Monday, January 1, 2007

Bangkok Land of Traditions, Cuisine & Coke..


I love Bangkok! For the past 2 years, I have made an effort to visit Bangkok, for its cultural wonders, great food, and Coca-Cola collections. I find Thai’s really hospitable, friendly, accommodating and they love Coke! Bangkok is really a place where Coca-Cola Collectors find joy in. Here’s my story…

In 2005, during my 5 days trip to Bangkok, I visited this restaurant called “Café Classique”, at Sukhumvit. Far from being your ordinary café, the owner of this place showcased his admirable collection of Coca-Cola. This café have easily thousands of Coca-Cola cans, bottles, posters, signage and merchandises.

I also visited a shop at MBK called About Coke (http://www.collectmyall.com/). There, I spend close to 2 hours talking to the owner, who is a collector himself. I ended up buying 3 sets of Coca-Cola cans.

From my trip in 2005, I started researching about Coca-Cola collectors in Bangkok. I came across http://www.cokethai.com/ . It was Thailand’s Coca-Cola Collectors Club’s forum. I became a member, although most of the posting were in Thai. I corresponded with a couple of people there (Oly from China, Keith from Australia), and learned more about their passion for Coca-Cola collections. One of them was Sam, a moderator for the website.

From that trip also, my Thai friend, Jess, learned of my passion for Coca-Cola, and he started collecting for me. When I was there recently in 2006, he had collected the complete World Cup 2006 collection (10 cans) and a couple of China World Cup collection. Thanks Jess!!

Apart from that, during my 2006 trip, I managed to buy a 1 litre Coca-Cola bottle from a provision store, a plastic Coca-Cola cup from a food court and a prototype Coca-Cola Christmas edition, due to be released at 7-11 in Bangkok (Thanks Non!)

I really love Bangkok! Great. My Bangkok Coca-Cola collections will remind me what a great country Thailand is and how great my friends are.