Siam Square rocking on Christmas Eve day

Kids try out Powerisers in Siam Square. What goes up, must come down as one kid below found out.

Being next door to Chulalongkorn University, apparently ranked No. 1 in the nation, helps Siam Square business. No other reason for the chock-a-block clothing boutiques, skin health stores (girls only, please), and junk food shops selling colourful candies, stuffed desserts, greasy  chicken and pizza (replicas).  Actually, the students went on break this week but it was still busy. The square -- not to be confused with Siam Centre, Siam Paragon and Siam Discovery, across Sukhumvit and the BTS line --  also features a lot of entertainment for the kids.

And you know what that means! A marketing opportunity.

One of the mobile phone services, 1-2-Call, set up shop. The huge promo featured specialty boutiques and, well, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me just what this was all about. And neither could 1-2-Call, since its "event"  was mostly plastering its name on table banners and cardboard signs. If it was selling something, the cacophony of music and logo-laden representatives managed to distract me from the message.  I was kind of hoping to see a table full of voice and data deals, with willing, helpful sales girls wanting to fill their quotas. There was one table but I, the farang, was skillfully  ignored. Usual reason most farangs will tell you is that no one wants to risk using their English language skills.

 An interesting distraction behind the Starbucks concern were guys wearing metallic and spring contraptions that gave them a 25-30 cm boost in height. These Powerisers, as could then bound down the sidewalk like  centaurs. Which they did. But behind the coffee shop a guy was giving a demo of the leap-o-matics. He could put himself about two, three meters in the air, do flying kicks and other balletic tricks. The kids gave the devices a try. You know the rule: what goes up must come down and one kid that I saw took quite a spill. If you get the landing wrong, you’ve got another 30 cm farther to fall. The kids shown in the photos are from a local university, which one I don’t know but I see them all the time at Siam Square.

There was usual Christmas street decorations. Nothing worth photographing. Look at last year's photo report  and you'll get the idea.

 

The kid almost went head first into the brick and concrete planter.

No, he's not riding a truck. He's the demo guy, with apparently no ceiling.