Shopping in Bangkok
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Chatuchak Weekend Market
Among the largest markets in the world, Chatuchak Weekend Market seems to unite everything buyable, from used vintage sneakers to baby squirrels. JJ, as it’s also known, is the ideal place to finally pick up those gifts for people back home, not to mention a pretty item or two for your own home. The market is roughly divided into thematic sections, the best guide to these being Nancy Chandler’s Map of Bangkok. Because Chatuchak is a Thai institution, food also plays a significant role, and there are numerous drinks and snack vendors, and several good restaurants on the outside edges of the market. Plan to spend a full day, as there’s plenty to see, do and buy. But com…
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Mahboonkrong (Mbk)
This unbelievably immense shopping mall is quickly becoming one of Bangkok’s top attractions. Half of the city filters through the glass doors on weekends, stutter-stepping on the escalators, stuffing themselves with junk food or making stabs at individualism by accessorising their mundane school uniforms with high slits or torturous heels. You can buy everything you need here: mobile phones, accessories, shoes, name brands, wallets, handbags, T-shirts. The middle-class Tokyu department store also sells good-quality kitchenware.
The 4th floor resembles something of a digital produce market. A confusing maze of stalls sell all the components to send you into the land of …
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Nickermann’s Tailor
Corporate ladies rave about Nickermann’s tailor-made power suits: pants and jackets that suit curves and busts. Formal ball gowns are another area of expertise.
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Gaysorn Plaza
A haute couture catwalk, Gaysorn's spiralling staircases and all-white halls preserve all of fashion's beloved designers in museum-curatorship style. Local fashion leaders occupy the 2nd floor 'Thai Fashion Chic', while the top floor is a stroll through home decor, highlights of which are the eclectic D&O Shop, the fragrant soaps at Thann and the Asian-influenced ceramics at Lamont.
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Siam Paragon
Paragon epitomises the city’s fanaticism for the new, the excessive, and absurd slogans. The ‘peerless’ venue is the second-largest mall in Southeast Asia, sprawling over 500,000 sq metres, and is a showcase for luxury retailers, like Van Cleef & Arpels and Mikimoto, who had not previously had a pedestal in the country. There’s a Lamborghini dealer on the 2nd floor should you need a ride home, and one floor up a True Urban Park ‘lifestyle centre’ featuring a cafe, internet access and a shop selling books, music and camera equipment. Bookworms will fancy Kinokuniya (3rd floor), the largest bookstore in Thailand, as well as an expansive branch of Asia Books (2nd…
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Central World Plaza
Bangkok's hippest mall suffered greatly during the unrest of April 2010, but the vast majority of shops are open again and Zen department store was being rebuilt at research time. There's an extrahuge branch of bookstore B2S, and you could spend an hour sniffing around the fragrances at Karmakamet.
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Thai Home Industries
A visit to this temple-like building, a former monks' quarters, is like discovering an abandoned attic of Asian booty. Despite the odd assortment of items (our last visit revealed items ranging from elegant handmade flatware to wooden model ships) and lack of order, it's heaps more fun than the typically faceless Bangkok handicraft shop.
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Uthai’s Gems
With 40 years in the business, Uthai’s fixed prices and good service, including a money-back guarantee, make him a popular choice among expats. The showroom boasts a huge stock, and gems can be custom-cut to order.
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Raja’s Fashions
One of Bangkok’s famous tailors, Raja’s gets a mixed bag of reviews but the majority swear by the service and quality.
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Siam Center & Siam Discovery Center
These linked sister centres feel almost monastic in their hushed hallways compared to frenetic MBK, just across the street. Siam Discovery Center excels in home decor, with the whole 3rd floor devoted to Asian-minimalist styles and jewel-toned fabrics; we love the earthy, Thai-influenced designs at Doi Tung. The attached Siam Center, Thailand's first shopping centre built in 1976, has recently gone under the redesign knife for a younger, hipper look. Youth fashion is its new focus, and several local labels, ranging from anr to senada*, can be found on the 2nd floor.
reviewed
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Amulet Market
Catholics with their parade of saints and protective medals will recognise a great kinship with this streetside amulet market. Ranging from pendant-sized to medallion-sized, prá krêu·ang (amulets) come in various classes, from rare objects or relics (like tusks, antlers or the dentures of abbots) to images of Buddha or famous monks embossed in bronze, wood or clay. Itinerant dealers spread their wares on blankets along the broken pavement across from the temple, and more-permanent shops proliferate in the sunless alleyways along the river. Taxi drivers, monks and average folk squat alongside the displays inspecting novel pieces like practised jewellers. Mixed in with …
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Pratunam Market
The city's biggest wholesale clothing market, Pratunam is a tight warren of stalls trickling deep into the block. In addition to cheap T-shirts and jeans, luggage, bulk toiletries and souvenirs are also available.
