Shopping for women
Calling Bangkok a shopper’s paradise is no exaggeration. There is literally something here for everyone. The main challenges most people face are scams, knowing when to quit, and figuring out how to get certain fragile or oversized items back to their home countries.
Scams are rampant but easy to avoid if you look sharp. Any time someone, no matter how charming and/or eloquent, tries to steer you away from a tourism site because it’s “closed for a ceremony” (guaranteed, the site is indeed open), she is trying to take you instead to a gem shop or tailor from whom he’ll get a kickback for bringing you. Ignore such overtures no matter how earnest your ‘new friend’ seems. He only wants your money. Only invest in gems, antiques, artwork and other big-ticket items from shops listed in The Bangkok Guide, which all Asia Books and Kinokuniya bookstores stock. The Australian-New Zealand Women’s Group conducts extensive research every year to identify legitimate vendors to include in the Guide.
While you’re picking up the Guide at the bookstore, you can also check out Nancy Chandler’s Map of Bangkok. This whimsically drawn map, which Chandler updates regularly, shares the inside scoop on finding titbits as varied as stationery, musical instruments, Buddha amulets, and cakes.
Shoppers who enjoy feeling posh and staying cool in air-conditioning have plenty of malls to pick from. The Emporium, Central Chidlom, and Siam Paragon are all accessible from the BTS. You may as well be in New York, London, Paris, or Tokyo while you wander around these chic malls — only the lower prices and Thai conversation swirling around you will keep you grounded in Bangkok.
You can find a more Thai-style shopping centre at Mah Boon Khrong (MBK) Centre, also accessible from the BTS. In addition to standard shops like Boots and Starbucks, MBK features loads of pirated DVDs, used mobile phone stalls, knockoffs of popular fashions (like Izods, Polos, Van Dutch, etc.), Thai handicrafts, and a vast, cheap food court.
The ultimate Thai shopping experience, of course, lies in open markets, such as the Thursday Market at Sukhumvit Soi 23; Chinatown’s Sampeng Lane; Soi Lalaisap off Thanon Silom; the Khlong Thoey wet market; Asok (Indian) market; the Am Taw Gaw Farmers’ Co-operative; and, last but certainly not least -- Chatuchak Weekend Market. Chatuchak (or JJ, as locals say) isn’t just open on weekends anymore. Even during the week, most of this sprawling complex of stalls selling everything from china to jeans, from pet fish to rattan furniture, is open for business. Without a doubt, you will get lost if you enter this rabbit warren without Nancy Chandler’s Bangkok map, which includes a comprehensive JJ guide.
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