For just over six months, Bangkok has had a new "trendy" shopping destination, Asiatique the Riverfront. The plan is to develop it into the largest riverfront shopping venue in Asia. It is located on Charoen Krung Road and has a 300-meter stretch along the bank of the Chao Phraya River. The development probably has had an eye on similar venues in Shanghai.
At present, there is a total of 80,000 square meters, but the developer TCC Land (owned by the Beer Chang mogul) has big plans for the area, including two hotels and a fun/theme park.
100+ years ago, the river banks of Charoen Krung were Bangkok's main international port and this particular plot of land belonged to a Danish company called The East Asiatic Company Ltd.
TCC Land has tried to maintain the historic atmosphere of the site while turning it into a twenty-first century mall, a "festival market and living museum" concept. The idea behind the bazaar is to bring back the exotic mood of the old days by blending the old customs and history with modern-day recreation.
It is of course mostly fake and the shops are aimed at tourists longing for useless trinkets at inflated prices. As the food options are not attractive to the local palate, young middle-class Bangkokians flock to Asiatique on weekends for the "cute" photo opportunities the place offers. Due to that there is only one access road, the traffic jams are horrendous.
For tourists, easiest way is probably taking a free shuttle boat from the Sheraton Pier near BTS Saphan Taksin. It starts running from about 5 p.m. There is also a Chao Phraya River Express that calls a pier at the temple next door.
Khao Sok National Park covers an area of 738 sq. km and has spectacular limestone rocks and ridges studded with several large caves. There is pristine rain forest with wildlife sanctuaries and a large network for trekking. Many streams and rivers originate from this watershed and rafting, canoeing, as well as tube tours are arranged daily. These days there are even elephant rides.
It should be obvious, but the reason it is called a rain forest is that it often rains. So, three out of my four visits to Khao Sok have been wet, but it is just a question of not being discouraged by the weather.
My first visit ten years ago was the wettest -- and sleeping in a "house" built in a treetop on the bank of a stream did not make things less humid -- but included a great visit to a cave reached by boat (and a trek) from the Rachaprapah Dam. It was a U-shaped cave where the bottom end of the U was very narrow and one had to wade in cold chest-high water.
Apparently, the treetop house concept caught on, so today there are plenty of fake treetop houses built in concrete. Khao Sok has developed into a popular stop-over for back-packers (if there are any those left) going from Khao Lak to Koh Samui and a weekend destination for nature lovers visiting Phuket or Khao Lak.
For Thais, Khao Sok is mostly famous for Rafflesia, which are the largest flowers in the world, and can grow up to 90cm in diameter. The flower is like a giant red bowl lined with yellow spotted petals. The flowers exude a strong smell – similar to the smell you would expect to find near a rotten carcass or a dustbin - but does fortunately not flower for long.
Two retrostyle attractions of the "floating market" type opened last year near Hua Hin as if this country needs more fake history and more shopping venues. In Hua Hin, the new markets are miles from the nearest river, but that does not seem to detract from their attraction of being places to take "cute" snapshots and buy tacky souvenirs.
That these markets were opened only a few kilometers from each other is a bit of a mystery from a competition perspective, but the explanation must be that they are located where land was available. The floating markets are located in a rural area on what used to be pineapple fields. The pineapple fields surrounding the markets are still dry reminders of how fake the floating markets are.
