The MBK centre during the day. It's big!

The MBK centre during the day. It’s big!

There’s one place in Thailand that we keep coming back to –Bangkok. It started off because that’s where it was easiest to fly in to. And so we’d often break the journey up with a day or two in Bangkok after flying in and before flying out (which we had to often do anyway, because of the time of our flights. So we got to see Bangkok semi-regularly.

Regardless of where in Thailand we go – like down south to Krabi – we always look forward to our Bangkok stopover.

Our Favourite Thing to Do

There’s lots of things to do in and around Bangkok, and shopping is one of them. The city has some great shopping plazas. The biggest is MBK. We’d go there all the time as it had loads of cheap shops that even sold clothes big enough for us, which not all of them do. Plus there was so much else on offer – cheap but good food, entertainment, cheap electronics accessories, lots to do.

If we were flying home though Bangkok we would come here for a day before flying out and stock up on all sorts of things that were cheaper there than back home. Basic medicines, shampoos, kids clothes, phone cases and accessories -all were cheaper here than at home and we’d made sure we had a large amount of room left in our suitcases to fit it all in.

Staying There

MBK is so big it even has its own hotel! The Pathumwan Princess Hotel is built right on top of the shopping centre and you don’t even need to go outside to get between the two- there’s an entrance to the hotel from the top level. It’s a luxury hotel, so not super cheap and we have yet to try it out (rather spend all our money shopping), but if you’re keen to shop till you drop then it is well worth a look.

Getting There and Away

It is easy to get to MBK. To get their via the BTS go to the National Stadium station, it has walkways right into MBK. Every tuk-tuk and taxi driver will know where to go as well. How much that costs depends on where you’re coming in from.

There’s a taxi rank out one of the main entrances for when you want to head home. Sometimes the queues can be really (really) long so we often go to the main road and try and hail a passing empty one.

Where To Go

What are you after? If it is clothes then try level three, where there are a number of small clothes stalls set up like a street market on one half of the floor. The quality varies from stall to stall but there are some good prices. Proper clothes shops on this level tend to sell more expensive clothes but very good quality. The main issue is that they do not always have larger sizes.

For electronics, level 3 is also the place to go. There’s lots of good priced accessories here and things like USB memory sticks can be had for good prices. You can buy Android and Windows based tablets and phones but depending on the exchange rate the price might not be enough to make up for a lack of warranty and other support. Software, games, and DVDs – real copies and fakes – can be bought for cheap as well. Counterfeit software might have viruses in them, though, so be careful.

And for food, try the hawker centre at the western end of level 5. You buy coupons and then pay for food using them. Dishes are very cheap (from just 40 baht) and there is a big range of choices. For more fast and western food, head to level 7.