The Mullet is back! Seems the trendiest hairstyle for the hip young Bangkok boys is the spikey mullet. Seems every other fashion plate is sporting 3 - 4 inch spikes on top with a long shaggy fringe on the back, sometimes with an additional tail (circa 1983). I only hope they don't start sporting gun racks as well.
Mall Mania. I may have been wrong about Dubai having the most malls per capita in the world. Bangkok is certainly equal to, if not exceeding Dubai in this regard. With the completion of the new Paragon Mall in Siam Center, Bangkok has a stretch of malls that goes on for miles along Ploenchit Road. MBK, Discovery Center, Siam Center, and the Paragon border each other and right down the road is the World Trade Center, Gaysorn Plaza and Erawon among others. My favorite is MBK which is a mall, but has a market feel inside and vendors you can bargain with. While the residents of Dubai are generally well off and can afford to shop at malls, I don't know that Bangkok residents can actually support such ventures and they must be relying, for the most part, on tourist dollars. Prices in most of the malls match those found in any Western country.
The Paragon - "pride of Bangkok" has the largest aquarium in Asia and Australia, though I didn't make it inside. It's a bit pricey at 450 baht - 12 dollars - but if it's really larger than the Sydney Aquarium, it may well be worth it. The mall's theme (every mall has to have a theme now, right?) is water and inside you can find the Lagoon, the Canal, etc, etc. As far as malls go, this one is quite lovely, though my friend Jennifer thinks that given a few months, after the newness wears off, Thai families are going to start setting up picnics on the canal sites, catching and barbecuing the fish.
The Paragon has a large bookstore on the second floor with loads of English books and a gourmet market that i wished were there when I was living in Bangkok.
Hold on to your drink. I dare you to find a single safe surface to put down your drink in Bangkok (outside of the malls and 5 star hotels). Tables are either unbalanced rocking back and forth every time you set something down or have an uneven wooden surface, which seems to be popular in some of the pubs. But, despite the rocking uneven tables, heaven forbid you don't put your drink on some kind of coaster. Thai servers may be some of the worst ever until it comes to policing those coasters. Waving around an empty bottle/glass in the air for ten minutes trying to get the attention of a waiter is not uncommon, but place that bottle on the table off the coaster and within seconds someone will move it back to it's proper place.
Yes, I did spill a drink, or two. Most notably in the cinema where my friend's medium Sprite didn't fit properly into the cup holder. On the way out, I knocked it over spilling it all over the floor. Oops, quite embarrassing.
A rainbow of taxis. In the six months since i last visited Bangkok, the number of different taxi companies has exploded. I don't know the reasons why. Perhaps there has been some kind of deregulation ruling. Whatever the reason, when I lived there and visited last, there were basically two taxis - the older green and yellow ones and the newer, cleaner red and blue ones. Now there is a virtual rainbow of taxis, with bright orange, green, solid red and blue, and my favorite - shocking pink. The good thing is that all of them have the same rates and all of them are metered. One thing I hate to do is bargain with taxi drivers.
Speaking of transportation. The new underground is up (down?) and running. It's clean, reliable and very convenient. It's a great addition to the skytrain and doesn't cut up the skyline. I just wish it went to the southern part of the city. If you want to go to Khaosan Road, Pinklao or the Southern Bus Station, you still have to rely on buses (haha), taxis, boats or a combination of the three. It can take hours to get from downtown to the station on a busy day.
The Segmenting of Downtown. Bangkok city center can never be viewed in total, but always through the massive pillars of the sky train. It's been cut up into parts almost like movie frames. The architecture might be stunning, but you'll never be able to take it in all at once. While I love using the skytrain, it certainly doesn't do much for the view.

New Movie House. There's a new cinema in town and it actually plays quality movies. It's called the House and it's located in the RCA Plaza. As I mentioned in a previous post, Bangkok is a great place to see a movie. There are hundreds of cinemas and the prices are extremely reasonable - about 2.50 USD. unfortunately, choices are rather limited. There are generally about 6 - 8 Hollywood blockbusters and 3 -4 goofy Thai movies playing at every theatre. The Lido and Scala, across from Siam Center, play the odd art house movie and run some festivals, but for the most part, it's Hollywood or bust. Now, I don't mind paying 2 bucks to see Fantastic Four but I'd rather see something a bit more thought provoking. The House has some very interesting selections and it's fairly easy to get there. Take the underground to Thailand Cultural Center and ask for RCA Plaza.
RCA Bar Street. After seeing a flick, head down to bar street. It's right outside exit 2 of the Thailand Cultural Center MRT Station (though when I went, I didn't realize that and it took me forever to find it, much to the chagrin of the people I was meeting there.) I don't know how I missed this place when i was living in Bangkok - it's an entire street packed with bars - Hollywood, Zeed2 and G-Star among others. Seems to be frequented mostly by locals and is extremely loud, but fun.
Speaking of noise. Bangkok's got to be one of the loudest cities in the world. The traffic, the people screaming in their mobiles, the constant sound of TVs and radios, all of it can get to you after a while. For anyone who just can't take the noise in Bangkok anymore, check out Quiet Bangkok for some suggestions on how to escape. It's written by a Bangkokian and is half English/half Thai.