road in Singapore. While you can pleasantly stroll along Orchard Road, the same can not be said for Rama I Road and Phloenchit Road in Bangkok. The reason, it looks so awful and depressing to be under the platforms and tracks of the skytrain system. While having obviously benefited Bangkok commuters, the design and aesthetic appeal of the skytrain pillars and tracks leave much to be desired. Maybe just in the area between Siam Square and Chitlom stations, the whole structure could be painted (at a price, we know) with some graffiti artwork thrown in.

We will start from MBK-Center and take you along Rama I Road and Ratchaprasong Intersection towards Central Chitlom.

MBK-Center is a multistoried building housing about 200 small shops and eateries. The upper floor is dedicated to big furniture outlets. It is located in the Southwestern corner of the Rama I-Phayathai Road Intersection. Since quite a few years now, MBK (still best known under its original name of MahBoonKhrong) must be the most visited shopping center in Bangkok. It is very popular with Thai people and caters definitively to the ‘common man and woman’. Products for sale include : clothes and fashion items, leather, jewelry, electronics, mobile phones, furniture etc. It also houses a 4-storey department store (Tokyu). You can easily reach MBK-Center by the skytrain : get off at National Stadium station, or stroll on the walkway from Siam Square.

[There is one big walkway up in the sky from Chitlom skytrain station up to National Stadium station, no need to walk at street level]
The Pathumwan Princess Hotel is housed within the same complex as MBK-Center, and offers a good location when you are on a shopping trip in Bangkok.

Coming from MBK-Center and crossing Phaya Thai road, you can enter Siam Square proper. Siam Square, located south of Siam Square skytrain station, features a few hundred mostly small shops. A few small streets intersect the various shopping areas, some of which are actually covered.

There are small restaurants, fruit drink bars, coffee shops. But Siam Square is best known for its apparel and fashion (mostly local Thai produce) outlets, that are very popular with Thai youngsters. As a matter of fact, you will hardly notice any ‘adults’ in this shopping area, but a lot of Thai teenagers and university students. Siam Square shopping area is actually located on land belonging to Chulalongkorn University.

Hard Rock Cafe is located on Siam Square Soi 11.

In the Siam Square area, you will also find the Chulalongkorn University Book Center. It is located in an office building, called WithayaKit, that is the single largest building on that side of Rama I Road, and located somewhat away from the main street. If you are looking for scientific books or computer related books, it is a good place to visit. Of course, most books are in Thai language.

Crossing Rama I road, opposite Siam Square, you find Siam Center and Siam Discovery Center. Besides regular shops, you can find Mc Donald’s, Starbucks, Au Bon Pain, Asia Books etc. in these low-rise shopping buildings. It is also the place where Thai teenagers come to see and be seen.

Next to Siam Center is the Siam Paragon, a giant new shopping complex. Walking further eastwards from Siam Paragon, you will pass an old but still active temple, located in the midst of all this urban development and shopping activity : Wat Pathum Wanaram. We recommend that you have a short walk inside the temple complex. There is not a lot to see, although the Ubosoth of Wat Pathum Wanaram is quite attractive. It is relatively quiet though inside the compound, and it is interesting to see all the structures surrounding the temple. Maybe a good place to sit for 15 minutes and have a bottle of water.

Leaving Wat Pathum Wanaram we have another giant shopping complex, Central World Plaza. The actual Central World Plaza is located on Rajadamri Road, and located a bit away from Rama I. It was originally named World Trade Center. Now with Siam Paragon almost next door, and the location of Central World Plaza somewhat away from the skytrain line (that is the location became less optimal), there is a lot of reconstruction going on at this moment and a whole new building is being constructed at the side of Rama I Road, and connected to the skytrain walkway. Central World Plaza is a multistoried very large complex and contains no less than two department stores : Zen (a Central Department store) and Isetan. Furthermore, there are lots of mostly large shops. The place is very spacious, but you will need to walk a lot if you do your shopping in there. During the colder months of the year (mostly november till february) the various breweries of Thailand, have large beer gardens in front of Central World Plaza, that are very popular. It is also a favored place to see in the new year at New Year’ Eve. Check out our recent review of Central World.

If you reach Central World Plaza, you actually reached what is called the Ratchaprasong Intersection. On the other side of Rajadamri Road, opposite Central World Plaza, there is a Big C to the left, and Naraphand, a shopping complex solely dedicated to Thai arts and crafts.

