This past weekend I ventured into a couple of the malls here in Bangkok, and was more than a little overwhemled. I don't really know if I would call them malls really. Or shopping for that matter. The malls are more like cities, and the shopping is more like a marathon sporting event. The smallest of the centers we went to was called the Emporium. This mall only had 6 floors. With stores like Prada, Gucci, Sony, & Calvin Klein you can shop 'til you drop; most likely you will. The strangest thing we saw was on the top floor of the Siam Paragon mall there are Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley, Maseratti, and Porsche dealerships! This is utterly insane if you ask me. How many people go to the mall and end up leaving with a $500,000 car? 
The other thing that is quite unusual is the number of people in the stores. The average salary for a Thai native is about 10,000 Baht per month (about $260), so I really didn't think that they would be purchasing $1500 Armani suits. When you walk around the malls, yes they are quite packed, however there is no on actually in the stores. Everyone is just sort of wandering around. I don't know if they're just trying to keep cool or what, but it's an amazing thing to see.I guess all of these high end shops are for farangs (foreigners). And with the numbers of stores, Bangkok must have a booming tourist trade. That was our experience of this past weekend.
