Phone Photography: visiting the renovated Amarin Mall in Bangkok.

All of a sudden, I wanted to explore Bangkok by night so I could survey the festive decorations in city center. I was surprised that the traffic into the city center was quite heavy. It seemed that people had more money to spend this season. They all came out to do their Christmas shopping in those luxurious malls around the Chidlom and Hyatt Erawan Hotel. Within one square mile, at least seven luxurious shopping malls were waiting eagerly for their customers.

I decided to check out my old favourite shopping mall, Amarin Plaza, which was closed for two years during major renovation. The walkway from the BTS station to this mall was crowded with tourists and office workers. The traffic was heavy on the road below the skywalk. My senses became alive as soon as I saw the lighting outside the renovated Amarin mall. The new name became Gasorn- Amarin, to indicate that this mall belonged to the same chain of mall called Gasorn.

Amarin mall used to be about three stars shopping mall while Gasorn mall was five stars luxurious establishment. Now Amarin has become five or six stars shopping mall. The transformation was amazing and breathtaking; the owners had thrown tons of money on this project. I wondered how long it would take to get all the investments back with reasonable returns. With declining population and lower economic growth, it would be unlikely that middle class people would be shopping in these very luxurious malls in this area.

I was very impressed with all the Christmas decorations and interior design of the mall. I couldn’t find any old remnants of decorative objects from the old Amarin mall. Many people were quite attracted to the beautiful setting in the main foyer of the mall. The Christmas trees were dotted around the place with a small Merry-Go-Round in the middle of the hall. Local and foreign tourists took selfies and photos of the pretty decorations.

The air conditioning was too cold for my liking so I tried to walk faster to keep warm. I went up to the third floor to search for my favourite coffee shop where I used to hang out with old friends. But the third floor was turned into gift shops and designers’ clothes. The old coffee shop had disappeared. The old Tibetan craft shop was no longer there either. I used to drop by that Tibetan shop to try various singjng bowls and browse old beads with amulets.

The whole place was filled with expensive and luxurious items far beyond the monthly salary of ordinary Thai workers. Only rich people and tourists with money to burn at leisure could casually buy these luxurious designers’ items. I wondered how ordinary people would be able to wear these expensive and impractical clothes in daily life. They were for showing off strange or unique designs with costly price tags. The display of clothes with thin slings in open space made it looked as if they were objects in art gallery.

The aesthetic aspect of the mall was top notch at the expense of realistic practicality and the disconnection with reality. It seemed as if I could lose my sense of reality and become intoxicated with the floating ambiance and lofty beauty of the attractions inside Amarin. I could be carried away with desires to own these beautiful objects on various shelves. The materialistic craving to consume and own beautiful things could become obsessive. I would have to rob a bank to be able to acquire objects of my desire.

I had to walk around the mall a few times to admire artistic items and take photos of the new decorations. There was an ice cream shop at the exit on the third floor. But the price of an ice cream could buy me two lunches. The portion of the ice cream was ridiculously too big for one person. I wondered why they had to encourage people to over consume and become obese in the near future. This trend of consumerism was quite worrying to me.

In the past, Thai people adhered to the concept of ‘sufficiency’ and ‘moderation’. People wouldn’t over eat or indulge in gratifications too much. They woukd try to walk the ‘middle way’. There was simple beauty in knowing when ‘enough’ is ‘enough’. But the big portions of Western food such as steak, roast beef, pancakes and ice cream have created bad habits among new generations of people. Younger people have become obese these days. Young children began to suffer from diabetes at a very young age. Lots of kids and adults became addicted to drinking soda instead of water. They were addicted to the sweet taste of sugar and sugar substitutes in drinks.

Vendors in various modern restaurants would increase their prices and serve slightly bigger portions on large plates. I couldn’t get used to a new trend of serving food on very big plates in modern restaurants. These big plates took up so much room on the dining tables. Even the cutlery became heavy and bigger. I gathered this new trend was supposed to convey a sense of elegance and grandeur to impress customers.

I looked around new high end restaurants inside Amarin mall and wondered how ordinary working people could afford to enter these restaurants. These restaurants were beautifully designed with famous chefs cooking or performing in open plan kitchen. Only rich customers and tourists could afford to enjoy fine cuisine in these five star restaurants. I wouldn’t enjoy these ‘fusion’ or modernised food with tiny portions but artistically displayed on oversized plate. I would be more at home with traditional food served on regular sized plates without being displayed or decorated.

I had come to terms with the fact that one phase of my good life has gone and coukd never be repeated. My favourite coffee shop with delicious homemade cakes and cheap premium quality coffee had gone forever. Amarin mall would become a nrw stranger to me as the old comfort zone had perished. The new Amarin has become highly sanitized and intricately designed that ordinary people with common sense felt the cold and impersonal vibes with less human touch pervading inside. I wouldn’t visit this mall as often as I did in the past.

Modern shopping malls are designed for very rich people who were inclined to be cold like robots with the inability to have face to face interactions with real people. The shop assistants have been trained to be polite and talked without any feelings or empathy. I preferred to do my shopping in local markets or at street stalls so I could haggle with the vendors and discuss about Thai politics. The concept of big and luxurious shopping malls were all wrong and very misguided. The future reality would consist of population collapse and economic ruins which would impact these luxurious malls adversely.

Over a hundred international schools had been closed in the country due to insufficient numbers of enrollments. Lots of chain restaurants had already gone out of business. Some big regional hotels and resorts went bankrupt. So, I wondered how many years these modern luxurious shopping malls would be able to survive future uncertainty. I used to know the owners of this chain of five star shopping malls; we used to be friends while studying abroad. They belonged to ‘old money’ class of people in our high society. It’s a shame that nice and simple people changed when they had to look after big businesses. I hoped they would be successful in their ambitions. Meanwhile, I had to try to control my budgets and spending so that I wouldn’t have to taje drastic measures for practical survival program.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.