Experiences of an Apple fan around the world – Thailand
by Senthil
Thailand – For me it is synonymous with Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya because these are the three cities in Thailand that I have visited frequently. And Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya evokes images of fun, beaches, and late night partying. You must be wondering in a place like this could there be any signs of Apple? Few years back, the pre-iPod era, you could hardly find any Apple related products in the IT malls of Bangkok (there are three huge malls that I know of which are dedicated to only IT & IT related products). Now as you walk into these malls you can see the iPods hanging at almost all the shops in the malls. My favorite is the Pantip Plaza. Even thinking of Pantip Plaza gets me nostalgic, as I used to spend at least a day of my holiday roaming around this mall.
If you are a IT nut, like most of us are, then Pantip Plaza is the place, a Mecca for all of Bangkok’s computer users (I must add it must be the hub for all of South East Asia IT users) as well as tourists. For me a trip to Bangkok is incomplete without visiting Pantip Plaza. Here you will find more than five floors of the most competitively priced hardware and software in Asia. Rumors are that, it has been the target of several police raids for selling pirated stuff. But after a few hours almost all of them are back in business.
Plenty of software and hardware for PC, Mac and peripherals of all types are available for you to window shop or buy. Lots of things that are hard to find in UAE are available and that too at rock bottom prices. This is also a good place to bring any damaged equipment for repair; they are particularly skillful with notebook PCs and printers. Though they may not be as skillful with Apple stuff as they are with the Wintel world.
Once I have done my browsing at the shops on the first two floors, I straight away hit the Apple store on the 3rd floor. Though this is not a true Apple store, I found the range of products quite amazing. Almost everything that is released in US is available immediately. I guess Thailand gets Apple products faster than other parts of Asia, with the exception of Hong Kong and Singapore. Also at Pantip, you could lay your hands on all kinds of older Apple models. There is a floor dedicated to selling second hand stuff. I think I saw a lot of older Apple Macs during one of my visits here.
As soon as you walk into the store, you find some extremely helpful salespeople. Majority of the salespeople I found in this store were women. They are polite, knowledgeable and extremely helpful. You could spend hours in the store browsing the net, using the Apple notebooks, iPods. Practically you can touch and feel all the products in the store. I like the way they treat their customers, never being pushy and at the same time letting you know that they are there to help you when you need it and the prices are amazing. Though they may not be at par with Hong Kong prices, but very close to Hong Kong prices.
My first purchase here was an iPod mini. I just walked in, checked out all the available models of iPods and then picked up a mini. As soon as the salesperson knew that I was an Apple fan, use an eMac at home and am crazy about Apple, she downloaded almost 100 songs from her personal collection to my mini. I still have those songs.
I think it is the Thai culture, which makes them so friendly and welcoming. This could be felt in the store also. Imagine haggling on the list price of an iPod mini. This could happen only in Thailand.
If you are planning a trip to Thailand, then a visit to Pantip Plaza is a must and the 3rd floor where the Apple store is located is a definite must. Not only is Apple present in Pantip Plaza, you could also find iMacs, MacBooks and iPods at MacBook Pros, which again is a big mall but only the 4th and 5th floors are dedicated to IT stuff. This is another great place to browse for Apple stuff. The other IT dedicated malls in Bangkok are Fortune Mall but there is not much of Apple stuff here. If you plan to go to Thailand, I am sure some of you might be planning a holiday to Thailand this summer, then a visit to Pantip plaza 3rd floor is a must. You will surely enjoy it.