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Bangla Road doesn’t properly start until around 9 pm. Most visitors turn up too early anyway, hungry, not enough cash, and still sunburnt from the afternoon. There is a simple fix, and it’s directly across the street.
The two-minute walk
Jungceylon’s main entrance faces the entrance to Bangla Road. It is a two-minute walk between the two, on flat pavement, no need for tuk-tuk. Patong Beach is located roughly 400 metres away, about five minutes on foot in the other direction. That means one location covers your evening before it starts and your route home after it ends.
There are hundreds of reasons to stop by Jungceylon at night, where you can experience an activity organized by the staff and dine under the night sky rather than just thinking about the place as just a daytime shopping mall.
Eat properly first, and cheaper
Bangla Road pricing is nightlife pricing. Food is an afterthought there, and drinks cost more than they do anywhere else in Patong.
The Food Bazaar in the basement of Jungceylon runs on Thai food-court pricing, with Thai and Western options side by side, so a group that can’t agree on dinner doesn’t have to. International chains and sit-down restaurants fill out the rest of the restaurants at Jungceylon line-up. Eat here at 7 pm, and you walk into Bangla fed and in no hurry.
Sort out cash before you need it
Bangla Road is a cash street. Many bars don’t take cards, and the exchange rates and ATM fees you’ll find on a nightlife strip are rarely the best ones available.
Jungceylon has currency exchange counters and bank branches inside the mall. Change money before you cross the road, not after, and carry a sensible amount rather than the whole trip’s budget.
Buy what you forgot
Pharmacy counters cover the small things that go wrong on a night out: a fresh shirt when your day clothes smell of sun cream, aftersun, a phone charger, a SIM card. These are trivial purchases that are difficult to make at 11 pm on Bangla Road.
There’s also the obvious comfort argument. Air-conditioning, clean restrooms and somewhere to sit are worth more than they sound after a day in the heat.
Park once, walk to both
Jungceylon has more than 2,000 parking spaces, with the first 30 minutes free. Park once and both Bangla Road and Patong Beach are within walking distance. You can avoid the scooter ride home entirely, and you avoid negotiating a tuk-tuk fare at 1 am, which is where most visitors lose the money they saved on drinks.
Plan the sequence
Dinner at Jungceylon, change money, freshen up, then walk across to Bangla Road when it actually gets going.
It costs you nothing, it saves you money on food and exchange rates, and it puts you on the street at night.