At the corner of Phloenchit Road and Rajadamri Road, you will find the very upmarket Gaysorn. Compared to Siam Paragon and Central World Plaza, it is small in size, but just to give you an idea of what is on offer, the following world known companies have outlets there : Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Gucci, Christian Lacroix, Dior, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, Celine, Emporio Armani, Burberry, Loewe, Mont Blanc, Ermanogildo Zegna, Moschino, Bulgari, Davidoff, Swarovski etc. When we visited the place one early evening, Gaysorn was mostly deserted, and there were possibly more security personnel than customers. But our guess is that it is a good place for celebrities and politicians to do their shopping, since the place is small, and can be much better secured than huge places like Siam Paragon and Central World Plaza.

Crossing Phloenchit Road from Gaysorn, there is the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, and two smaller long-established department stores, the Bangkok Erawan, and the Amarin. Walking on the same side of Phloenchit road as Gaysorn and going eastwards, we will come to Central Chitlom. Central Chitlom is very conveniently connected now to the Chitlom skytrain station, and is indeed very easy to reach nowadays. It can be called the flagship department store of the Central Group. Central Chitlom is another classy shopping center in the area, somewhat away from Siam Square. There are no less than 7 floors to wander through, and the complex also contains a large supermarket.

Thank : thaiwebsites.com

There used to be a very large shopping complex at Rajaprasong Intersection called World Trade Center. A few years back the property was acquired by the Central Group, the largest developer of department stores in Thailand. While World Trade Center was quite an adequate name, the shopping complex was renamed Central World Plaza, and lately seems to go under the abbreviated name Central World.

The shopping center has been renovated and expanded (works are still going on) and is being relaunched and rebranded as the largest lifestyle shopping complex in Southeast Asia. It is not quite clear that Bangkok needed an even more expanded Central World, but that is what we (and foreign visitors who come to shop) got. Besides the shopping experience, there is also an office complex, and an hotel under construction. One can not escape the impression that the management of the Central Group could not live with the success of its main competitor, the Mall Group, after they developed the successful Emporium Shopping Complex, and the recently (end 2005) opened Siam Paragon. Siam Paragon in particular got a lot of press as being the largest venue in town. Now, Central World can reclaim that accolade.

As said, under the name World Trade Center, this shopping complex has been around for quite a while, and the basic structure of the building could not really be altered. From the outside, Central World looks like a rectangular large box. There is not much beauty involved or architectural achievement. Admittedly there is still some construction going on between the skytrain and the main body of the complex, and from models available, this will make the structure a bit more eyecatching.

In front of Central World there is a large (by Bangkok standards) plaza. With New Year’s Eve (not in 2006 due to security problems) probably the largest gathering of Thai people can be seen there, seeing out the old year. Especially during the ‘cold’ season, the plaza turns into an enormous ‘beer garden’.

Central World can be accessed at ground level from Rajadamri Road. This certainly was not convenient enough and two connections were created towards the skytrain that passes the Rajaprasong intersection to its main station at Siam Square. There is a long walking way from Chitlom station to Siam Square on the skytrain platform. When coming from Chitlom (closest) and walking towards Siam Square, one can turn left into the ‘Sky Walk’ connecting with Central World.

The Sky Walk really has been an excellent idea. It runs (behind a glass wall) along the lenght of Central World, with a good view on one side of Rajadamri road and the traffic, and entries towards Zen Department Store, and Central World proper on the other side. Zen Department Store (Zen is a separate brand name for this Department Store, operated by Central) is the first store you can enter. On the opposite end of Central World is another Department Store, called Isetan. Isetan is part of a Japanese chain of department stores. Unfortunately, when walking from the skytrain into Central World, one is not provided with a small map or any other documentation that may help you in navigating this huge shopping mall. Some guidance is truly needed, otherwise within a few minutes, you will not have any idea as to where you are. Just remember that Zen is at the skytrain end as an orientation. Just get a little booklet with maps of the shops at ground level, before starting your exploration.

A booklet we obtained mentions that there are more than 500 shops at Central World, and no less than 50 restaurants. Famous international brands and Thai brands are well represented. Furthermore, there are quite a few smaller local brand outlets. Generally the stores are large. As is often the case in such a large shopping complex, Central World looks less than crowded, especially when you visit the upper floors.

Some highlights :
Supersports (really large shop) selling all kinds of sporting equipment and apparel is located on the 3rd floor. We are unhappy to report, that as many of its competitors, this shop does not sell regular standard bicycles, but only the ubiquitous mountain bikes.

