I bought Binggrae melon-flavoured milk the night before. It’s some BTS edition. The musk melon flavour was actually quite yum!
Everytime I visit Bangkok and it’s a weekend, I try to visit Asia’s largest street market — Chatuchak weekend market.
I took the BTS to Mo Chit station
I visited Chatuchak market for the first time during my very first visit to Thailand back in 2009. This is probably my fifth or sixth time coming here — it’s like a ritual whenever I am in Bangkok
Why?
Because this place is awesome — it has something for everyone!
So many food stalls selling everything from Pad Thai…
…to shawarmas. And everything in between!
From second-hand books…
… to street musicians
From fruit-scented soaps…
… naughty-looking soaps…
… to popping by my favourite T-shirt shop in Bangkok
With changing times, Chatuchak sellers are now also live-streaming to grow their business
Jatujak or Chatuchak… both are used interchangeably
COVID had killed some night markets but nice to see Jatujak still standing
Since there wasn’t anything new to observe in terms of stalls, I checked a new mall that had opened recently.
It’s called Mixt Chatuchak and it’s right by the weekend market
It’s not a big mall or anything, and it has many of the same stuff you will find it Chatuchak market stalls
Lots of clothes again
One key difference when it comes to offerings though, are the availability of toy stores selling collectibles and anime figurines!
There were a bunch of these shops!
Quite a nice collection too!
Although One Piece…
… and Demon Slayer characters were the most popular
MEGA Plaza and Always One Plaza probably have more stores and variety, but if you want to shop for anime figurines and get there easily by BTS metro, Mixt Chatuchak is quite good.
Lots of passerby were drawn to this pet store
Just as in India’s metros, there is demand in Bangkok for breeds from the northern hemisphere regions too
Imagine, all these furry breeds — huskies, malamutes, samoyeds — in tropical weather I’m guessing just as in India, local “dog lovers” don’t want their local, less-furry breeds?
I went back out to the market and decided to leave
Seeing this sunset made me sad. I hate the feeling when a trip comes to an end.
I picked up some dinner from a Middle Eastern eatery in Nana
A band playing music to raise funds for some cause
Despite being my seventh time in Bangkok, I had never taken a local city bus to get around. I always rely on the metro as it’s the quickest way.
So I hopped into an old bus (Bangkok has new buses too) that was just going straight down Sukhumvit road
Once back in room, I packed my bags and went to bed, as I had to check out and head to the airport in the morning.
As a fan of Coldplay since A Rush of Blood to the Head, seeing them live has been a bucket-list item for well over 15 years. Heck, back in 2011 I even went to see a tribute band play in UB City. X&Y (my favourite Coldplay album) had the stadium anthem “Fix You” and Viva La Vida and Death and All His Friends had its stadium anthem with “Viva La Vida”. But we’re now in the era where a “Sky Full of Stars” going viral on social media alone has marketed Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres concert series better than ever before, and introduced the 25-year-old British band to a new stadium anthem.
The album Music of the Spheres was released 2 years ago — Coldplay’s first album produced by my all-time favourite music producer — Max Martin. But the popularity of the concert has made Coldplay continue to tour for so long that it is now, officially, the most attended tour of all time and the second highest grossing tour of all time (first is Taylor Swift’s Eras tour)!
I won’t go into the ticketing headache that was the BookMyShow experience, so I will just talk about the Coldplay experience.
I wanted to get inside the venue early so as to avoid last minute rushes.
I had a hearty lunch before leaving for DY Patil Stadium
From my hotel, I then walked to Turbhe railway station.
A ticket to Nerul station was Rs. 5 ($0.05/€0.05) and the train would arrive in 15 minutes.
I’m constantly astounded at how cheap local trains are in Mumbai
I took the Nerul East exit
I just pulled up Google Maps and followed the path to DY Patil University
My ticket’s entry was Gate 8, so I walked in the direction towards the Architecture College at DY Patil University
Navi Mumbai felt breathable compared to super congested Mumbai
I could tell I was on the right path once I noticed girls dressed to the tee on my way
There were direction boards plastered all along the route
Navi Mumbai translates to ‘New Mumbai’ and is a better planned city to the messy ‘old’ Mumbai
I was near
I could see scalpers desperate to sell off their tickets outside and I was happy to see them struggle! Clearly their attempts to sell tickets at 3~4 times for so long failed, and were now trying get the tickets off their hands.
