The new Siam mega hangout, Chamchuri Square is finally opened and already lined up with Bangkok's favorite eats such as Fuji and MK. And, not very much else.

The "Edutainment" center is aimed to bring together fun and academics for the students inhabiting the area. BK is curious. It's only an MRT stop away from our office and this could mean a serious change of scene for our lunch breaks.

So I called the center to ask for more information of this humongous intersection construction. For a place this big and run by a very respectable Thai institution, you'd think they'd be happy for us to give them free publicity.

After weeks of hunting down their PR department whom I had hoped could shed some light on the project, I was finally on call with their "head of public relations" who sounded like your typical high school Thai studies teacher.

Now here's the deal about dealing with PRs. Most of the time, they would be nice and would always jump on any free publicity opportunity. We would then agree on visit schedule and then it would all be nicely settled and done and run in BK in two weeks.

With Chamchuri Square, I felt like I was reliving my middle school, being in the principal's office being nailed for a bad grade.

The Head of PR "kindly" fired me questions, asking about our lovely publications. "Who are you? What's your name? What position are you? What kind of magazine is it? Why do you want to come to Chamchuri? Who's writing it? What are you going to write about it? How are you going to write it? How many people are in your company?" and it never stopped.

Before I could answer any of her questions I was asked to send her a letter, no not fax or email either, POSTAL MAIL the properly written letter stating what I want to do with Chamchuri Square. In that letter, I should also include my name, details of my position and section. Also I need to provide them names of the photographers, how many I'm bringing, what kind of camera they use and from what angle will the photos be taken. And that's not all, in the requested "package" I was asked to also send them latest copies of BK Magazine, a document noting the history of Asia City Publishing, with information on each departments and the size of the company. Oh, and she also said after all this bullshit hassle, there's still no guarantee that we will even get the scoop on the place.

But you know what?

Since we BK Magazine writers don't walk around with our logo-ed uniforms on, who says I couldn't just be a regular Siam Shopper who happens to have a digital camera in her hand while having lunch there?