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King Power
Towering over leafy Soi Rang Nam, this ‘sensory extravaganza’ has taken duty-free shopping from the airport to the streets of suburban Bangkok. The selection and prices are the same as that of the airport, but occasional discounts and promotions can make it worth the trek. Featuring the largest watch centre in Southeast Asia, the ultramodern complex also includes a hotel, buffet restaurant and, at the King Power Theater, a branch of the Traditional Thai Puppet Theatre. To make duty-free purchases here, bring your passport and flight information and register at the lobby. Purchases of domestic goods can be taken away the same day, while imported goods are picked up at …
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Siam Square
This low-slung commercial universe is a network of some 12 soi lined with trendy, fly-by-night boutiques, many of which are the first ventures of young designers. It's a great place to pick up designs you're guaranteed not to find anywhere else, not to mention the best place for urban naturalists to observe Bangkok teens in their natural habitat.
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Thai Knowledge Park
Spanning eight stories of more than 500 shops and 100 restaurants, Central World is one of Southeast Asia’s largest shopping centres. But it suffered a huge setback in May 2010 when its centrepiece Zen department store was torched by fleeing protesters (for details on the 2010 political unrest, see p35). Other parts of the complex were largely unaffected, but at press time the specifics of the reconstruction had yet to be announced. We hope that, in addition to a new Zen, the mall’s funky F section and Thai Knowledge Park, a multimedia library meant to cultivate reading and learning habits in children, will be operating as normal by the time you read this.
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Central Chit Lom
Generally regarded as the all-round best for quality and selection, Central has 13 branches in Bangkok in addition to this chi-chi flagship.
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Traditional Medicine Shops
Bangkok’s commercial medicine cabinet occupies the riverside thoroughfare of Th Maharat. Packaged in plastic pill bottles bearing an unsmiling photo of a trusted authority, commercial formulas combine various herbal ingredients – such as galingale, lemon grass, kaffir lime and other flavourings used in Thai dishes – to target a specific disease or to promote general wellness. Shops carrying massage supplies cater to practitioners and students at the nearby Wat Pho massage training school. Keep an eye out for the dumpling-shaped herbal compresses that are heated and pressed onto the body during sessions of Thai herbal massage.
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Op (Oriental Plaza) Place
A visit to the Silom area's antique shops and galleries is a poor person's alternative to a trip to a museum. Beginning at River City, accessible via a free boat from Tha Sathon pier, head directly to the antique shops on the 3rd and 4th floors, bearing in mind that in this ‘museum’ if you break it, you buy it. Exiting along Soi 30, stop by the various antique shops, keeping your eye open for things you’ll buy when you win the lottery. Upon reaching Th Charoen Krung, continue until Soi 38 and stop by OP (Oriental Plaza) Place, an upmarket antique mall.
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Promenade Arcade
A low-key but noteworthy stop, Promenade Arcade shelters several of Bangkok’s influential décor designers. On the 2nd floor, Gub features the creations of ML Chiratorn Chirapravati and Kongpat Sakdapitak; the pair, along with other like-minded designers, have created a bright, irreverent world of lamps, chandeliers and paintings, and their showroom is like a thrift store on acid. Sakul Intakul, the acclaimed floral designer, displays his flower vessels (that’s a ‘vase’, kiddo) that bring couture to home arrangements.
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Nonthaburi Market
Located a short walk from Nonthaburi Pier, the northernmost extent of the Chao Phraya Express boats, this is one of the most expansive and atmospheric produce markets in the area. Come early, as most vendors are gone by 9am.
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Emporium
You might not have access to the beautiful people's nightlife scene, but you can observe their spending rituals at this temple to red hot and classic cool. For something cheekily local, check out Propaganda, home to Mr P, brainchild of Thai designer Chaiyut Plypetch, and who appears in anatomically correct cartoon lamps and other products.
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Foodland Supermarket Pharmacy
Pharmacies are plentiful in Bangkok, and in central areas most pharmacists will speak English. If you don’t find what you need at the smaller pharmacies, try one of the hospitals, which stock a wider range of pharmaceuticals but also charge higher prices (and you’ll need to see a doctor first). The hospital pharmacies are open 24 hours; smaller pharmacies usually open around 10am and close between 8pm and 10pm. One non-hospital pharmacy that’s open 24 hours is Foodland Supermarket Pharmacy.
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Pantip Plaza
North of Siam Sq, this place is five storeys of computer and software stores ranging from legit to flea market. Many locals come here to buy 'pirated' software and computer peripherals, but the crowds and touts ('DVD sex?') make it among the more tiring shopping experiences in town.
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Erawan Bangkok
Bangkok’s chichi crowd has a new stomping ground: the shopping wing of the Erawan Hotel. Luxury matrons occupy the 1st floor, while street-smarts chill on the 2nd floor, fusing the generation gap with a shared closet. The top floor is a dedicated wellness centre, should conspicuous consumption prove hazardous to your health. The ladies who lunch can often be found in the basement-level Urban Kitchen or the 2nd-floor Erawan Tea Room.
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Pak Khlong Market
Every night this market near the Chao Phraya river becomes the city's largest depot for wholesale flowers. Arrive as late as you're willing to stay up, and be sure to take a camera, as the technicolour blur of roses, lotuses and daisies on the move is a sight to behold. During the day, Pak Khlong is a wholesale vegetable market.
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