Power Buy offering all kinds of electrical goods, is located one floor higher.
There is really big Toys R Us store on the 6th floor.

SFW World Cinema at the time of our visiting was not yet fully operational, and is located on the 8th floor.

The 7th Floor houses the Central Food Hall. This seems to be a crossbreed between a regular (with a lot of gourmet food) supermarket, and a standard food hall, with smaller outlets and restaurants where you can have a meal. If you only intend to shop for groceries, the location is not really ideal. As a guideline for prices, we noted that the Salad Bar sells salads at 18 baht per 100 grams. Comparative prices at other locations (Foodland 7 baht ; Tops 12 baht ; Emporium and Siam Paragon 25 baht).

B2S (Central brand) is located on the Isetan side of the shopping complex. We remember reading an article about how big a bookstore this was, so we needed to check it our, and came back rather disappointed. B2S is located on three floors (ground level to third floor). The ground level offers a good selection of music CDs, movie DVDs, and a True Internet Cafe. The second level offers mostly stationery. The third floor houses a large bookstore, though we did not have the impression it was larger than the Kinokuniya bookstore at Siam Paragon. However, if you are a book reader, we think you will not really be impressed.

There is a large collection of tabletop books (art and design, architecture, fashion, graphic design), travel books, computer books and the like, both in Thai and English language. However, literature left much to be desired. We saw a whole lot of John Grisham and Michael Connelly books, which is quite OK, but we failed to notice any interesting display of recent fiction and non-fiction. It looks like a statistical approach is followed in this store. See what is proven to be popular, then put hundreds of paperback copies of those books in store a few months later. Not exactly a store where you may go to have a look to see what’s new. In our opinion, the Kinokuniya Stores and even Asia Books have little competition to fear.

We did not fully explore either Zen Department Store or Isetan Department Store. Let’s just indicate that both of these department stores offer an upscale shopping experience, with Isetan more into Japanese products. Since October 2007, Zen also houses a branch of True Fitness.

Just a selection of brand names available at Central World :
Rolex, Swarovski, Tissot, Adidas Originals, Calvin Klein, Daniel Hechtler, FCUK, Liz Claiborne, Pena, Bata, Marks and Spencer, Apple Center, Guy Laroche, Playboy, Benetton, Chaps, Guess, Hush Puppies, Kipling, Morgan, Esprit, Giordano, Clarks, Nokia, AIS, DTAC, Starbucks, Auntie Anne’s, Toys “R” Us, Modernform, Panasonic, Dapper, Lacoste, Swatch etc.
[in our opinion, there are less shops, but the concentration of very well known apparel and fashion brands is higher at Emporium Shopping Complex]

Emporium is an upmarket Shopping Complex close to soi 24 on Sukhumvit Road. It consists of the Emporium Department Store and various retail outlets of famous brands. Emporium Shopping Complex started operating in 1997.
When entering the shop you will see shops of these brands all around you :
Cartier, Fendi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Chanel, Versace, Kenzo. Now, you are in Bangkok, but this is all the real stuff.

When entering, the retail stores are surrounding an atrium, 5 floors high. A corridor connects on the right hand connects to another area of retail shops. The Emporium Department Store itself is located behind the retail stores.

A weak point is that there is apparently no reception desk at the entrance. Neither are there any small maps available that may guide you through the rather big shopping center.

Besides the multiple fashion outlets (and a lot of people visiting Emporium seem to actually be wearing the stuff), there are other interesting shops.

On the third floor (around the main atrium) is a large Kinokuniya bookstore, offering only (and a lot of them) English-language books. For Japanese language books (and other languages) you will have to go to Kinokuniya bookstores at Isetan (Central World Plaza) or Siam Paragon. An Asia Books store is also located on the third floor.

Also on the third floor (to the right through the connecting corridor) you will find large Sony and Panasonic outlets. A large shop named Sportsmall, is located there also selling Nike, Adidas and Puma apparel and sportshoes.

Jim Thompson (high quality silk) is located on the 4th floor.

Let’s not forget the Emporium Department Store itself, offering even more brand names. The store itself is well laid out, with ample walking space.

A big section of the 5th floor is taken by Power Mall. Here you will find all kinds of televisions with plasma or LCD screens, besides other home appliances.
Towards the back of the 5th floor (above Emporium Department Store) there is a supermarket and a food court. The Gourmet Market is somewhat unluckily located on a top floor, but offers a wide selection of groceries at upmarket prices. Closeby you can also buy a variety of freshly made Thai desserts. The bakery at Gourmet Market is not up to standard. You better cross the road to Villa Market for bagels, and more tasty breads and rolls.

