Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Best
Shopping
Prime your credit card and shine your baht, as shopping is serious business in
Bangkok. Hardly a street corner in the city is free from a vendor, hawker or im-
promptu stall, and it doesn't stop there: Bangkok is also home to one of the
world's largest outdoor markets, not to mention Southeast Asia's second-largest
mall.
Top Tips
›
Nancy Chandler's Map of Bangkok
(
www.nancychandler.net
) tracks all sorts of small, out-of-the-way shopping
venues and markets, and dissects the innards of the Chatuchak Weekend Market.
Malls & Markets
Although the tourist brochures tend to tout the upmarket malls, Bangkok still lags slightly
behind Singapore and Hong Kong in this area, and the open-air markets are where the best
deals and most original items are found.
Bargaining
At Bangkok's markets and at some of its malls, you'll have to bargain for most, if not all,
items. In general, if you see a price tag, it means that the price is fixed and bargaining isn't
an option.
Counterfeits
Bangkok is ground zero for the production and sale of counterfeit goods. Keep in mind that
they're almost always as shoddy as they are cheap.
