book01

Chapter 2
Welcome to Bang Cock!

shop is unbeatable. (Take your Thai girlfriend with you. She'll know what to order). Consult each hotel for daily specials. Yum!

2. All the major shopping malls have fast food stalls and a variety of restaurants. Sogo department store (take a taxi), World Trade Center (taxi), Robinson's department store (Sukumvit, Soi 17, about a ten minutes walk from the Crown on Soi 8), etc.

3. Along Sukumvit road, between Soi 4 and Soi 24 are tons of restaurants. Explore.

SHOPPING

Bangkok is a shoppers paradise. Pirated computer software, pirated video tapes (including porno's) and cassettes, fake Rolex watches, jewelry (fake and real), plus all the gadgets and gimmicks that will dazzle your eyes, you name it, in Bangkok they've got it.

If you are a computer nerd, you are going to be in paradise out here. First chance you get, hop on a meter taxi and head straight to the Pantip Plaza (have the front desk clerk write out the name in Thai for the taxi driver. Also, don't forget to take a hotel card to show to the taxi driver when you're ready to return to your hotel). The Pantip Plaza is a mega-mall of nothing but computer hardware and software (mostly pirated software). I've never seen anything like it in the states. Pantip is so huge (a good five stories), it took me over three hours just to walk around, stopping in a few stores here and there. It's awesome.

Pantip is really not the place to buy computer hardware as you will probably find better deals in the states. However, the software is unbelievably cheap and seemingly endless. Most of the software is for IBM. Mac users will probably be somewhat disappointed with the selection, although you can still find pirated software at incredibly cheap prices. As an example, a friend of mine got Adobe Photoshop, Quark Xpress, Publisher 98, and a host of other programs all on one CD for 150 baht or $3.50. In the states, all that would have cost well over $2,000.

If you want the ultimate in computer software and hardware, Pantip Plaza in Bangkok is the place to go. All computer nerds who come here will believe they have "died and gone to computer heaven."
Note: I'm not saying here I approve of, participate or condone the sale of pirated software. I'm just reporting it as a fact. What you do with this information is up to you.