Sue and I have just returned from Lanta Island, which I’ll talk about later. We arrived in Bangkok on the 27th for a few days to enjoy Christmas. Christmas has always been a big thing for Sue, and she cannot complete the holidays without hearing Christmas carols and seeing the decorations. Bangkok is a great place for that. All the stores are decorated, some extensively. Even a coffee shop or small restaurant will have a tree and tinsel draped along the ceiling.

We spent some time at the Paragon shopping center. The walkway decorated with the arches of lights with the luminous Christmas tree at the end is in front of that.

– Click here to view Bangkok Christmas Pictures –

We also went over to Central World Plaza. It and Paragon are the two largest shopping centers in Thailand. The plaza out in front here is very large and had an artificial tree maybe 100 feet tall. There was an outdoor ice rink somewhere on the plaza but I was unable to find it that night. Something the size of an ice rink could easily be lost here. Apparently the beer companies are working hard to capture Thai customers. There were five or six “beer gardens” set up on the plaza each with nearly a thousand patrons.

We did only a small amount of after Christmas shopping. The ground floor of the Paragon shopping center has more specialty food sellers of all types than I have ever seen in one place. Sue bought a large chocolate covered gingerbread cookie imported from Germany. She got a special after Christmas price.

I just returned to Nang Rong yesterday from Bangkok. There were some NGO meetings Walai had to attend and I went along. Since I was returning Saturday morning there would be no traffic jam problem, so I took a taxi all the from my hotel to the northern bus terminal at Mo Chit. On the way the driver reminded me that this is the weekend of the King’s birthday, which is also Father’s day, one of the biggest holidays in Thailand. Everyone would be on the road going home.

Sure enough, when we got near the station there was a small traffic jam of cabs trying to get in to both levels. I hate having to push through crowds and feared the worst. Even the bus terminal in a smaller town like Nang Rong has easily twenty times the activity of a city bus terminal in the U.S. The bus terminals in Bangkok are more on the scale of an airport. I stopped and took the first picture just as I came through the door from the ramp onto the second floor.

It appeared there would be long lines all the way through, but it was really just for the ticket booths for a couple of popular destinations. There was only one person ahead of me when I got to booth #25 for Nang Rong and points east. I checked the upper right of my ticket that I was not in row 1, which has no leg room, and went on outside since the weather was pleasant. I took the second picture from the pedestrian bridge on my way to my bus. That is just one aisle along which buses park, not the only one. The bus was more full than usual but I still had the two seats on my side of the aisle, as I usually do when riding alone.

The decorations were out and Christmas starting while I was in Bangkok. I did not hit any major shopping areas at night so the only picture I got was our in front of the Silom center in front of my hotel. When it comes to commercializing Christmas, the Thais do a great job. Being a Buddhist society means they do not think of a balance between the sacred and secular parts of the holiday. They can go for the gold, and they do a great job of it!