Thai Bookstores, Centers, and Malls, Oh My!

Diving straight into Bangkok’s center the streets between the many shopping malls people stroll by with shopping bags, sipping on teas during hot days. On every corner there is a shopping center and they feel overwhelmingly large as you stare up trying to decide which to go into. I ended up wandering around on the hunt for bookstores and these were the top 4 I enjoyed:

open house bookstore in downtown Bangkok

Central Embassy

I went to this one purely for the Open House bookstore, which is located on the top floor. I had seen images of its floor-to-ceiling shelves when looking up bookstores in Bangkok and the reality did not disappoint. I like to collect books in the native language of the countries I visit, but they didn’t have any I was looking for….. so I ended up going to five other bookstores accidentally. And by accident I mean I was walking to a museum and ended up walking by a couple more bookstores and popped in until I got to the art event, where there were small bookshops inside there. There I had success in finding a book, so it was worth browsing through so many shops haha.

address:1031 Thanon Phloen Chit, เเขวง ปทุมวัน Khet Pathum Wan, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10330, Thailand

inconsiam shops and staircase showing thai architecture

Iconsiam

One of my favorite centers to walk through. It had an amazing rooftop view and in the basement the food centers were built over a manmade river like the floating markets, which was super unique with different local cuisine. They had a lot of cool shops to wander through and some dining areas with a lot of food options. The building itself had some amazing architecture to enjoy looking at both from the inside and outside since it is just along the river and lit up at night.

Address: 299 Charoen Nakhon Rd, Khlong Ton Sai, Khlong San, Bangkok 10600 Thailand

view of downtown Banbkok by the MBK shopping center

MBK Center

MBK was huge and a little overwhelming to shop through. But it probably didn’t help that I was really tired by the time I got there, so I only stayed long enough to try and find a couple of shops to look through and grab a drink to hydrate. If you like shopping then it would be the place to go because there were so many stalls tucked inside and multiple floors to browse through. A bookstore inside I found offered Thai and English books so I looked through their titles for a while, but they are either very popular books or recent releases going back only a couple of years. At the time they had a food festival outside so they had a bunch of food stalls to eat from outside as well.

444 Phaya Thai Rd, Khwaeng Wang Mai, Khet Pathum Wan, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10330, Thailand

BKK art and culture center view of multiple floors and art displays

cork board of thai tickets and pictures of art and culture museums and thai stickers

Bangkok Art and Culture Center

following the bridge from MBK led to the contemporary art center. They had free exhibitions spanning over multiple floors from many Thai artists ranging from art showing multicultural ties to local creations of imagining and creating architecture. They had some really fun and unique pieces, and on one side of the building, there were craft shops run by locals that ran from handicrafts and souvenirs to coffee shops and books. This is actually where I ended up picking up my souvenir book of a local artist who drew watercolor sketches of the main cities in Thailand, with writing in both Thai and English.

Address: 939 Rama I Rd, Khwaeng Wang Mai, Khet Pathum Wan, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10330, Thailand

For my first time in Bangkok, I saw a lot and yet there was still so much I never got the chance to see. I never would have thought my search for a book would have brought me to so many shops, but it was a fun adventure searching the city and looking through books.

Which center sounds like one you’d enjoy?