It is Saturday afternoon and it was decided to have a family outing to the cinema. The 3D Imax at the Siam Paragon mall was showing a quaint pastoral movie whose plot could be summed up as “Boy meets Smurf; Boy Loses Smurf; Boy Finds Smurf Again”. Or, if your prefer a more visual description, think Lord of the Rings with helicopter gunships. In fact, we had high hopes for a 3D version of Dances With Smurfs (sorry, Avatar) on a screen 50 feet high but first we had to find it in an enormous mall that makes Southampton’s West Quay look like a 1980’s Pakistani corner shop. We rose through an infinity of criss-crossing glass moving stairways that would have even a Hogwart’s veteran confused. The PA system continually screamed out incomprehensible messages (“babblebabblebabble KAAAA; babblebabblebabble KAAAA; babblebabblebabble KAAAA”) presumably exhorting us to by vacuum cleaners at 5% discount (not that any sane person could find the right store in this chaos). The girls queued up for tickets for the 2 o’clock show; the boys sat on a sofa watching the world reel by. An hour later they returned: no seats for the 2 o’clock, no seats for the 5 o’clock . . . Did we want seats for the 2340 hours showing? Now, on reflection we should have anticipated this because a) there was only one or two Imax cinemas in a city of 20 million fun loving people, b) it was a Saturday afternoon, and c) it was Kids Day in Bangkok. I’m still not sure what that meant but it definitely required everyone to produce one or more children plus push chairs, dress up in giant teddy bear costumes, and jam up every means of transport imaginable. Nerves jangling (“babblebabblebabble KAAA”), at least for those of us of a particular gender and age (like: male and over 50), we finally escaped this evilTardis and went to find a cheap Thai street café for lunch. A litre of beer and excellent crispy sea bass and spring roll meal for just over a pound later, we felt much better. Well, some of us did; some of us missed the 50 foot Smurfs.
Sunday, January 10
Bangkok on a Saturday afternoon
Okay, I lied. The rain stopped and we all went down to Soi 11 to the Tapas Restaurant (yes, Ginge, I would eat all sorts of food in all sorts of countries -- I fully intend to eat my way around planet Earth without even leaving Bangkok at these prices, something I couldn’t afford to do at home). Excellent spread of grub although the gouty twinge in my knee the next day indicated I concentrated too much on the spicy meatballs.
It is Saturday afternoon and it was decided to have a family outing to the cinema. The 3D Imax at the Siam Paragon mall was showing a quaint pastoral movie whose plot could be summed up as “Boy meets Smurf; Boy Loses Smurf; Boy Finds Smurf Again”. Or, if your prefer a more visual description, think Lord of the Rings with helicopter gunships. In fact, we had high hopes for a 3D version of Dances With Smurfs (sorry, Avatar) on a screen 50 feet high but first we had to find it in an enormous mall that makes Southampton’s West Quay look like a 1980’s Pakistani corner shop. We rose through an infinity of criss-crossing glass moving stairways that would have even a Hogwart’s veteran confused. The PA system continually screamed out incomprehensible messages (“babblebabblebabble KAAAA; babblebabblebabble KAAAA; babblebabblebabble KAAAA”) presumably exhorting us to by vacuum cleaners at 5% discount (not that any sane person could find the right store in this chaos). The girls queued up for tickets for the 2 o’clock show; the boys sat on a sofa watching the world reel by. An hour later they returned: no seats for the 2 o’clock, no seats for the 5 o’clock . . . Did we want seats for the 2340 hours showing? Now, on reflection we should have anticipated this because a) there was only one or two Imax cinemas in a city of 20 million fun loving people, b) it was a Saturday afternoon, and c) it was Kids Day in Bangkok. I’m still not sure what that meant but it definitely required everyone to produce one or more children plus push chairs, dress up in giant teddy bear costumes, and jam up every means of transport imaginable. Nerves jangling (“babblebabblebabble KAAA”), at least for those of us of a particular gender and age (like: male and over 50), we finally escaped this evilTardis and went to find a cheap Thai street café for lunch. A litre of beer and excellent crispy sea bass and spring roll meal for just over a pound later, we felt much better. Well, some of us did; some of us missed the 50 foot Smurfs.
It is Saturday afternoon and it was decided to have a family outing to the cinema. The 3D Imax at the Siam Paragon mall was showing a quaint pastoral movie whose plot could be summed up as “Boy meets Smurf; Boy Loses Smurf; Boy Finds Smurf Again”. Or, if your prefer a more visual description, think Lord of the Rings with helicopter gunships. In fact, we had high hopes for a 3D version of Dances With Smurfs (sorry, Avatar) on a screen 50 feet high but first we had to find it in an enormous mall that makes Southampton’s West Quay look like a 1980’s Pakistani corner shop. We rose through an infinity of criss-crossing glass moving stairways that would have even a Hogwart’s veteran confused. The PA system continually screamed out incomprehensible messages (“babblebabblebabble KAAAA; babblebabblebabble KAAAA; babblebabblebabble KAAAA”) presumably exhorting us to by vacuum cleaners at 5% discount (not that any sane person could find the right store in this chaos). The girls queued up for tickets for the 2 o’clock show; the boys sat on a sofa watching the world reel by. An hour later they returned: no seats for the 2 o’clock, no seats for the 5 o’clock . . . Did we want seats for the 2340 hours showing? Now, on reflection we should have anticipated this because a) there was only one or two Imax cinemas in a city of 20 million fun loving people, b) it was a Saturday afternoon, and c) it was Kids Day in Bangkok. I’m still not sure what that meant but it definitely required everyone to produce one or more children plus push chairs, dress up in giant teddy bear costumes, and jam up every means of transport imaginable. Nerves jangling (“babblebabblebabble KAAA”), at least for those of us of a particular gender and age (like: male and over 50), we finally escaped this evilTardis and went to find a cheap Thai street café for lunch. A litre of beer and excellent crispy sea bass and spring roll meal for just over a pound later, we felt much better. Well, some of us did; some of us missed the 50 foot Smurfs.
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