Bangkok Diaries – Part 2 (Living in Pratunam)

Places to stay and roam in Pratunam:

 

Dear Readers,

In the previous post I shared details regarding the transport options you can use within the city with the standard rates. Now I shall be sharing the next set of details based on the places to roam and stay.

In my short stay I was up for 2.5 days in Pratunam (Bangkok).

I used a lot of websites for my research and tried to use many permutations and combinations so that we could get to a lot of places and not wasting our travel time. Also, since I was going for this trip with my parents, I needed to get a really good place to minimize them getting tired very quickly. My choice fell onto the area of Pratunam. It’s kind of in the center of the city and if it helps, there are many shopping avenues which fall right besides the area I stayed in.

 

Stay in Pratunam:

I chose the Metro Pratunam Boutique Hotel for our stay. (Click for Map). This place has very decent rooms, staff that are really very helpful (they helped me with travel prices so I could bargain the right amount) and a concept of shared bathrooms.

A shared bathroom is where every room on the floor uses the same bathroom. At any given time 2 people can use the shower and 2 can use the washroom. Of course, the bathrooms are differentiated for men and women. I did think it was something that was unusual but quite honestly, it does not make a difference. My parents were hesitant at first but at the end of our stay they said that this was not much of a hindrance. Maybe if that’s not your cup of tea, then you don’t have to worry. They do have rooms with private bathrooms.

P.S – Men, Do not be surprised if in the washroom you find a lady cleaning the place. I saw that more than twice and I got to know that here the ladies also clean up the men’s restrooms. They just do their job. Of course I felt odd for the first time (more like a blank face) but kind of understood later.

The usual rates mentioned there are 500-600 THB per bed. The standard rooms are 4 bunk beds. There’s no breakfast included so if you need it, book it and add the breakfast option (charges extra).

Since I used the Agoda App, I got a lot of discounts and ended up paying roughly 4300 THB for 3 nights and 3 persons (including breakfast worth 150 THB per day).

 

Pros of living in Pratunam:

Firstly, living in Pratunam gives you access to a lot of shopping places nearby within 2 kms. As per my fitness band we at least walked 10 kms per day. My parents would be pretty tired by the end of the day but it was worth it.

 

Neon Market:

The neon market is a 3 minute walk away from the hotel. There are at least over a 100 stalls here that sell clothes, jewellery, shoes, shawls and a lot of food. They also have 4 restaurants with an open space where bands perform so people can enjoy some good music while sipping on their beer. The food stalls are diversified with fruit vendors, ice creams, meat and finally dedicated fish food stalls. The market is open from 6pm-12am. Shops start setting up from 5pm onward.

 

Stalls outside Palladium mall:

There’s a mall which is a 2 minute walk away from the Neon market. So from the hotel this would take you roughly 5-7 minutes to be here. There are many stalls which sell clothes mostly for a cheaper rate than what you can get within any mall. They also have good options.

Pratunam Market:

Moving ahead after a 5 minute walk is the Pratunam market. Here too there are many stalls that sell a variety of items right from clothes to jewellery to household items and food.

 

Indra Square: 

After a 5 minute walk from Palladium mall you can also find Indra Square. That’s a mall with many shops inside selling lot of good stuff for a lesser price. But the main event is right outside with over 200 stalls set up within the area and this too begins post 6pm. However they shut down by 11pm. Mostly, you should get whatever you want in Indra Square.

P.S – They will always quote a higher price when they notice an Indian shopping as we are notorious for bargaining even if it’s a fixed price shopping arena! So take a walk at all the stalls and scan the place for prices. You will always find what you want in many stalls. So scan the prices and then settle for the right price.

Conclusion:

Finally, choosing this area gave us a lot of advantage as we could just walk to it and get what we wanted. Clothes are as cheap as from 100-150 THB onward for a tee/shorts (both for girls and guys). There are lots of places to gorge on food of the local thai cuisine too. My best advice to you is to walk and explore. There are a lot of things I discovered and I’m sure you will too.

 

You can read my first post in this series here – Bangkok Diaries Part 1

The next post will be dedicated to Food and different places to visit in Bangkok.

Stay tuned.