House shopping in Asia
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Cinnamon
Cinnamon sells gorgeous Indian-designed clothing, jewellery and homewares in an ultrachic white retail space.
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Tibetan Handicrafts Cooperative Centre
Tibetan Handicrafts Cooperative Centre employs newly arrived refugees in the weaving of Tibetan carpets. You’ll pay around Rs6000 for a 0.9m by 1.8m wool carpet in traditional Tibetan colours and you can watch the weavers in action. For made-to-order clothing, head over the road to the Tailoring Section.
reviewed
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Kopnoi
This shop targets the discerning shopper with east-meets-west clothing in natural fabrics and dyes, designer jewellery, homewares and handicrafts, books on Lao cuisine, architecture and crafts, packaged spices and teas and local art.
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Carpet Factory
If a couple of tonnes of copper is a bit inconvenient to carry around, a carpet would make a fine souvenir. The city's carpet factory produces over more than million square metres every year using machinery from the former East Germany. The carpet factory is open year-round but production is low in summer (June to August) when supplies of wool are scarce. If you ask the guard it may be possible to take a tour of the entire operation. The factory is just off the main road to the train station, about 2km from the Friendship Monument.
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Carpets
There is a line of carpet shops along the east side of the shrine, stocked high with rugs, embroidery, lapis lazuli, and antiques (old and new). Prices are slightly cheaper than Kabul and the sell isn't so hard.
Mazar-e Sharif is an excellent place to pick up gilims and needlework, the traditional handicrafts of north Afghanistan. Most of these are Uzbek, while the carpets tend to be made by Turkmen. Suzanis (spreads embroidered with either silk or wool) make particularly good souvenirs.
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Royal Selangor Pewter Factory
Located 8km northeast of the city centre is Malaysia’s leading manufacturer of pewter. As well as traditional tankards and the like, it has commissioned modern designers to produce some very appealing gifts. For RM50 you can try your own hand at creating a pewter dish. Take the LRT to Wangsa Maju station and then a taxi (RM3). Alternatively, visit its main outlet ([tel] 3182 0240) on level one of Suria Kuala Lumpur City Centre.
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Carpet Merchants
One of the best places to buy carpets from the region is direct from the wholesale merchants who occupy this serai on Darb Khosh. Carpets and gilims festoon the balconies and courtyard, indicating that you’re in the right place. Herati carpets are usually deep red, although the merchants buy from across the west and northwest as well as eastern Iran – Baluchi styles are also sold in large numbers.
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International Artists' Factory
Despite the grandiose name, this place, which is located in the hip and happening Taikang Rd Art Centre in Lane 210, is really a design and art centre with a handful of fashion boutiques. Shops worth a lazy meander include Jooi Design (Room 201) for cool bags, cushions and Japanese-style asymmetrical shirts (from around Y800) and L'Atelier Mandarine (Room 318) for kiddies clothes.
reviewed
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Phuong Dong Art Shop
The merchandise in this rustic shop is of the 'ersatz antique' variety, but the products are well made and very attractive. Much of the room is filled with pottery that appears ancient, and the shop's glass cases are loaded with objets d'art such as stone opium pipes that look as though they may actually work. You might find something for your mantelpiece.
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Mosaique
You could walk right by this nondescript shop without peeking inside. But once you're in, you're likely to examine every piece of merchandise before leaving. The shelves feature a little of everything, all in original designs - silks, décor, homeware, jewelery - and enticingly presented. You can also buy inexpensive silk-lined gift boxes.
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Mandarava
Walking into this shop is like entering an Aladdin's cave piled high with quality kilims and tribal carpets from Afghanistan, Iran, Kashmir, Turkmenistan and Xīnjiāng. Prices start at around Y550 and can go as high as Y45000. The owner, a Uighur from far-off Kashgar, speaks good English and is amenable to a bit of haggling.
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Marena
This tiny shop is packed with delicate handicrafts, all of them sophisticated and modern. Streamlined ceramic teapots and teacups, elegant wooden trays, chopsticks of lacquered wood, and boxes and bowls of original design for all sorts of occasions are smartly displayed. It won't take but a few minutes to assess the wares.
reviewed
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Sagarika Government Emporium
Island crafts such as fine wood carvings, shell jewellery, bamboo and cane furniture, are available from a handful of emporiums and speciality shops. Most of the shells on sale are collected legally - a good emporium can show proof of this - but, as always, be aware of your home countries' restrictions on importing them.
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Mahaguthi
For general handicrafts such as handmade paper, ceramics and woodwork – much of it made by disadvantaged or minority groups – the best places are the showrooms of the nonprofit development organisations that are based in the Kopundol district of Patan. Mahaguthi, has an outlet in Lazimpat.
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Panta
After years of pressboard, Bangkok now has contemporary options in home décor and furnishings. The leader of the movement is Panta, whose award-winning designs use local products, craftsmanship and sensibilities that won't fit in a suitcase but would look great in a city loft. Also at Siam Paragon.
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Kyrgyz Style
A nonprofit organization that sells high-quality shyrdaks, ala kiyiz (felt rugs featuring coloured panels), hats, bags and slippers to support social development in Kyrgyzstan. It's on the ground floor, accessed from the back of the apartment block.
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Main Bazaar
The backpacker-oriented spine of Paharganj is a great place to pick up bargain T-shirts, shawls, leatherware, costume jewellery, essential oil, incense, bindis and even bongs. Although officially closed on Monday, many shops remain open during the tourist season.
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Raux Brothers
This 48-year-old antiques showroom, located in a large, beautiful colonial house, stocks an impressive range of furniture and artworks crafted from wood. There are genuine antiques and handcrafted new pieces. This is possibly the best antiques house in the city.
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Carpet & rug shops
There's a concentration of carpet and rug merchants selling Afghani and Balochi carpets above the Shan Hotel and in the old Kamran Hotel complex opposite. Pricier carpet shops on Saddar Rd will accept credit cards and can help to arrange shipping.
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Lean Giap Trading
This jumbled-up little store sells a miscellany of goods, including silverware, Oriental furniture, porcelain and glass. It’s got some high quality stuff among the shelves, but you need to poke around with a fair bit of background knowledge.
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DNK International
DNK International has contemporary Thai furniture and designer accessories based on older themes updated for form and function (including some fusion with Santa Fe styles). It also sells good antiques - all very tasteful and of high quality.
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Charso Chowk
In Charso Chowk rugs can be found at much cheaper prices than in Kabul. Traditional Pashtun turbans and the quintessential Kandahari prayer hat, the balotchi, encrusted with a rainbow of plastic gems, can also be found here.
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Dara
Trendy destination for stylish household accessories: ceramics, cushions, lamps, mirrors, and antique and repro furniture. Swish and expensive, they design to order too. Located opposite the north gate of the Workers' Stadium.
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Mixay Boutique
One of the stores on Th Nokeo Khumman worth a look, is the upmarket Mixay Boutique, which stocks silk clothes and weavings from Xieng Khuang Province, plus some bed and cushion covers in striking Hmong-inspired designs.
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Caravan
A shop called Caravan with an owner named Driver? Trustworthy rug-sellers travel all over Asia to stock this nicely cluttered shop. The range of Afghan and Tibetan carpets is especially notable among a varied rug range.
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