The True Night Niche of Smiles in the Land of Smiles

Simply standing outside Suan Lum Night Bazaar gives you the chills, and makes you feel as if you're eagerly waiting in line to get onto your favorite ride! Suan Lum Night Bazaar is located right opposite Bangkok's very popular Lumpini Park. To get the real feel of this epitome of sheer entertainment and joy you would have to go to Wireless Road. Here's a place where you would find people of all classes having a jolly good time with their folks, friends and colleagues! The crowd of Suan Lum Night Bazaar consists of the Thai working class dressed up in the most simple clothes, as well as those alien culture scavengers and also the business tycoons of the country with their families!

Now where else would you get a better opportunity than this to explore Thailand as a whole, all in one night! This niche full of surprises is surely a friendly place with lots of different faces enjoying the ever so reasonably priced food, buying stuff from the huge variety of goodies (clothes, jewelry, boutiques, CD's, etc), and receiving a considerable amount of high class treatment at the same time. In this remarkable hot spot there also lies 'BEC Tero Hall' where some of Bangkok's finest exhibitions and shows are held. When you stroll through this versatile night bazaar you will almost feel like you're in a maze of paradise with a touch of an amusement park. I say amusement park, because of that Big Ferris Wheel 'La Roue De Paris' with 42 carriers that has come from Paris, which is now the highlight of the venue! It truly puts the icing and cherry on the night bazaar's cake! By the way, you only have to pay 100bhat for adults and 60bhat for kids, but in return you get to see a great deal of Bangkok from high up in the sky four times!

Furthermore, there are several corridors full of people frolicking in the aisles of souvenir clad shops, munching on yummy Thai snacks and drinking at the bar of their choice. Yup, you heard me right! I said 'The bar of their choice!' It's not simply just a night bazaar but gives you the proper taste of the heart of Thailand's nightlife. To fill up your stomachs there are a circus of restaurants. Thai, Indian, Italian, German, Mexican and many more. Then there comes a temple tunnel which leads you to the famous beer garden. Now people listen up! This is not like any other beer garden you see on the streets. It's like a fair filled with food stalls all around the rustic chairs and tables. There's also a stage upfront with a live band playing the latest Thai/English songs and dancers giving you the talent show effect full of excitement that you used to get at school field trips upcountry. To top it all for all the beer fans it's figuratively like an international auction fest. To go with the beer of your choice there's a bunch of food! After all it is called a food court, but this one not only has Thai hot, spicy and sour treats, but also Japanese and German dishes! It's more like you name it, and they have it! Who wouldn't want to visit a centre point with so much diversity!

After having a few appetizers and drinks you can relax at the Joe Louis Puppet Theatre in which you will see a one hour Puppet show of the Indian 'Ramayana'. It may sound boring, but believe me it certainly is the opposite. It surely is an extraordinary experience, and a great way of calming yourself down before you indulge in a few more beers with more delicious delicacies. The most interesting thing is that the artists who are controlling the puppets are actually present on stage. Three people handle each puppet meticulously. If you watch carefully it's almost like a magic show! For a serious second you would feel that those puppets are real people! The movements are so lifelike and graceful! As a matter of fact these puppeteers are actual dancers who literally dance along as if they were the instructors, and that is a surreal sight not to miss! As soon as you enter the theatre you will be able to read the history of how this whole thing began, and there is also information about something purely traditional and unique, which I say you would have to go and read yourself! Anyway, Joe Louis was the man who started this puppetry trend all over again, which had almost become obsolete in Thailand. He had learnt it by observing his parents do the magnificent act. Even after his death his wife continued the family's artful practice.

Bangkok's dynamical and natural beauty is going to get closed down by April 2007! Now this is a put-off for locals and tourists! It's not fair on the shop owners whose sale increased a fair amount! Where will they go? These small shops can move to their previous venues, but what about BEC, Tero Hall! It is said that there's going to be an auction and the individual or company with the highest bid will buy the area, to build whatever they want! I don't think anything will look better there other than the all-time beloved Suan Lum Night Bazaar. It is situated in the perfect place within the city. Even if it is moved, the only place where there are acres of empty land is the suburbs! No one would want to travel so much just to drink beer, walk around for a couple of hours and sit on a ferris wheel. I would rather go to Pattaya or Dream World where I can spend 8 hours of my day! I feel that Suan Lum Night Bazaar shouldn't be closed down at any cost! It's even close to Patpong, the MRT, the BTS, department stores, hotels and residential areas. A large percentage of Bangkokians live around this locality, like Silom, and Sathon. Youngsters and tourists usually go clubbing after a couple of hours at the night bazaar, and Siam Square is also not so far away. If it moves to the suburbs where will everyone go to party after and how much will they travel at night? I would say the versatile, easily reachable and technically the entertainment king of Bangkok shouldn't be touched!

You can definitely taste and feel a fair essence of each part of Thailand all in one go, all in one place and actually all of this in only three hours of the young night! Suan Lum Night Bazaar happily, warmly and ever so truly holds the burgeoning soul of our extremely welcoming 'Land of Smiles'!