Not Your Typical Tourist

A Life Between Two Countries, And All In Between

Thailand

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!

Big Bad Wolf Sale
Big Bad Wolf Sale Bangkok

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.

Big Bad Wolf Sale Bangkok
Big Bad Wolf Sale Bangkok
Big Bad Wolf Sale Bangkok
Big Bad Wolf Sale Bangkok

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:

  1. Far-flung venue, and come on, do they need to be at the BIGGEST exhibition centre in the city?
  2. People, lots and lots of people
  3. 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.

 

Walking from Indoor Parking 3
Walking from Indoor Parking 3

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.

Impact Forum, Hall 9
Impact Forum, Hall 9
Parking entrance at right hand side
Indoor Parking 2 entrance at right hand side

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

Throng of people outside the hall
Throng of people outside the hall

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.

Long long queue to the cashier
Long long queue to the cashier
Many cashiers
“People mountain, people sea”

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.

Thai books
Thai books

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

Come visig Malaysia yo
Come visit Malaysia yo
Let's cook Malaysian dishes
Let’s cook Malaysian dishes
The one and only Chef Wan cookbook
The one and only Chef Wan cookbook

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

 

Uniquely BBW Thai

Sorting out books
Sorting out books
Trolley turned into baby-cart
Trolley turned into children-cart
Making full use of the trolley
Making full use of the trolley

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?

No elephant, no tuk-tuk in Thailand's BBW
No elephant, no tuk-tuk in Thailand’s BBW

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!

Not Your Typical Tourist

Travel opens up a whole new world, which is cliche but true. I am a strong advocate for independent and solo travel. I was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but now live in Bangkok, Thailand, resulted from a chance encounter in 2009 with my why-are-you-Thai bf. I am now split between two countries. One country for my bf, another for the family, for the occasional weekend together.

4 thoughts on “I Underestimated The Big Bad Wolf Sale In Bangkok

    • Notyourtypicaltourist

      Yeah me too 🙂

  • quuen of bee

    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.

    • Notyourtypicaltourist

      That means I have not been to the BBW Sale in town for 2-3 years already!

Comments are closed.