Well, here we are Christmas in Thailand. Residing in Nonthaburi, not much going on at Christmas time in Nonthaburi Province of Buddhist Thailand.
So, this Christian Falang, under the direction of the Buddhist boss lady, celebrated Christmas by assembled and distributed Christmas gift baskets to our local friends and family.
We spent the first couple of hours Christmas day video conferencing with our American friends and family. Then we headed into Bangkok for a nostalgic trip to our old stomping grounds. Basically, we hopped the Chao Phraya River Taxi and visited the Icon Siam River Park (mega-mall with about 500 shops and 100 restaurants) and then Asiatique, another mega-shopping plaza reporting 50 restaurants and approximately 1,500 shops/stalls.
Now, December is purportedly the busiest month in the peak tourist season. And, we are in arguably a couple of the healthier tourist shopping venues in Bangkok, they are definitely highly advertised and did feature Christmas Holiday promotions and spend your money incentives.
Well, from what we saw Christmas Day – it is, in a word, a “Bust”. Unless, for some reason all the tourists did in fact develop strong Christian religious beliefs and were all celebrating mass on Christmas Day.
What we say were empty isles, empty shops and stalls, few shoppers (and those that were shopping were window shopping). Lots of Thai attendants, all bored. Mostly playing with their phones to keep busy with bored looks on their faces. Yea, trouble on river city for sure.
The mix of tourists – gross generalization I’d say about 60% Chinese, 20% Indian and 20% Falang. And, honestly the only shopping I saw happening was for food. Although I did see one Caucasian woman bickering over the price of silk shawls.
Bleak, bleak, bleak…