Shopping for modern jewelry (
Thai jewelry is 'always' 22 - 24 K gold! )
24k makes 10k look like sterling.
& Burmese rubies & jade
are everywhere.
Unless you are an expert do not buy raw uncut gem
stones on the street. "duh!"
Reputable shops are
recommended, shop in an alley or from a street scam artist &
"Let the buyer beware!"
Please do not buy any
expensive items from street vendors, if you want to contribute
to a persons welfare do so, but do not expect any semblance of
quality / value from street vendors / hustlers.
Hand finished solid wood teak furniture or Asian
antiques.
Shipping of even heavy
objects is not that expensive.
The vendors of 'heavy'
freight will always offer shipping options.
I'm talkin' some incredible furniture,
solid teak / cherry wood with exquisite handwork & finish.
Custom made clothes of world famous Thai
Silk or imported fabrics.
The 'out source, not on
sight, tailors' that dominate most tourist areas are not
recommended.
These questionable shops
are often South Asian operated.
Tales of fabric switch
& such.
Ask your hotel.
Google " Bangkok Shopping
" or " Thailand Shopping "
Located adjacent to BTS Mo Chit Station & the
southern bus terminal.
Mo Chit is at the southern end of
the sky train.
Mo Chit is also the southern bus
terminal. For both cross town & cross country buses.
You cannot miss the market
from the Mo Chit Sky Train Station.
All mass transit goes to Mo Chit.
& trust
me it is a huge ( HUGE ) market! It covers 142,000 mฒ or almost 35
acres.
It can be incredibly warm in the
crowded aisles.
Weekends process as many as 300,000 shoppers
each day.
15, 000 stalls.
Market is divided by 'category':
luggage, furniture, leather, T-shirts, antiques, jewelry, semi
precious stones .. pets ..
My friend's Yellow Lab from the market is named
JJ! Great dog .. & only a few shoes never
recovered!
Some really unusual items.
The 'prime location vendors'
are regular shop keepers, relatively consistent inventory, much
same same as what stores in shopping centers stock .. in 'the
back' are vendors that are not regulars & might have more
unusual / severely discounted items.
My friend found a really nice leather backpack
on a JJ back isle .. a "dress backpack" .. saw the identical
pack at MBK for 300% markup!
.. or just tell a taxi driver on Saturday or
Sunday the Mo Chit Station / Chatuchuck Market / JJ Market.
Shopping is
another reason to leave Bangkok
Mai Sai, on the Burmese border,
is a shopping bonanza. Shops stuffed with antiquities smuggled
out of communist Burma.
Common for long term
visitors to cross over into Burma from Mai Sai, get their
passport stamped & immediately return back into
Thailand for another 30 day Thai tourist visa.
So there are lots
of long term Thai visitors around the hotels of Mai Sai /
Chiang Rai.
There is a jade factory in
Mai Sai that has boulders of Burmese Jade on display!
It's about 50 meters from the
Burmese border on a side Soi off to the right (facing Burma
crossing) 1/2
block.
Mainly a 'sweat shop', 50
Burmese women working at wet stones polishing jade.
Using hand polishers
driven by long belts.
There is a shop on the right,
immediately before the immigration stations.
If you got time... days..
days worth of stuff.. ancient stuff smuggled out of Burma..
ancient carvings covered in dust stored next to her new Mercedes.
Has the feel of a US
resale shop, except the piles are of stone antiquities, antiques & handicrafts.
Demonstrate spending ( or
perhaps talk big. ?? ) & she'll take you to the
basement collection, actually piles of ancient stuff.