Emporium Wine Cellar is to be found adjacent to the supermarket. It is also a place where you can find pipe tobacco and cigars (though they can not be displayed anymore in Thailand). A food court called Park Foodhall offers better (and pricier) than average fast food. Starbucks is also located on the 5th floor.

The 6th floor of the Emporium Shopping Complex houses the Emporium SFX Cinema with about 6 movie theatres, offering recently released Hollywood films. There is also a large Garden Lounge, where you can have a coffee or soda.
The movie theatres are very comfortable, and one should know it is really rather cheap to watch movies in Bangkok. Last time I checked, the going rate was 140 baht for a ticket. Exiting the movie theaters at a time when the main store is already closed, is somewhat of a nuisance though. One is guided by elevator to the parking basement, and then it is a ‘dark’ walk to reach Sukhumvit Road. Emporium closes at 10 P.M., but some shops actually close earlier.

Emporium stands on its own. It is not located close to other major shopping complexes. But when looking for famous fashion brands, you may find them here. While not located between Siam Square and Central Chitlom, where most of the other fancy shopping complexes are located, it can easily be reached from there by the BTS skytrain in about 10 minutes. The skytrain station is directly connected to Emporium. Clearly the Emporium Shopping Complex seems to be the most upmarket shopping complex in Bangkok and Thailand. The even bigger Siam Paragon complex (same management) attracts surely more visitors nowadays, but Emporium is still attracting the fashion-conscious crowd.

Emporium Suites, offering luxuriously appointed accommodation, is connected to the Emporium Shopping Complex.

Thank : thaiwebsites.com

Siam Paragon operates since December 2005. It is a quite large shopping complex conveniently located at the Siam Square main skytrain (BTS) station. We go there about once a week, so the review of Siam Paragon featured below, is based on our day-to-day experience of visiting and shopping there.

Getting a full overview of Siam Paragon is rather difficult, since any view is obstructed by the awful skytrain pillars in front of the building. The entrance at street level brings you into the food court and within easy access to the Gourmet Supermarket. More convenient is the wide connection (really spacious) with the skytrain station. To move about the large shopping complex, you will find escalators in front of you. Walking about 100 meters in a rightward direction (follow the arrows) brings you to the elevators.

Siam Paragon has a basement (with food court, as mentioned) and as far as we could figure out 5 open floors. Each floor has retail shops (we do not quite know whether ‘retail’ is a proper word for some of the huge shops we saw) running parallel to the street, and access to a department store, called Siam Paragon Department Store, that is located towards the center and the back of the building.

Different levels at Siam Paragon
Ground Floor : Gourmet Market. Actually the Gourmet Market at Siam Paragon is about the size of a standard soccer field. It indeed has a lot of gourmet foods for sale, besides regular supermarket goods. Initially we were much impressed by the things on offer, and we considered the prices appropriate. A second visit a few weeks later made us realize that actually quite a lot of the gourmet stuff is rather pricey and more expensive than say at Emporium.

The bakery at Gourmet Market (operating under the name Le Boulanger) unexplicably is way below par (unless you like orange or pink colored sandwich bread). So if you buy an expensive salad (see below), you are advised to buy your rolls somewhere else.

A useful comparison is the salad bar which most supermarkets in Bangkok feature. Foodland sells at 10 baht/100 grams of salad, Tops Supermarket sells at 15 baht/100 grams and the Gourmet Market at Siam Paragon charges a whopping 25 baht (discounted to 20 baht)/100 grams. Of course, with higher prices come somewhat more exotic fruits and vegetables to choose from.

MF (Mezzanine Floor?) : Beauty Hall (the largest collection of perfumes and make-up stuff we ever encountered) – The Luxury
First Floor : Fashion Venue – The Lingerie Salon
Second Floor : Paragon Men – Sports Mall Global
Third Floor : Read & Write – Paragon Kids
Fourth Floor : Power Mall Ultra – Paragon Living

Hopefully just the names of the sections on the different floors, will indicate what and where to find the goods you are looking for.

Walking through the retail outlets at Siam Paragon we noticed the following :
Lots of food outlets at basement level : Subway, Auntie Anne’s, McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Au Bon Pain.
On the second floor we actually saw open showrooms for both Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari cars. Asia Books is also on the second floor.

