Emporium Expands, Optics, and Dentistry

Emporium was one of the smaller high end malls in Bangkok. However, smaller just meant it was missing H&M, Banana Republic, Victoria Secrets, etc. but had Dolce and Cabana, Prada, Hermes, etc. However it was the closest mall, next to Terminal 21 for me to walk to. It also had a large bookstore whereas Terminal 21 did not.

Over the past 3 years I have watched Emporium double in size as workers from Myanmar, working 3 shifts a day, constructed the new building which is accessed via the BTS station walk through.

Today, the new building was getting ready for its red carpet opening and most of the stores were open. Here are a few pics. As always, any of these malls put Canadian malls to shame.

The view from the older building with a new big screen display.

Preparing the red carpet for the media Thai superstars to open the mall.

Thavorn on the Red Carpet (with new glasses)

A pillar covered by an ever changing videoscape.

There are about 5 of these video transitions.

I mentioned Thavorn's new glasses. I had suspected that she needed glasses as she often squinted when trying to view writing at a distance. I asked her if she had ever had her eyes tested and she said, 'Why would I do that, I can't afford glasses?'. That is the typical pragmatic response to situations beyond their control. The vast majority of Thais do not get knee replacements, costly prescription drugs, etc. Many women get pregnant because she and her partner can not afford condoms at the local 7/11. There is no regular dental checkup. What we take in North America for granted is a luxury to lo-so Thais.

So Thavorn had her eyes checked and sure enough she needed glasses as she could not really focus much past 20 feet. I found out why she did not like to watch English movies with Thai subtitles. She could not read the subtitles and was too embarrassed to tell me.

The next item on the agenda was the dental checkup and thankfully Thai have good teeth and she had only accumulated 3 cavities in her lifetime. She had the 3 fillings and a general cleaning for 4,000 Baht which is about $125 CDN which is not too bad but still outside the realm of someone in a country where the minimum wage is 300 baht a day. BTW, the dentist was trained at UCLA. Obviously, he comes from a hi-so clinic. During the day, he works at a Thai hospital and off hours during the week and on weekends he augments his salary by working at a dental clinic on Soi 22.