I Underestimated The Big Bad Wolf Sale In Bangkok
I ate humble pie at the inaugural Big Bad Wolf (BBW) Sale in Bangkok. I thought Thai and English books just do not belong in the same place at the same time. I was so wrong, and really, I am glad that I got it wrong. There’s hope after all for improvement of English proficiency, and that’s great!

The Born-In-Malaysia Big Bad Wolf‘s insane appetite to conquer the world South East Asia region, brought them to Bangkok from 12-21 August 2016. Awoooooooooo …..
“It’s time to reach out to other South-East-Asian countries. They do need something like this. Apart from Malaysia and Singapore, the rest of the region is very far behind because the English comprehension is so poor. It’s time to introduce BBW to these countries,” Andrew Yap of BookXcess said.
Good on ya mate.


Since I have been to the BBW Sale in KL a couple of times, I am able to compare the two book sales. There’s no doubt about it: KL has it better.
I will avoid the BBW Sale in Bangkok like the plague, because:
- Far-flung venue, and come on, do they need to be at the BIGGEST exhibition centre in the city?
- People, lots and lots of people
- Less discount, and less Books
Venue
IMPACT Muong Thong Thani is located at Pak Kret District, at Nonthaburi, a good 16 km away from Don Mueang International Airport. Bf picked me up from airport last Saturday night, and we drove straight to the book fair.
Perhaps if we did not use the Srisaman Expressway, it wouldn’t be that awful. We were stuck at the toll plaza for a long, long time. You see, after the toll plaza, it leads to a messy cross junction .. and the traffic light takes forever to change. Imagine the slow traffic flow!
IMPACT Muong Thong Thani is lauded as the 2nd? 5th largest exhibition and convention venue in Asia (after four venues in China), it was insane! This gigantic maze has an arena, convention centre and exhibition hall. And this means, the whole world is here.
My first visit is also my last. If you have been complaining about MIECC (Malaysia International Exhibition & Convention Centre) at MINES Resort City at Seri Kembangan, Bangkok’s venue is not anywhere better.

On BBW’s Facebook, venue stated only as Impact Convention Center. Tsk. As the place is massive, we were not sure on nearest parking, and ended up parking at Indoor Parking 3.


The specific venue was at Impact Forum, Hall 9, and Indoor Parking P2 is the closest parking. Long queue of cars were seen going in to the car park.
Parking rate for all Indoor Parking (1,2 and 3) is 40 baht for the first 3 hours, and additional 20 baht per hour subsequently. Outdoor Parking areas are free.
People

It was holy moly lots of people. 6 millions of Bangkok population vs KL/PJ of 2 millions or so, you do the math. On normal days, Thai are already shopping-queen-and-king .. let alone one chest-thumping fair proclaiming 60-80% discount on all books. I should have known better, but I did NOT.


Despite having selected few books, we left without buying them. I just couldn’t bring myself, joining the long, long queue.
Pricing and Books
3.5 millions books at 75%-95% discount back home vs. 2 million books at 60-80% discount in Bangkok. KL wins.
English books are similar, with the usual suspects.

They also have some Thai books, just outside the hall.



I jokingly said that BBW is secretly promoting Malaysia, with the many Malaysia-related books I spotted at the fair.
Uniquely BBW Thai



How come we got no trolleys in Malaysia? It comes in handy to pull children around. *chuckle* (Update: A reader corrected that trolley is available in BBW Malaysia for around 2 years already).
They also use plastic bags here .. I was rather hoping that they do not provide plastic bags, like how it is back home. But well … this is Thailand .. all hell will break loose without plastic bags, wontcha?

In Thailand’s BBW, no elephant-pets and no tuk-tuks are allowed inside the hall, ya.
Need not to say, I’ll not be back next time. If I manage to secure any preview passess, yeah, I’ll probably be back. Otherwise, sorry lah. I shall see the wolf in KL!
fun time, i missed the BBW
Yeah me too 🙂
Got trolley already. They started the trolley last year, or was it last last year. I usually go early morning, ie arrived at 6am when they are open round the clock.
That means I have not been to the BBW Sale in town for 2-3 years already!