Around The World In Terminal 21

A shopping mall that looks like a theme park? It can only be in Bangkok, the inimitable, weird and wacky Terminal 21 with a different city on each floor. It’s so easy to get to as you see the building as soon as you arrive at Asoke BTS station. Of course, if you are staying at The Westin, even better as you will probably see it from your room.

Always wanted to go to Caribbean, Rome, Paris, Tokyo, London, Istanbul, San Francisco and Hollywood? Well now you can when you visit Terminal 21. I didn’t exactly love this place as I found it more tacky than whimsical but couldn’t stop taking photos.

As soon as you enter the mall, you are greeted by what has to be the city’s longest escalator, all 36 meters of it but we’ve all seen greater heights in Hong Kong, haven’t we? The escalators in Hong Kong malls can give me vertigo whereas this one was comparatively short.

The first sight I wanted to see was San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the biggest attraction in the mall judging by the number of people posing by the bridge. There wasn’t anyone taking “selfies”, everyone had someone taking photos of them. It must be an Asian thing because I didn’t see a single Caucasian posing by the famous bridge.

Food lovers will rejoice in this mall as other than the many restaurants and cafes, Pier 21 Food Terminal has dozens of choices. I took a walk around and after one round, my head was spinning a little as there was so much to take in. Spoilt for choice is an understatement. Prices are ridiculously cheap as my lunch of minced pork in basil with rice cost a mere 30 baht. Yes, that’s 30 baht and not 300 baht. Granted, portion was smaller than what we get in KL but that’s a great excuse for looking for more food, isn’t it and there was room for dessert. I had a super-duper icy “thap thim krop” there with much more ingredients than I could ever get in any Thai restaurant in KL, not to mention at a fraction of the price here.

But look at how beautiful and amazing this is (from a Japanese dessert joint):-

So let’s go down to Istanbul:-

Who doesn’t love London?

Next we stop at Tokyo!

Time for a toilet break and the basins are so colourful.

Who can miss this lighthouse?

Look at these statues. Am I in Greece or maybe Rome?

Love it or hate it, this place is definitely worth a visit.