My section was Block M, so we had to go through the College of Architecture
DY Patil is a private university offering various bachelors and masters programs.
To say the facilities and the campus is awesome would be an understatement!
And yes, even the massive 45,300-seat stadium is part of the campus.
I went in and collected my LED wrist band and Moon Goggles
What are the Moon Googles for? You will see later.
These are the entry point for L1, L2, and L3 at Block M (L = Levels)
Toilets were not too far off from the entry points and there were water stations too. I had carried a tiny juice bottle which I refilled. Otherwise you had to buy a ₹100 cup which you can refill with water as much as you want.
This is the view from the L1 Section (₹4500). I wouldn’t book a seat in the back row here — your photos WILL be obstructed by the L2 balcony above
This is the section from L2 balcony. Now I know why they charged ₹12500 for this section.
And this is the view from L3 section (₹3500), up front
My seat was L36, all the way up on top
Next to mine were sections N, O, and P. Section P were priced lower, so maybe the view isn’t as good?
That’s the Lounge section, priced at ₹35,000 — watch this Instagram Reel to see what it was like after spending that much!
The guests at Courtyard Marriott get a free view of the concert too… just not the stage
The view from my seat wasn’t too bad.
Sure, I couldn’t see the performer on the stage much… especially via my phone’s camera, which lacked zoom
But as you will see in the video at the end of this blog, you will see I was still immensely pleased with the view!
The one benefit I had with my seat was that I only had to bend backwards to fill my bottle with free water
I would manage my water intake so as not feel the urge to go to the bathroom and miss out on the songs I wanted to hear. I’m not a fan of “All My Love” from Moon Music, so I told myself that would be my bathroom break song.
This was setlist Coldplay used for all their India shows.
I decided to go back down and check out the activity zone for this area
The official Coldplay merchandise booth
Prices for T-shirts started at ₹1500
Dominos Pizza and Burger King were the main food booths. Prices were much higher than what the same items cost in a restaurant. ₹450 ($5.20) for a 7″ pizza?!
Jameson Irish whiskey was the official liquor vendor
I actually looked around to see if any guy would come to this Coldplay concert wearing a black t-shirt of a famous rock band… because I kinda knew there would be at least a few casuals who would do such a thing.
And voila! Guy wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt… to a Coldplay concert
I went back to my seat. It was honestly tiring to climb the flight of stairs to get to L3 section — so be mindful of that when you get a seat up here.
At 5pm, the first of three opening acts took to the stage — Shone is a Zimbabwean artist
He was alright, but the next singer was even better.
Elyanna is a Palestinian-Chilean singer, who sounded AMAZING
Elyanna sang mostly in Arabic and put on a good show with her dancers. She was also featured in Coldplay’s “We Pray” single.
The third and final opening act for the show was Jasleen Royal… who was NOT amazing
Initially I thought “maybe she’s sick” — but no, Jasleen sang the same across every India show
How Jasleen Royal became a popular Indian singer is beyond me. She was a mediocre singer at best! What’s even embarrassing was India’s best playback singer at the moment, Shreya Ghoshal, was in the audience as a concert attendee!
Anyway, time for the main show to begin!
After the concert ends, we’re supposed to return our LED wristbands as they are re-used all throughout the world tour.
Tokyo currently leads with a 97% return rate (not surprised). Abu Dhabi’s return rate was 79%. I had a feeling India’s return rate would be bad.
By 7:50pm or so, the lights dimmed and the stadium roared as Coldplay’s members walked towards the stage. When our LED lights started to light up to match the programmed sounds… it was an amazing sight to behold!
The view from my seat was spectacular!
I mean, seeing nearly 60,000 lights dance to the music was a visual spectacle to behold!
As a fan of Coldplay since 20 years, I can enjoy their concert even without the LED lights… but to say the LED wristbands don’t amplify the experience would be such a pretentious lie!
The LED wristbands would switch off during songs like “The Scientist” and whenever Chris Martin spoke to the audience
Watch the video below, as it is 43 minutes long in 1080p and turn on the captions to get my thoughts throughout all the songs from the show.
