Mall Mania – KidZania
July 18 – kidZania.
Two days earlier, Tak had told us about a place called KidZania a place inside of one Siam Paragon, the largest mall in Asia. It is an amusement park of sort, except that instead of doing rides and paying money, you do jobs to earn money. For example, you can be a flight attendant, pilot, firefighter, bank manager, singer, etc. Depending on the job, you earn a different amount of Kidzos, the currency of the place. When you are done you can trade your Kidzos for stuff like toys.
The kids were super excited to do it and the reviews we had read were all very positive. We had read it could get crowded so we aimed to be there right at 10am when they opened. We arrived at 10:05 and sure enough it was packed with a vision school. Since adults don’t need to be present, we gave Evie and Tyler Sue’s phone and went downstairs to the amazing food court. We did a few laps and discovered a dizzying array of options including the first actually international IHOP, a mission-style burrito food truck, and a Maine lobster joint in addition to KFC, McDonalds, and Starbucks. We opted for a quaint pastry place with amazing creme brulee croissants and lattes next to the small stream being fed by programmable water fall art.
Beneath us a level, but not visible to us, was a huge under ground aquarium that was hosting a popular penguin exhibit. No, this is not the Great Mall of America.
As we enjoyed our coffees, Sue made some phone calls and Tom responded to some emails and we both enjoyed the incredible water patterns being made. It rotated through abstract patterns to Christmas trees to hearts to stars to flowers and more. Crazy.
Before knew it it was 1pm. The kids had texted they were having a great time and Tyler sent a cute picture of Evie being a flight attendant. We decided to brave the outdoors and walked the 15 minutes to Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American business man who fell in love with Thailand in the 50s. He discovered their intricate silks and after showing them to designers in NY and Paris launched a very successful export business. An architect by training, he set about building his own house out of other traditional Thai houses. He used 6 houses in all, each one a traditional one room house, to create his combination house. Inside he furnished it with antique statues and paintings many of them over 1,000 years old.
In order to view the house, you had to be on a 40 minute tour and it was informative and enjoyable. Jim Thompson disappeared in the Cambodian jungle in 1968 when he went out for a short walk and never returned. Shortly thereafter his sister was murdered in the US. His previous connection to the CIA fuels conspiracy theories and there is no credible explanation for his disappearance.
Our tour ended around 3pm just about the time Evie texted to say she thought she’d be done around 3:30. As we walked back towards the Siam Paragon, we got another text from the kids who were now at McDonalds having lunch with a pair of American friends they had made. No rush now, said the message. Sue and Tom took the hint and inspired by the kids’ burger, stopped at an actual food market and Tom enjoyed a Monster Trucker burger that lived up to its hype as ‘thebestdamnburgerever’ $4.50 and topped with Bacon, cheese, onion ring and secret sauce. Yum.
KidZania closed at 5pm and the kids were the last to emerge at 5:15. 7 hours of childcare / educational fun for $30. Can’t beat that! Tak had invited us to see him at his TV studio and the kids were eager to go, but also were eager to see the largest mall in the world. So, Evie went with Sue on her continuing quest for a purse that cost less than $100 and Tyler and Tom visited the uber high end car dealerships (Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche) and the Apple Store. Around 6:30 we reconvened at the mall next door, the smaller Siam Discovery where Evie had found the illusive purse and had negotiated the 30% off to be 50% off and borrowed the $30 necessary to buy her purse.
Everyone was happy and hungry. If only there was a massive food court nearby where you could get anything you wanted for $5 within 10 minutes. Oh, wait…
We walked from the mall to the SkyTrain which took us 15 minutes to, you guessed it, another mall where Tak’s driver met us to drive us the last 15 minutes to the TV studio. We were escorted inside where they were finishing up filming a pilot for a soon-to-be launched TV game show, a take off on Hollywood Squares but with famous Thai actors & comedians. The kids were slack jawed at the awesomeness of the studio experience and especially enjoyed watching the live news broadcast we saw after the game show filming ended. They each took turns pretending to be announcers much to the enjoyment of the film crew.
Around 9pm, we took our leave as Tak went back into the studio for a series of post-filming meetings. His work schedule is truly bonkers. This night wouldn’t end until 11pm next day he was out past 11pm accepting TV awards on behalf of his studio. We were happy to be able to squeeze into his schedule. So fun to see all the success he’s had 30+ years after Tom and he had starred in the Odd Couple on stage in high school.
Back at home, we spent our last evening packing for our long journey home the next day. Already China felt like a distant memory and Tibet a lifetime ago. Travel has a way of forcing us into the present in a way that is hard to do at home. 5 weeks was just the right amount of time and while we could have done with a few days more here or there we all had a sense of being ready to head to familiar surroundings.