I arrived in town a little early yesterday for a dentist appointment and decided to cool down somewhere else rather than the discomforting waiting room. So I went on into TOPS, the building on the corner of 2nd and Klang..
Now this is a place that years gone by, and I was staying on the main drag, (Between Beach Rd, Tai, Second and Klang), was my get out of the heat and do a bit of shopping place. A carton of juice and some bakery items for the room. Go back far enough and there were not many other places to shop proper, Friendship on Tai.... but the big one was too far away, there was a small Friendship located opposite Fra Pattaya on Tai, another up Thrappaya near Marina which supported my Residence Gardens stays, Best supermarket never seemed to be on my radar. But TOPS was good, A large place with a good stock, well run, good service, and providing you had no perishables there was the food court to grab a bite, or pop just outside to The Cool House. I often recall there was one place up against the wall that had waiter service and you didn't have to endure the queue 3 times silliness of vouchers where they served up some real good duck dishes, freshly cooked in front of you. That place may still even be there. A few tables close to the alcohol stocks always used to have a gang of Europeans having an afternoon drinking session in the cool, easy to pop around the corner to get the next round in.
But in modern times, I am not sure what the old Tops wants to be, it is a sad empty space. The shops up the escalator are still there, I wonder how they survive, and I believe the bowling alley is too... I thought the old supermarket was just being refurbished, but it appears not. They are in the new Mall aren't they. I had also heard this building, and a few around it had been purchased and another big Mall was planned. But we have enough Malls don't we.
This was TOPS ground floor yesterday.....what is it to become?
Looks like a place for eating.
The old restuarant to the left.....where the white guys eat?
Enclosed area.
That last pic suggests a Chinese feeding station, anyone who gets around town will know quite a few of these places have appeared in odd locations, where 3-4 huge coaches block the roads meal times as the tourists chomp it down! (For example one near the new Route 99 Bar, other side of Sukhumvit, behind Numchai and the Tesco shop.
The changing face of our dear old Pattaya.......