Jungceylon Shopping Mall (when a gal needs sunscreen) and Bangla Road

Hi Internet! I have been lazing around for the past few days, a bit of beach, a bit of food, lots of sleep and sprawling in my hotel room like a beached whale drinking in the air-conditioning and watching Youtube videos when awake. Today could not be that day again. One, because it is becoming ridiculous and two, more importantly, I have almost run out of sunscreen. Thus, began the odyssey of the sunscreen…

Okay, I am going to be honest here, I am a big bargain hunter and even with the Rand the way it is, you hear that Thailand is cheap-cheap. From my experience, it is fair to good value on most things, great value on some and outrageously expensive on a few things. One of those outrageous things is sunscreen! Now based on the price, especially of SPF 50, it leads me to believe that only the tourists are buying sunscreen, particularly the high factors. On my first foray in Phuket to look for sunscreen, I saw either a Garnier or Nivea SPF 50 for about 700 Baht! That’s about R325 a bottle based on today’s exchange rate! That’s highway robbery! I would rather stay inside than buy that! This led to careful pharmacy searching and the conclusion I needed to go to the mall. Now Junceylon Shopping Centre is one of the ones listed when you look up things to do in Phuket, so it was sort of on my list anyway. Although I am big shopper at home, I don’t have the patience for malls that I used to have and until Bangkok, don’t have the suitcase weight to be buying things, so it wasn’t high on my list.

However today was probably the last day I had enough sunscreen to adequately protect myself, so it was now or never. This was how I ended up using Google maps to find Jungceylon from my hotel. When I got there, it turned out to be a definite combination place, probably a step up in luxury stores from Canal Walk but not quite V & A Waterfront or Cavendish Square level, plus it had tourist-style souvenir stuff like the V & A Red Shed. Nonetheless, none of that mattered, I needed sunscreen!

I scoped out the pharmacy and beauty stores and pinned it down to Boots being the cheapest. After all this careful searching I found Nivea SPF 50 at R209 a bottle, and though while still high is at least tolerable. There was another brand, I had never heard of, Banana Boat, which had a Skin Cancer Foundation mark, that was less than R140, more my SA price range. No prizes for guessing which one I bought. Banana Boat also happens to be made in the US. I don’t understand the European brands prices though, I thought the Nivea I buy in SA was local, but no, it’s German. How is it about double the price in Thailand as it is in SA? (Okay, admittedly I can get it for less than that, but still at least 30% more and climbing, it is not comparable.)  Strange stuff.

I wandered around in almost a daze, there were far too many shops, I was too hot and I hadn’t eaten lunch. So off to the supermarket, which was huge and I went looking for on the go food to eat. I ended up picking a pre-packed, cut up punnet of Dragon Fruit. Now I had yet to try Dragon Fruit, it turns out to have a slightly odd flavour, but being cool, juicy and sweet, it certainly hit the spot. And 870g of cut up fruit for less than R20, deal! Couldn’t eat anymore if I tried, I had to shove the last few pieces in my mouth because I was getting full but I knew it would die if I took it back on my trek to the hotel.

I also twice went into Moshi Moshi and I eyed all the cute stuff. Now I know we have Miniso in Canal Walk (they also have it in Jungceylon) but we don’t have Moshi Moshi. Of course, I succumbed. But for less than R35 I could not pass by the cuteness and a notebook with a Penguin that says “Great minds think alone”. It was as if it was made for me. (Yes, I am fully aware of the deep irony of a “special snowflake” sentiment on a mass-produced item. I’m susceptible, not entirely stupid.)

I then passed Bangla Road on my way back. I was not too sure I wanted to come back at night, but I think it’s probably going to be less gross than Soi Cowboy. This post will be continued later when I return from Bangla Road at night…

Okay, the overall verdict for Bangla Road was fun. It was hyped up, overrun with touts for the less savoury establishments and with music pouring out of every available spot and pore. It was bright, loud and packed but yet still, it had a vibe. I didn’t love the go-go bars or the incessant advertising for ping-pong shows (seriously 2019 people, yuck-yuggh) but honestly even some of the go-go bars had that hint of irony and humour that was oh so sorely lacking in Soi Cowboy. There were some live bands playing in a few of the bars and they were pretty good, a pity they get drowned out by their neighbours once you take a few steps away from them. It’s definitely got the feel of Cape Town’s Long Street at night, but if Long Street got hopped up on sugar first and swapped out all the guys pushing drugs with people offering go-go bars and ping-pong shows (honestly not sure which of those is worse…) It was worth the trip and the live bands sounded good, frankly this was the first and only time thus far that it would have been nice to do this with someone else because going to a bar to listen to music and have a drink by yourself is not as good as doing the same thing with friends – also, more importantly who is going to watch your drink when you are on your own? And realistically I am not going out to drink when I have been eating so lightly, not enough in there to soak up any booze. So, Bangla Road was good and the red hat is off to have a snooze…