The whole stadium erupted for “A Sky Full of stars” — a song that has now become Coldplay’s most popular, thanks to social media
While it’s true there were many attendees who were simply there to brag about… well, being there… and to shoot social media content, I would say 50% of the audience knew 70% of the setlist very well.
I could hear enough singing from the real fans echo all the way up my ears — so contrary to some reports, the audience was NOT dead!
Again, watch my video below if you don’t believe me.
The band came closer to my side for “Sparks,” the band member introductions, and Chris’ impromptu songs segment
Was I disappointed with anything? Sure, I would have loved to hear “Magic” or “Daddy” instead of “Everglow” during the part Chris invites a fan on stage. Instead of “Sparks” I would have liked “Trouble” or “Don’t Panic” from Parachutes instead. Then again, Coldplay have sooooo many good songs from every album that if they included the songs I would personally like to hear, the show would run 4 hours long!
Towards the end of the concert, we were told to put on the Moon Goggles for “Good Feelings” (from Moon Music).
The show ended around 10pm and I absolutely loved it!
What I didn’t love was pretty much everything that happened after the concert ended.
It was a slow flow of people trying to fit through narrow exit gaps
We were told by concert staff — including Coldplay’s own staff from the UK — that we would have to return our LED wristbands, and I did so willingly. Stupid thing was, there were so many trying to keep it as memorabilia! What for I don’t know! Most people wouldn’t know how to trigger the lights because the wristband has no buttons or even Coldplay branding. I just know India would have the worst return rate in the world! What’s even worse is that, after a few years, these LED wristbands will be thrown out by those who kept it after finally realizing they can’t do anything with it. Sigh…
As I walked out of the stadium, I still couldn’t believe this massive stadium was part of a university’s campus!
The private college facilities are very impressive!
Once outside, eateries and restaurants were jam packed!
I managed to find a table inside a bar which also had a good enough menu for dinner. I finished eating before it got even more crowded. I decided to eat first because I only had two restaurant options near my hotel and I still had to figure out how to get back this late at night.
So many were struggling to book Uber and Ola taxis, and prices were three times than usual. Auto rickshaws were no better!
I walked towards Juinagar train station
Once I got to Juinagar station, the lines were so long for the ticket vending machines that I gave up after 5 minutes and resumed walking. Along the route towards IKEA Navi Mumbai, I stopped auto rickshaws passing by and tried negotiating prices. Finally, as I was talking to one driver, a group of Keralites nearby overheard me and asked me which way I was going. As my luck would have it, they were staying in the same hotel I was. Eventually the auto driver agree to ₹500 for the four of us. Way too much for just 2 kms but what to do, we all got to get back to our rooms safely and quickly. I imagine many struggled that night to find a ride back to the Mumbai side. Makes me glad I took the right decision to book a hotel not far from the venue just for tonight. (I will blog about all that later).
Overall, I was super happy with the concert. I can’t speak for everyone as there were some who faced issues — but I had a blast! It was organized well, I enjoyed the view, the music, and felt it was worth spending to come all the way here to witness it all. Truly a once in a lifetime joy!
Will I go see Coldplay even without the LED light show? Yes, of course I would! I’ve been dreaming about seeing the band live since the X & Y and Viva La Vida days. I can’t wait to see Coldplay again… just, hopefully in Bangalore next time.
Enjoy the concert video and enable captions to read the captions I added:
After checking out Ong Ang Canal and Mega Plaza, I walked up Yaowarat Road to the section that is widely showcased as Bangkok’s Chinatown. This being mid-January, Yaowarat Road was decorated to usher in the Chinese New Year vibes.
Bangkok’s Chinatown area is in the Samphanthawong district
Chinese have been migrating to Thailand for over 200 years. Initially for trade/business, then later waves of refugees fleeing the civil war era of the 1900s, and then the Mao era post 1950s. Mostly from southern China, first by way of border nations like Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia — and then making their way to more prosperous Bangkok.
Many businesses traditional Chinese goods
Even to this day, Chinese are trying to migrate to Thailand using various means. Mainland Chinese are the largest group of foreign buyers of real estate in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Many come to study in the international schools, and use education visa as a foot through the door to stay long-term.
I was getting near
The crowds were already thronging road-side stalls
Cheongsams were available for purchase if you wanted to get the ‘Chinese’ look
I’m guessing just as in India, local “dog lovers” don’t want their local, less-furry breeds?
