A haven for shopping in Bangkok

INSIDE OUT. For once my European passport did not open doors for me, I was entering a world of back door stores. This is my story in Bangkok’s famous Nana Road.

The side roads were full of people, almost a human jam coming to a total stand still in case one person decided to stop moving in the middle of this havoc. Nana Road in Bangkok is a very well-known road to many tourists specially ones coming from the Middle East countries.
In that road, everything goes hand in hand, side by side and face to face. Between every two shops there are all types of restaurants and food stalls of any type of cuisine in the world that you can imagine. In front of most of them there are people calling you to come in and try their food.

Attractive restaurant staff and the guessing game
At some stage I had to stop and look at a man inviting my husband and I into an Italian Restaurant- a handsome Italian man who looked like he was coming straight from Rome’s famous “ Via Del Corso” road. What was he doing there? I guess this shows that there is much more to this business than what meets the eye, otherwise he would not be there spending precious time inviting people into a restaurant. But the show stopper was an Egyptian man who was standing in front of a Mediterranean restaurant examining everyone who passes by, this was to determine their country of origin after which he would speak to them in their own language.

We were actually shocked to see that while looking at us he started talking in our mother tongue -Persian-saying that the food in their place is one of the best. Unfortunately, we were not hungry otherwise I would have tried his restaurant, just because I was so impressed.
I could only imagine the number of years this man has been standing there and looking at people and guessing where they came from, and learning some phrases in each language to make an impression on them.

Indecent proposals
Walking in Nana seems like walking in a park, but at some point things change a bit, you could be passing by a normal foot and nail spa and then next door a young lady dressed like.
“ it’s Christmas” comes out inviting you in, not for a cup of tea I am afraid, rather to find a “company” of your choice. It really did not make any difference to them that some were couples walking hand in hand, sometimes with their children in tow, still the man was invited to join the “customers’ of their “shop”. I used to get quite upset at this inconsiderate gesture, this faded with time and when I remembered that it was all about demand and offer, just like the restaurant next door.

Looking for an adventure
However, as much as the above “shop” remains wide open for everyone to see what is happening inside, there seems to be some other shops that are under key and lock, and only specific people can enter in them.

A friend gave us the address of one such shop, more of curiosity than an actual shopping spree, we set out looking for it. There was a very small area in the front selling watches, so when we entered the shop I thought we are in the wrong place, but then a man came in and asked us about our nationality! Puzzled, I asked him why? He insisted on knowing first, so I told him we were from the Middle East, it was then that a mirror door opened and we were shown inside.

A world of fake designer bags and watches were there to choose from. Although the market is flooded with similar items, this particular shop had very high quality replicates that almost matched the real ones and with very high prices too.

The duplicate was so good that they feared European nationals may purchase them and the shop will be sued for creating such perfect replicates of European products. And Nana Road still has more undiscovered corners!