Furniture outlets (among them a large S.B. Furniture shop) on the 3rd floor.

There is a Starbucks, much smaller than we would have anticipated, on the 3rd floor. There are 2 more Starbucks outlets in the complex, one located at Siam Paragon Cineplex.

IT City, our favored outlet for computers and computer accessories, has a large store on the 4th floor.

On the 4th floor there is also what is called ‘A passage to Asian Arts and Crafts’ with about 20 shops showing arts and crafts of Thailand and Asia.

The store that impressed us most (we are not at all impressed actually by luxury goods in general) was the huge Kinokuniya bookstore on the 3rd floor. Easily this store has more titles and more books in one place, than the combined total available at Asia Books stores in Bangkok. Kinokuniya store at Siam Paragon has different language sections. There is a large section for Thai, Japanese and English-language books. There are further smaller (but substantial section) for books in Chinese, French and German language. The bookstore also has a coffeeshop on the premises. Sudoku lovers will find a large collection of Sudoku books. Asia Books also has what must be its largest store in Bangkok (and Thailand) at Siam Paragon, but it can not really be compete with what Kinokuniya has to offer.

Siam Paragon has a few more interesting venues : Siam Opera is located on the 6th floor. Paragon CinePlex, KrungSri IMAX (movie theatres) are located on the 5th and 6th floors. There are 5 IMAX theatres and some 9 regular movie theatres. As most movie theatres in Bangkok, the seating is comfortable, the quality of the sound and pictures are excellent, and you get good value for money. Regular price tickets for movies are 140 baht. Do not go too lightly dressed, since the airconditioning at movie theatres creates a ‘freezer’ environment. [We suggest you go to the movies in Thailand during the weekdays, and preferably during the day time, you will have ample seating available] There is an exhibition and convention center, as well as an Edutainment Center on the 5th and 6th floor. CaliforniaWowX (Fitness Center) is located on the 4th floor. The basement of Siam Paragon houses the Siam Ocean World, containing some small and large aquariums.

Benefits of Siam Paragon :
The area between MBK Center and Central Chitlom was already the major shopping area in Bangkok. Siam Paragon has certainly reinforced that. Probably few people were actually waiting for yet another megastore, but now it is there and attracts a substantial number of visitors each day. The store is spacious, and it is rather comfortable walking around. The competition may not like it. Siam Paragon is well located and widely connected to the skytrain station. In the area, CentralWorld with Zen and Isetan, is the main competitor (for luxury shopping, much more people actually go the MBK Center, which offers more economically priced goods). Access from the skytrain is available to reach CentralWorld, but you will need to walk a bit. We do not know a lot about parking facilities at the different stores. But for walkers, and those of us who use public transport, Siam Paragon is easier to reach.
We doubt that yet another store like this is beneficial to the Thai growing middle class, who have yet another venue where to spend their hard earned cash (and/or get deeper in depth). Foreign tourists can be divided in two groups. Westerners can probably not really be impressed by it all, and most of them do not really come and travel to Thailand, in order to buy luxury goods. It is another matter when considering Asian visitors. A lot of Japanese, Chinese (including Hong Kong and Singapore residents) are prone to consuming luxury goods. So if they are even modestly priced lower than in their country of residence, Thailand as a whole (and Siam Paragon) may benefit from their purchases. The European companies who produce a lot of the so called luxury brands, will also be very pleased with yet another outlet for their goods.

Historical Context, Social Responsibilities?
It should be remembered that the present Siam Paragon is located on the premises of the old Intercontinental Hotel, which for many years was a landmark in Bangkok. The hotel was located in a small corner surrounded by a spacious green garden. This has now disappeared. We did not see any greenery at the present Siam Paragon (except of some palm trees in front), and it begs the question as to whether major developers should be forced to think also about the common good. As an example, we could say that all major construction works have to provide for enough available parking space. Likewise it would be a good idea if major developments would be expected to provide the presence of parks, greenery, children’s corners etc. at their premises.
The closest we get to nature at Siam Paragon is at Siam Ocean World. The entrance fee when we visited was 450 baht. We actually assumed entrance would be free as a service to attract more visitors to Siam Paragon.

Management
Siam Paragon is a joint venture between The Mall Group and BHIC (Bangkok Intercontinental Hotels Co.). Besides The Mall Department Stores, The Mall Group also operates Emporium Shopping Complex, Siam Discovery Center.

Thank : thaiwebsites.com