I was down there yesterday to do some shopping and was suprised to see loads of bikes and biking equipment around the mall. After a closer look it turns out it is the Bangkok Motorbike Festival 2011.

As well as there being loads of cool bikes from the past and the future there were loads of models ‘promoting’ the bikes and even more guys with massive cameras taking photos of them!

There were stands from BMW, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Pirelli, Suzuki, Triumph, Yamaha, Honda plusloads more. There were also loads of biking gear displays with lots of motorbike helmets that looked a lot safer than the ones you find in Thai shops! If you are looking for a proper motorbike helmet this would be a good place to come. They even had baby’s and children’s motorbike helmets which seem to be in short supply in Bangkok judging by the amount of babies and kids you see on motorbikes without even a hat for protection!

During the day the action takes place inside the mall but after 4pm there are outdoor activities such as live music and a beer garden which runs unitl 11pm. I didn’t hang around to see if there were any races. Seeing all those motorbikes in a Bangkok shopping mall did conjure up images of Jackie Chan’s Police Story film which culminates in a massive car and motorbike chase in a department store.

• Location: Central World department store
• Dates: Wednesday January 26 to Sunday January 30 2011
• Time: 10.00 AM to 10.00 PM (Indoor) 4.00 PM to 11.00 PM (Outdoor)
• Website: www.thailandmotorbikefestival.com

To celebrate this one of the malls in Bangkok, Central Rama 3, is holding a dog fashion show at the moment called Dog Street where you can see the best (or worst) examples of Bangkok dogs.

It is free to get in and far from the red shirt action so if you are bored pop down and see how the other half live.

I arrived at about 9am but soon discovered that none of the malls open until 10am.  Once I had realised this I headed to the nearest Starbucks, of which there are many in this area, for a resbsite from the heat and humidity.  The air con in Starbucks always seems to be turned up to 11 which out here is always nice.  I had a Caramel Frapacino and a Tuna sandwich which cost about the same as back home.  There were a few other farang in the cofffee shop waiting for the malls to open and sheltering from the morning sun.  The Starbucks I was in was part of the same building as the Mah Boon Krong mall or MBK mall as it is more commonly known, and once it past 10am we could exit through the back of Starbucks directly into the mall.

After having a look around MBK I left and used the elevated walk way which connects most of the malls to have a look at the Siam Discovery Centre mall.  This was a much more smaller and modest mall with stalls and smaller shops.  I had a quick look around before heading back out in the morning heat.  Next up was the Siam Centre mall.  This one had lots of shops from western brands like FCUK, Nike, Levis, Boots and many other big names you would find back on the UK highstreets.  This was a much more modern and posher mall than the previous two and there was a good selection of restarunts on the top floor.  After a look around I left and crossed the courtyard that seperates this mall with its neighbour and heading into the massive Siam Paragon mall.  This mall looked like the biggest and grandest so far and according to my guide book is the biggest in South East Asia.  Siam Paragon is much more upmarket and on one of the lower floors has shops from all the major electronics brands like Sony and Samsung selling their top-line products.   There is also a massive department store inside this mall which is a bit like the Oxford Street branch of Selfridges.  There is a great bookshop on one of the upper floors which has lots of English language books and magazine and is where I got my Nancy Chandler maps (which I highly recommend).  Books in Bangkok tend to be the same price or a bit more than they do back in England.  On the other floors there were lots of sports shops selling amongst other things lots of golf clubs and there were also a few car showrooms from Audi, Lamorgini, Aston Martin and Lotus.  There was also a large branch of the California Wow gym chain and like most other malls a multi-screen cinema on the top floor showing films in English and Thai languages.

The food courts in the Siam Paragon mall are on the bottom floor and there are many places to eat down there including McDonalds and KFC.  If you want to eat from the main food hall you must buy credit which is loaded on to a plastic card which you hand the food vendor of which they then deduct the cost of you meal from.  Once you have finished return you card to where you got it and get a refund of any money not spent.  The cards only last for one day so you can’t put a load of credit on them and then reuse them which makes them seem a bit pointless.  The other food vendors in the food court do not take the card.  This means you must first look for what you want, then go and queue up to get a card, go and get your food and then queue up again to get the unspent credit on your card.  The food was pretty cheap coming in at about £2 per main course and the first meal I had was very nice.

After my lunch at Siam Paragon I headed back out into the midday heat and got on the Skytrain home.  There are a few other malls there such as the massive Central World and the Pratunam Centre which I will check out on a future visit.

The malls are definitely worth checking out as they are bigger and better than anything I have seen in the UK although if you are looking for a bargain you won’t find it here with prices the same or higher than in the UK (apart from the food).