Bangkok Shopping
Smart people arrive in Bangkok with empty suitcases and goback with full ones. The reason is that Bangkok is one of the world’s best shopping centres. It has many advantages: quality, cheap prices, skilled artisans and friendly good-natured bargaining
Favourite purchases include Thai silks and cottons, modern and traditional jewellery featuring precious gemstones such as sapphires, rubies, emeralds and diamonds, semi-precious stones including opal, jade, topaz, turquoise and zircon, nielloware,silverware, pewterware, ceramics, specially-fired celadon, woodcarved paintings, custom-tailored clothing and hundreds of other special buys.
There is also the selection of authentic Thai handicrafts and contemporary crafts and housewares from “One Tambon One Product (OTOP)”, a project to promote quality cottage industry goods and folk handicrafts in Thailand.
Shopping in Thailand is divided into two types and several areas. Visitors can buy at street stalls and pick up clothing at very cheap prices, (but with no guarantees) or they can buy in plazas, shopping centres and hypermarkets where prices are fixed. Surprisingly, street shopping such as at the Chatuchak Weekend Market often gives good value and quality and the prices are relatively low, although bargaining is expected and carried out with humour and with a smile. Supermarkets, plazas and hypermarkets offer good value too compared to the West.Service is excellent and the establishment often contains cinema complexes and other entertainment areas, including excellent eating out facilities.
1.Patpong/Suriwong/Silom Areas
Major hotels in this area include the Montien, the Pan Pacific, the Sofitel and the Dusit Thani. Silom Road is the main artery of Bangkok’s commercial heart and paralleled by Suriwong Road, while Patpong runs crosswise between the two. At night, this area has a lot of vivid entertainment. In addition to housing dozens of specialist shops and boutiques representing all the
major products, this area also boasts many branches of wellknown retailers and several shopping plazas. Street stalls also abound, most notably at Patpong”s famous night bazaar. This area comprises Bangkok’s major business and entertainment areas as well. A variety of shops, supermarkets and plazas spoil the shopper by offering jewellery, gemstones, antiques, ceramics, leather goods, clothing, handicrafts, Thai silks and cottons, electronic devices, cameras and computer gears and a variety of other goods.
2.Mahesak/Silom/Charoenkrung Road Areas
Besides major hotels including the Shangri-La, the Royal Orchid Sheraton, the Holiday Inn and the Oriental, this area contains a major gemstone-dealing and jewellery manufacturing area and houses boutiques, art galleries, department stores and plazas, including the River City Complex where a wide
selection of goods can be found everywhere with an emphasis on antiques, tailored clothing and contemporary Thai and Asian
paintings.
Yaowarat is what the Thais call Chinatown and a purely Chinese community has lived here for many years. The inhabitants, of course, consider themselves Thai now and many can no longer speak Chinese, but a look at their faces will tell their origins. It is an interesting place to explore. Two of Chinatown’s symbolic roads are Yaowarat Road leading westwards from near Wat Trimit, and Sampheng Lane,running parallel south of Yaowarat. Busy Yaowarat Road is Chinatown’s main street, and has surely one of the greatest concentrations of gold shops anywhere. There are dozens of shops, all in red and gold, most with competitive prices. Much of the gold is over 99% pure. Thais buy it not only for decorative purposes but also as savings for a rainy day, because gold shops will gladly buy back gold at the daily rate, for a small charge. This area is also famous for fine Chinese food, where you can get bird’s nest soup, dim sum, and other traditional Chinese delicacies. Shops also offer selections of Chinese herbs for sale. The narrow, crammed Sampheng Lane is a very busy predominantly pedestrian street. It is a hive of constant commercial activities, mostly in textiles and cloth, and a fascinating street to walk along.
3.Phahurat Bombay Market
There is a large Indian minority in Thailand. Merchants have spread out all over Asia from Southern India and many have come to Thailand. Many have arrived to trade the brightly-coloured cloth used to make saris and the beautiful ankle-length dresses Indian women like to wear. In Phahurat Market, on Phahurat Road parallel to Yaowarat Road just west of Chinatown
and towards the river, visitors will find a variety of supplies to suit the clothing needs of those Indian ladies and more. The market sells all kinds of cloth from plain white cotton to batik to silk, to cover every need; for cushions, curtains, upholstery coverings, suits, dresses and skirts. Think of the cloth requirements or even the buttons and tassels one needs, and it is a good bet one will find what one wants here. Cloth is sold by the metre, straight from the bolt. It is usually very cheap.
Phahurat is a market really worth exploring. Not only is it a cloth centre, but a spice centre as well. As visitors go round the market, they will be aware of that spicy, Indian smell made up of incense, which they can buy here, and of course Indian curry. Visitors can buy incense to lend their living room an exotic atmosphere; search the tiny side streets for spices and other Indian specialties, household goods and shoulder bags in Thai silk.
4.Sukhumvit Area
This long thoroughfare is Bangkok’s major artery and its major hotels include the Landmark, Ambassador and Sheraton Grande. The major shopping areas are concentrated between Soi Nana (Sukhumvit 3) and Sukhumvit 24 and there is a thriving street market. A variety of shops, shopping centres, plazas and department stores including Robinson and the Emporium (mostly imported brand-name merchandise) offer a great range of choices to buyers. Also, check out H1 on Sukhumvit Soi 55, a very hip place for a trendy lifestyle in Bangkok, which has a shop with imported furniture from Italy , a graphic bookshop, restaurants
and home-made ice cream. The area is a group of white buildings surrounded by trees and bushes.
5.Phloen Chit/Pathumwan Areas
Big-name hotels include the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Arnoma, Regent, Imperial and Novotel. The area has several department stores and shopping centres, including the Central World Plaza, on the 7th floor of which the duty-free shopping outlet is located, Central Chitlom, Gaysorn Plaza, Siam Square, Siam Discovery Centre, and MBK Center. Visitors will certainly find something they take a fancy to..
6.Suan Lum Night Bazaar
Suan Lum Night Bazaar is located on the east side of Lumphini Park. It is a big new place for shoppers to spend their time and money shopping at night from 5.00 p.m. to 12.00 p.m. The large area has many restaurants, pubs, beer gardens, and stalls (fashionable clothes, handicrafts and handmade products, mostly OTOP).
There are traditional small Thai puppet shows (Tel. 0 2252 9683-6) and the BEC-TERO Hall where visitors can catch internationally famous classical, rock and pop concerts and iceskating shows.
7.Pratunam/Phetchaburi Road Areas
The area is best known for inexpensive ready-made clothing, which is sold partly in a street market where bargaining is the order of the day. Major hotels include the Amari Watergate and the Indra Regent. A few hundred metres west along Phetchaburi Road from the Amari Watergate Hotel and across the street, is an enormous computer goods establishment called Pantip Plaza for the cyber-connoisseur, devoted to hardware, software and
other electronic goods. It offers incredibly good value. This is a place to spend a whole day in, the true Aladdin’s cave for computer geeks.
Not only can visitors buy a brand-name computer and a tailormade computer assembled on the spot with very low prices, but they can also buy second-hand computers and have their computer repaired for a very reasonable price. As in all Thai plazas, there is good food to eat, too. www.pantipplaza.com
Also in this area is Baiyoke Tower II, the highest edifice in Bangkok with buffet restaurants on the 77th and 78th floors that offer a spectacular panorama of the city. Around its base, there are many small markets and shopping streets to explore.
