Bangkok Shopping

Bangkok is full of shopping malls and street markets of all types, especially in the Sukhumvit area; see the section for details. Prices can be cheap by Western standards, especially for locally produced items such as clothes, although bargaining is expected and required. Dump a teenager in Siam Center, Siam Square, Siam Paragon, MBK or The Emporium with a few thousand baht and they'll stay occupied for the rest of the week! Most malls tend to have excellent food courts.

Weekend Market: A major attraction on weekends is the gigantic Chatuchak Weekend Market (a.k.a. JJ Market), in northern Bangkok but easily accessible by Skytrain and Metro. Take the MRT/Subway and get off Kamphaeng Phet station which opens right into the market. Takes around an hour on the bus from Khao San Road area. If you're staying in Pratunam, metered fare should not go beyond 100 baht. Has 20,000 stalls selling everything from counterfeit goods, animals, art, furniture and probably anything else you can think of. Definitely worth a visit for the sheer size of it. There are food stalls everywhere. Forego the cutesy cafes for the humbler stalls. Flavored iced and fried wontons will provide fuel for the whole day. Closes at around 6PM.

Night Market: Hugely popular with tourists & locals alike is the open air Suan Lum Night Bazaar. This is a large and colourful market offering bargains on everything from clothes, bags, crockery to organic foods. A smaller, cooler and cleaner version of Chatuchak - same wares sold for 20% more. There is a large food court with a live band every night. Beer seems to be the official beverage of this place - lots of beer gardens here. Covered in more detail in the Silom section.

Patpong Night Market: Between the strip clubs and bars along Patpong Road is the Patpong night market. This market is designed for tourists and is not frequented by locals. These markets are home to a variety of counterfeit merchandise including watches, clothes, bags, and cosmetics as well as Thai tourist products such as model tuk-tuks and kick-boxing shorts. The prices at this market are exorbitant and anyone brave enough to buy anything here should bargain extensively. Most items available at Patpong Night Market are available for less than half the price at other locations in Bangkok.

What to buy

* Books: B2S on the the 3rd floor of the Central World Plaza is Bangkok's largest bookstore, holding around 30,000 titles (many in English) and a large selection of magazines. Japanese chain Kinokuniya [26] also has a large outlet in Siam Paragon (Level 3 South) and one in Emporium, both with a very large selection of books in English (the Paragon branch also has a limited selection of books in German and French). The Asia Books [27] chain has several outlets all over Bangkok (see their web site); they have a good selection of books on Asia as well as books on architecture, interior design and decoration. Lastly if you want to trade books, or else buy second hand books, there is a shop between sukhumvit soi 33 and 35 that do this for quite a reasonable price and are quite popular with the local expats.

* Clothing: off-the-shelf: Thailand is a major clothing manufacturer and locally produced unbranded clothing is very cheap. MBK, Platinum mall and Chatuchak weekend market are a few places to visit for this. Branded clothing made in Thailand (eg. Levi's jeans) can also be good buys. For women, the lingerie salons in the department stores are must-sees. Wacoal is locally produced and are half the price in Bangkok.

* Clothing: tailored: Bangkok is well-known for its plethora of tailors and high-quality fabric available locally. The vast majority of tailor shops are actually just sales fronts for a few large operations that do the actual work, so don't fret too much about which one to pick; however, do avoid any tailor recommended by taxis/tuktuks or that has to resort to touts, as you'll have to pay their commission. Avoid super-cheap packages or anything done in 24 hours, as the quality will suffer accordingly. It will help considerably if you know fabrics and what style you want (bring along a sample or at least a picture), and can spare the time for at least three sessions for a suit (measurement, fitting and final adjustment). Tailors can be found all over town, but Sukhumvit Road has the heaviest concentration.

* Electronics: Pantip Plaza (off Sukhumvit) and Fortune Center (Ratchadaphisek) are the places to go for branded laptops to cheap VOIP phones and pirated DVDs. A must for any computer & electronics buff. See also: Electronics and entertainment shopping in Thailand. Be warned though, electronics are NOT necessarily cheaper in Thailand then they are back home. Also ALWAYS get INTERNATIONAL warranty as you would want your electronics to be able to be fixed back home as well!!

* Medicine: Bangkok's pharmacies (drugstores) tend to offer a very wide range of (wholly legal and legitimate) medicines and herbal remedies at a fraction of Western prices, including many drugs that would require a doctor's prescription in other countries. Thai pharmacists tend to be exceptionally helpful, and most speak excellent English. There are small, independent pharmacists on almost every corner, and you'll find bigger (and more expensive) chains on the major streets and in shopping centers. Boots is probably the most ubiquitous chain; they're also a reliable source for traveler's toiletries.

Source: Wikitravel - Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0.