Today was dedicated to shopping for electronics and presents in the big MBK mall. As soon as we stepped outside, a tuk tuk driver approached us and said he will take us to MBK for 20 baht. Our original plan was to take the sky-train, but it did sound cheap so we were tempted. After inquiring further he said that he needs to make a stop on the way there. After pressing some more- he admitted he would get a coupon for free fuel from some suit shop if he brings tourists to them. The detour to the suit shop did not take long; we almost felt bad that the suit people were exploited like that since we were not interested in suits anyway. (Guy remarks: It's their own fault for paying tuk tuk drivers to kidnap tourists and bring them there whether they want suits or not.)
After about 20 minutes we were standing at the entrance to MBK. We had breakfast in a Japanese ramen restaurant, filled with Japanese people. I had good pork fried rice and Guy had some chicken & seafood noodle dish and deep-fried octopus balls. The food was very cheap. We then had hot beverages at the Coffee Bean (and the tea leaf). We walked around that never-ending mall, buying dried fruit and Thai sweets to take with us to Israel.
Looking at smartphones on the smartphone floor, we spotted a shop with a bunch of recommendations in Hebrew at the entrance. All of them were very positive so we went in. There we found a Nexus 5 (32 gig version), which I could not find anywhere in Thailand or in Israel, for a really good price. Guy picked up a Samsung S4 phone for himself. As we inquired further with the sales woman- they also did 1 hour repairs. Guy decided to get his old S3 fixed there, but he forgot to bring it with him this morning so we went to fetch it from the hotel.
We took the sky train but ended up in the wrong part of town (and not the wrong part of town we were looking to end up in). We then took a cab, which took quite long to get us to the hotel due to traffic. Guy suspected the cabbie was deliberately spiraling all around the city to run up the meter over 100 baht. We retrieved Guy's phone with us and left our shopping bags in the room. We then headed for the sky-train, determined not to be distracted by more tuk tuks, even as the one from this morning found us. On the way we had chicken skewers from a street food stall.
The sky-train runs above ground on a system of bridges. It seems clean, modern, and safe. The platforms are marked with the places where the doors will be opening and the people queue up at their sides to let the passengers come out of the train before boarding. This trip was short, as the MBK is only 2 stations away, counting a change of trains at the central station. We saw there was a footsal championship not far from there. What is footsal? We have no idea.
We brought the phone to be fixed and went on to explore the cameras on the cameras floor. Guy wanted us to have a GoPro, so we got one! Now we need to have more adventures. I then bought a couple of dresses and we both had some dim sum for lunch in the mall.
For dinner we had reservations to Nahm, which is deemed by some bribed magazines to be the best restaurant in Asia (!!), which we are not sure about, but it is definitely the fartiest in Bangkok. It is located inside the Metropolitan hotel, which is in itself quite beautiful. The staff there are really nice and responsive, but the food is really not balanced, taste-wise. Things are usually too spicy or too salty, in a way that overpowers every other taste the food might have. My mouth was really burning; it was visible to the nice waitress, and she brought us rose-apple to calm the burning down. Guy was less affected by the spiciness but also unimpressed with the balance of flavors. It wasn't the worst food we had in Thailand, but below the middle at ten times the price. The host chased after us with a box of Pocky we bought at the 7-11 on the way and forgot there. He said he'd hoped we wouldn't want it; maybe he's tired of the farty food? We then took the skytrain back to the hotel.
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