Scenes From a Mall

[fauxklore]

One of my friends, who has traveled a lot in Asia, considers Bangkok to be essentially a giant shopping mall. I now understand why. The shopping malls and department stores here are even huger than the ones in Tokyo.

There are, however, a few things you can't get - primarily food items. I enjoy going into the food halls at the big stores and malls to see what is for sale and they are, alas, deficient in the soft drink department. There is probably some wonderful Thai soft drink I am missing, but they do not sell chinotto, Schweppes bitter lemon, Stoney ginger beer, or Kirin white soda. Not that I particularly want any of those, but I was curious. (You can buy bitter lemon, however, at convenience stores in Cambodia, but not at either of the supermarkets I looked in there.)

I did do some actual shopping, by the way. I saw a needlework store and, while there is no local yarn, there are local cross-stitch canvases. And then there are minimonsters. I don't think I'd ever seen these before but they are the most adorable little dolls. I limited myself to three, but it was hard to.

And, oh, yeah, I also ate some good spicy food and went to the aquarium. The latter did not have any leafy seadragons, alas, but did have glass catfish which are my second favorite fish in the world. What makes them cool is that they are transparent, so you can see their bones and swim bladder. There was other cool things there, but I have to save some things for my eventual travelogue.

Tomorrow is cooking class in the morning, with plans for sightseeing in the older part of the city in the afternoon.

Comments

[piefessor.livejournal.com]

I should have asked you this YEARS ago, but if you ever spot boxes of macaroni and cheese anywhere, can you bring them back for me? You can empty them if you want, my husband just collects the boxes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbJxROk7X4Q

[fauxklore]

I will try to keep this in mind. I suspect, though, that most overseas mac and cheese is imported from the U.S. along with peanut butter and Kellogg's corn flakes.

[piefessor.livejournal.com]

I think we have boxes from Mexico and France! Heh.