Siam Square, Bangkok Thailand - a Review

It This is dedicated my best friend "Queen Mama", he is a devoted Thai culture and his desire to move to Bangkok.

We went last time on our memorable visit to Krung Thep or Bangkok 2nd May 2008 with my 3 best friends, which is called Queen Mama, Permaisuri (The King's wife), and a selir (King's mistress) and now honourly to be come Honourable wife or Istri Kehormatan. First time we went there accidentally that they were waiting for me (the King) for photo processing at that place. And after I was looking for them desperately where were they hanging at that time.... well, I found them on the pedestrian way laid down on permanent chair... I was surprised that they were sooo enjoyed on their sights.

This is my review about the area, taken from other sources.

Siam square serves as a staging ground for up and coming artists, designers, trends, and styles. While the surrounding mega-malls offer traditoal American and European designers, Siam Square keeps its own uniquely Thai flavors.

Siam Square's first building were constructed in 1965 on land belonging to Chulalongkorn University. This area was build to provide rental income for the university. Because of it's proximity to the university, the area quickly grew up and took a life of it's own.

It quickly became a favourite teenage shopping areain Bangkok. Siam Square is a hip place for Thai youth to meet, eat, catch concerts and just hangout.

The area can be a bit overhelming for the average foreign tourist. The small substreets running behind the main roads are packed with teens searching for the latest in fashionsand accessories. This shouldn't put you off of a visit though. The area is easily accessed through the Siam BTS Station and near to MBK, SIam Paragon and Discovery shopping malls. Every traveller will no doubt visit one of this malls and so might as well travel across the street and see the Thai youth scene-- certainly a contrast to the hill tribes of the north :-)

The Siam Square area is divided up into many small streets (Soi). Two of the street are loosely grouped into clusters of similar shops. Soi 6 is the massage soi. This soi is the farthest frm MBK. The street is lined with various Thai and oil massage shops offering inexpensive foot masages, Thai massages and various services.

If you walk to the end of Soi 6, you'll find The Novotel Bangkok. On Soi 5, you'll find an abundance of modern hair salons. These shops are a great middle ground betweenthe cheap local barbers who don't speak a word of English and the outrageously expensive western priced hair salons in the mega-malls. The only caveat wil be their tendency towards ultra-modern Asian hairstyles, so to be sure to communicate your hairstyle clearly or you might end up looking like the latest Korean pop star :-))
The prices hover around Bt300 for shampoo, cut and style. if you walk around long enough someone will put a discount card in your hand d you'll get a nice haircut for around Bt120 (according to my friend experience). The Colour and Cut Centre is a very clean, modern salon that does inexpensive colouring and great haicuts.

The rest of the sois are jumbled groupings of boutique clothing stores, instructonal centres and restaurants. So it's best to be explored on your own. As the area tends to move from trend to trend. It's hard to lock in the specific stores and boutiques worthy of a visit

It's happened to be a closet, you read that right, is a Siam Square (Soi 3) staple favored by travel guides and newspaper worldwide. This boutique clothing shop/ hair salon/ pedicure shop/ restaurant/ cafe by Thai designer Siriwan Tharananithikul is a unique as the name suggest (wah mau dibayar berapa neh gw... nulis nama orang disini.....hhhmmmm)

Down towards Soi 1, you'll find the tried and true HARD ROCK CAFE BANGKOK.

Siam Square has a tendency, due largely to the ever-changing population of students passing through Chlalongkorn, towards going gonzo with the latest trends. Lately it seems ice shope are the flavor of the day (permaisuri loves ice cream ). Walk down any of the sois and you'll find a shop selling ice with various toppings on top that make it seem like a traditional sundae.

Siam Sqaure is pretty unique. It's also largely tuned into the youth culture of the day. You can have a good meal, see some emerging Thai designers, catch an outdoor Thai rock perfomance and see a side of Bangkok not commonly feaured in travel guides. Take a stroll into the back alleys and find great bargains and deals on cutting edge fashion trends not found in the nearby mega-malls.