Siam and the Shopping Malls

Siam is the point where Bangkok's two Skytrain lines cross, and it is the district we use to understand how the modern city works. Air-conditioned malls sit shoulder to shoulder, linked by elevated walkways, while students from Chulalongkorn University pour through the lanes of Siam Square below. It is loud, cold inside and hot outside, and it rewards a slow, deliberate approach.

Getting your bearings at Siam station

Siam is the interchange between the Sukhumvit Line and the Silom Line, so almost every visitor passes through it sooner or later. The platforms are split over two levels, and signs in English are clear, but the crowds at the changeover are real. Our advice is to leave the station by the covered skywalk rather than the street, because it keeps you out of the sun and drops you straight into the shopping centres.

If you are planning the wider city, our guide to the Skytrain and getting around explains how this interchange fits the rest of the network.

Siam Paragon and the polished end of the street

Siam Paragon is the glossy flagship. Its ground floor is a showroom of luxury cars, its food hall is enormous, and the basement houses a large aquarium that children tend to love and adults find oddly calming. Next door, Siam Discovery and Siam Center lean towards design, homeware and young Thai fashion labels, and they are the ones we browse when we want ideas rather than a bag of purchases.

MBK Center, the opposite temperament

Across the road and linked by the skywalk, MBK Center is a different animal. It is a multi-storey warren of small stalls selling phone cases, football shirts, souvenirs, repair services and secondhand cameras. Bargaining is expected on most counters, so smile, ask politely and be prepared to walk away. Floors near the top gather food courts where we like to stop when our feet give out.

Siam Square and the student lanes

Beneath the towers, the grid of Siam Square lanes holds tiny boutiques, bubble-tea counters, dessert cafés and hair salons catering to the university crowd. Evenings are the liveliest time, when uniforms and sneakers fill the alleys. Grilled skewers and bowls of noodles appear on the pavements, an easy introduction to the habits described in our piece on Bangkok street food.

Culture between the malls

Siam is not only about shopping. The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, at the edge of the skywalk near National Stadium station, hosts contemporary exhibitions across a spiralling white interior, and entry to the main galleries is open to everyone. A short walk down Rama I Road brings you to the Jim Thompson House, a calm cluster of teak buildings that makes a sharp contrast with the retail towers beside it.

Timing and heat

Plan the day around the weather, not the shop list. From March to May the heat can be punishing, and the sensible rhythm is to arrive when the doors open, break for lunch indoors and wait out the afternoon in a cinema or a cafe. Rainy-season downpours between June and October are brief and heavy, and the covered skywalks mean you hardly notice them. For more on this, see our notes on Bangkok weather and seasons.

Walking on to Ratchaprasong

From Siam you can follow the skywalk east to Chit Lom and Ratchaprasong in a few minutes, passing the glass tower of CentralWorld and several more centres. This is the stretch where the Erawan Shrine stands at a busy junction, garlanded with marigolds and surrounded by incense and dancers hired by worshippers. After a day of retail it is a useful reminder that Bangkok's commerce and its spiritual life share the same pavement.

Finish with a foot massage from one of the shopfronts in the side lanes, which is a sensible reward after kilometres of marble floors. Our page on Thai massage and spas explains what to expect.

After a morning among the malls, the greenery of Lumphini Park or the Jim Thompson House offer a calmer change of pace, and both are a short Skytrain ride away. For the evening, rooftop bars and the street stalls described in our street food guide are easy to reach from the same stations.