New Craze in Bangkok : Siam Paragon !

Latest update for Bangkokians and visitors who plan to go to Bangkok. A new shopping paradise was just opened in Siam area : The Siam Paragon. It was built on the site of former Siam Intercontinental Hotel. Siam Paragon claims to be the biggest shopping mall in South East Asia. They call it : The Pride of Bangkok. The mall is so big, it contains an aquarium down under : Siam Ocean World.
The mall is owned and operated by the same owner and operator of The Emporium, another high end shopping center of Bangkok which recently just had a thorough make-over.
There is no better way to get there than taking the BTS Skytrain. Taxis, tuktuks, buses will get stuck before even reaching Siam area because of the ever increasing traffic to this area.
This mall is clearly an upscale one with showrooms of luxurious cars, such as Ferrari, Maserati, BMW, high-end boutiques like Prada, Shanghai Tang, Jimmy Choo, Chanel, Guess?, etc. On the ground floor there is the food area, i.e. the Food Hall and some other restaurants, ranging from mid-tier (KFC, MK) to the high-tier ones (Greyhound, Crystal Jade, etc).
The key tenant is Paragon Department store. It has very similar format and design as well as product assortment as the sister in Sukhumvit: The Emporium Department Store. California Wow fitness center also opened a branch here. On top, it's the entertainment center : bowling, cinemas, 3D movie cinema. The cinema name is Paragon Cineplex, not taking any name of chain cinemas of Bangkok (Major, EGV nor SFX). Huge and ultra modern lobby.
Outside the building, inbetween to Siam Center there is a wide open space area. It's nice with a modern fountain strip and palm trees. However, it can be extremely hot during summer time. Besides serving as transition area to Siam Center, this area is also used to held some promotional (BMW event, Dutch Mill Dairy event) and non promotional (Chinese New Year, Christmas, etc) events.
The Siam Paragon building is very well connected (at 2 gates) to the BTS Skytrain Siam Station. It also connects well to the newly refurbished Siam Center. The Siam area is now really a shopping paradise, where one can hop on from Siam Square, to Siam Paragon, continuing to Siam Center, then Siam Discovery and ending in Mah Boon Krong (MBK).

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