We left our hotel in Old Bangkok in the morning, heading toward the modern section of Bangkok and the large malls there to pick up a few things we'd had on our shopping list. We caught the canal ferry for a quick and fun way to get there.
After a short ride, we found ourselves at the largest mall complex in Bangkok. For NYCers, it was basically the equivalent of Brookfield Place in Tribeca, a pristine mall which could have been in any wealthy American city. After a couple hours bouncing around stores, trying on various clothes, etc... both Sarah and I found ourselves collectively irritated. We needed the items we were searching for (replacement sneakers & tops), but what a shame it was to be walking around in a mall shopping when all we wanted to do was explore Bangkok. It was a real moment of realization for us. What was once 'fun' on a weekend were lost hours on the road.
By reducing our life this year to simply a carry on bag, we've removed the need to spend time and energy consuming stuff. The result has been a fire hose of spending time experiencing places, people and our family. Having simply dipped a toe back into the opposite for even just a couple of hours was annoying. It was a clarifying moment. We hope to keep this lesson with us when we put roots down at the end of our year of travel.
Soup Dumplings
We basically pulled the plug on the shopping, but at least we got to eat some great soup dumplings! As we were walking out of the mall we saw the famous Di Tai Fung - if you're a soup dumpling fanatic, you know it. Sarah and I have now been in Hong Kong (2006), Shanghai (2012) and now Bangkok (2019).
Bellies full, we headed back into Bangkok for a visit to the Grand Palace. Hopefully that's the last shopping trip we need to do for a while!
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