Travel Tips

For many visitors, Thailand, is the shopping paradise, period. Whether eatable or inedible, functional or decorative, branded or unknown, genuine or fake, almost anything can can be found here at an affordable price.

To cater to this demand, various marketplaces and mega-shopping malls have sprung out in every other spot within Bangkok over the years. Nobody's really complaining though... ;-)

There are always a lot of people advising that when shopping in Thailand, one should always bargain and aim for a price below 50% of the asking price. But somehow from my experience, a 20% - 30% off is more usual.

I guess the fact that my bargaining skills sucks also played a factor, but really, I think unless you are dressed like a over-the-top tourist (that is with sunglasses and camera in hand), most do not overquote you outlandishly. The only exception I think is Patpong whereby the initial asking price for any item is like 2 to 5 times the asking prices in any other places!

Most of the major shopping malls and marketplaces are easily reachable by the efficient and clean BTS SkyTrain.

Chatuchak weekend market is only fully open during the weekends (duh). It provides the shoppers with a huge selection of merchandise ranging from cheap T-Shirts and souvenirs to tribal goods and antiques.

The market hosts close to 9,000 stalls which sounds like a lot of stalls, but really a lot of the trades are very similar. I did not buy much clothings from here because the quality of them were clearly inferior and were very crumpled.

My favourite items from Chatuchak were the so-called "Thai Artifacts". I bought quite a few table lamps which look very elegant, makes for great gifts, and were rather cheap (about US$4 and up).

Chatuchak is near a very short walk away from Mo Chit BTS's Exit 1. Go early because it gets really crowded from 11am onwards and the place's really really hot with less-than-ideal ventilation.

The huge Mah Boon Krong Center, which is connected to Pathumwan Princess Hotel, is a mega shopping mall whereby one can really spent an entire day there, all in cool air-conditioned comfort!

Good quality cheap knock-offs of various clothings (such as the infamous Thai Diesel) can be found here. A large variety of other items such as electronics are available as well, as well as eateries, food courts and restaurants.

This is the clothing bazaar found at the top storey of MBK Center. A lot of really nice clothing and bags can be found here. I think I spent most of my shopping dollar here...

The Central World Plaza, previously known as the World Trade Centre claims to be Bangkok's largest mixed retail mall. To me, it was just one really large and really boring shopping centre. None of the shops were interesting.

Chinatown is an interesting place to visit, but quite difficult to get to. We visited it along the way when we were taking the Chao Phraya Express Boat along the river for fun.

The person in the picture is not me, but one of my buddies, Andy.