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…
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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 …
reviewed
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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…
reviewed
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Central World
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. 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.
reviewed
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Thai Home Industries
A visit to this temple-like building and former monks’ quarters is like discovering an abandoned attic of Asian booty. On a recent visit, the display cases absentmindedly held cotton farmer shirts, handsome stainless steel flatware, and delicate mother-of-pearl spoons. Despite the odd assortment of items and lack of order (not to mention the dust), it’s heaps more fun than the typically faceless Bangkok handicraft shop.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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Siam Center & Siam Discovery Center
These linked shopping malls are surprisingly subdued, almost comatose compared with frenetic Mahboonkrong. Thailand’s first shopping centre, Siam Center was built in 1976 but, since a recent nip and tuck, hardly shows its age. Its 3rd floor is one of the best locations to check out local labels such as Fly Now, Senada Theory and Tango.
In the attached Siam Discovery Center, the 4th floor continues to be a primary outpost for the Thai design scene. Panta creates modern furnishings and objets d’art out of uniquely Asian materials, such as water hyacinth and bamboo. Bangkok-based French designer Gilles Caffier and his store, 2 Gilles Caffier, sells hand-beaded vases, p…
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 …
reviewed
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Gaysorn Plaza
A haute couture catwalk, Gaysorn has spiralling staircases, all-white halls and mouthfuls of top-name designers. The 2nd-floor ‘Urban Street Chic’ zone is a crash course in the local fashion industry. Established Thai labels including Tango, Fly Now and Stretsis have outlets, or you could head over to Myth, an umbrella store for smaller domestic labels.
Stores on the 3rd floor offer the same level of sophistication for your home. Thann Native sells locally inspired soaps and shampoos fragrant enough to eat. The open-air D&O Shop is the first retail venture of an organisation created to encourage awareness of Thai design abroad.
In addition to shops, Gaysorn also offer…
reviewed
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Pratunam Market
The emphasis here is on clothes, in particular T-shirts, and the Baiyoke Garment Center, the immense open-air market that comprises much of the area, is the best place in town to buy that black Iron Maiden T-shirt you’ve had your eye on.
The greater market area occupies the neighbourhood behind the shopfronts on the corner of Th Phetchaburi and Th Ratchaprarop, and also includes several like-minded malls: Indra Square, which carries mostly women’s clothing; Pratunam Centre, featuring a decent selection of Thai handicrafts and silver; City Complex and Krung Thong Plaza, two nearly identical wholesale clothing malls; and, across the street, the five-storey Platinum Fash…
reviewed
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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 …
reviewed
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Siam Square
It doesn’t look like much, just an ageing open-air shopping area divided into 12 soi (lanes), but Siam Sq is ground zero for teenage culture. Pop music blares out of tinny speakers, and gangs of hipsters in various costumes ricochet between fast-food restaurants and closet-sized boutiques. Digital Gateway, a new and imposing mall, stocks everything electronic, from computers to cameras. DJ Siam carries all the Thai indie (like Modern Dog) and T-pop albums you’ll need to speak ‘teen’. Small shops peddle pop-hip styles along Soi 2 and Soi 3, but most outfits require a barely-there waist. Centerpoint plugs in on weekends with concerts from the latest bands, b-boys (b…
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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Central Chidlom
Central is a modern Western-style department store with locations throughout the city. This flagship store, Thailand’s largest, is the snazziest of all the branches. The ground floor carries all the big names in cosmetics, with eager perfume spritzers and the token ladyboy sales agent who pulls off blush better than those born with XX chromosomes. Foreigner-sized clothing is one of the shop’s strengths. The helpful sales staff will bluntly steer you to slimming colours and relatively huge sizes to fit your sturdy frame. A decent selection of English-language books and magazines, not to mention stationery and music, is available at B2S on the 7th floor.
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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Nonthaburi Market
Located a short walk from Tha Nonthaburi, the northernmost extent of the Chao Phraya Express boats, this is one of the most expansive and atmospheric produce markets in the area. Exotic fruits, towers of dried chillies, smoky grills and the city’s few remaining rickshaws form a very un-Bangkok backdrop here. Come early though, as most vendors are gone by 9am. To get to the market, take any northbound Chao Phraya Express boat and get off at Tha Nonthaburi, the final stop. The market is a two-minute walk along the main road from the pier.
reviewed
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Emporium Shopping Centre
Once Bangkok’s most chichi shopping centre, Emporium is finally starting to show its age. The ground floor is filled with Euro fashion labels, like Prada, Miu Miu and Chanel. The 2nd floor is more casual, with homegrown contenders, such as Soda, which has snipped punk into haute wear, and image-maker Greyhound. Staid Jim Thompson even gets a facelift with its branch here. On the 3rd floor, indigenous kitschy-cool gifts and home decor can be found at Propaganda.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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Pantip Plaza
If you can tolerate the crowds and annoying pornography vendors (‘DVD sex? DVD sex?’), Pantip, a multistorey computer and electronics warehouse, might just be your kinda paradise. Shiny new hardware isn’t really Pantip’s speciality, but grey market goods are. Technorati will find pirated software and music, gear for hobbyists to enhance their machines, flea market–style peripherals and other odds and ends. Up on the 6th floor is IT City, a reliable computer megastore that gives VAT Refund forms for tourists.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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Pak Khlong Market
This sprawling wholesale flower market has become a tourist attraction in its own right. The endless piles of delicate orchids, rows of roses and stacks of button carnations are a sight to be seen, and the shirtless porters wheeling blazing piles of colour set the place in motion. The best time to come is late at night, when the goods arrive from upcountry. During the morning Pak Khlong Market is also one of the city’s largest wholesale vegetable markets.
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