Thursday 19 February 2009

Pantip Plaza, IT Mecca in Bangkok

Pantip Plaza, IT Mecca in Bangkok

Pantip Plaza is like a wet dream for the IT mongers amongst us. There are 5 floors of computers, laptops and related accessories for sale.
Pantip Plaza’s address is Phyathai Road, pretty much everyone knows where it is.

There’s a similar place in Bangkok, called Fortune Tower IT Mall, the advantage of this place is that it’s accessible by the Subway system.For Pantip Plaza it’s a bit more difficult to get there. I usually take the Sky train or BTS to Chid Lom station and from there I take a taxi.
The road down to Pantip is a very busy road however and it can take a long while before you get there.

Yesterday I went to visit Pantip Plaza and overshot with the Sky train and ended up in Siam station. From there I took a motorbike taxi for 50,-THB to Pantip Plaza, which is an adventure in itself. The motorbike driver squeezed himself into the narrowest possible spaces, which at each side city buses, giving you the feeling that if a bus moves you’re going to get crunched. When traffic wasn’t moving fast enough, the sidewalk turned out to be an excellent lane for moving forwards as well. Who said that the sidewalk is for pedestrians, well, better wake up now!

Besides computer related items, there’s a lot more for sale, photo cameras, underwater housings for photo cameras , computer bags, camera bags, software (copies), toys, projectors and beamers and you name it. It’s all under one roof and there for extremely convenient.

Over the years, I bought plenty of things here, a notebook, two different Canon camera models and their respective underwater housings, a projector/beamer, software, etc.

Don’t forget that we’re in Thailand, hence, there’s a food court. Actually a fairly good one as well, on the 2nd floor and it works with the commonly used coupon system. You buy coupons at a counter, order food and pay with the coupons and any coupons left you change back in to cash money.
There are also bakeries and a KFC outlet.

In case you need anything computer related in Bangkok, Pantip Plaza is the place to be!

Camille

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Camille
I think i have to visit that shop. And a motorbike ride throughr BKK, hmmmmm should be exiting too.

Anonymous said...

Looks like it's got the king's approval, and if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me!

Camille Lemmens said...

Dave,

You would have a field day here!

Anonymous said...

Camille,
I spent a few hours wandering through the many stalls at Pantip, and I must say, it was a unique experience. I have never seen more fake iPods in my life, or more scavenged computer parts. I did like the camera shops, and on my next trip over, will probably buy one there.

Camille Lemmens said...

Hi Chris,

It's definately an interesting place and it pays off to be alert for fakes or 'original copies'.

Anonymous said...

Camille its a great place but if ever the saying buyer beware applies its here!

Having said that I got an HP power pack(genuine) for my laptop at a very reasonable price last year.

I notice your blog is NO FOLLOW can I recommend you read a recent post of mine on the subject.

Regards

Mike

Camille Lemmens said...

Hi Mike,

Had a few good buys at Panthip although I like Fortune tower also.

Regarding the no follow, I'll change that soon in a do follow set up, once I've got time to do so.