Some people go to Thailand for the temples. Some go for the gardens and canals. All this paled after we discovered the shopping.
Simply put, Thailand is like Hong Kong of the 1960s. It is a place where good workmanship can be startlingly cheap, where you can still find an incredible bargain and where, also, you can be royally ripped off.
It is a shopper’s paradise, but it is also no place for the timid or easily tricked.
Shopping here is multilevel, meaning really, really cheap (as in market trinkets), moderately priced (as in handmade clothing) or breathtakingly expensive (as in good gold jewelry).
Part of the bargain atmosphere comes from the present Southeast Asian currency crisis. The Thai baht has recently been quite low in value, meaning outside currency is worth a lot.
The favorites here are handicrafts, silk, gems, jewelry and carving. As for where to go–that depends on what you want.
Handicrafts: You can’t beat any town’s street market for bargains on handicrafts. Silver bracelets, carved bone necklaces, exquisite metal pins, you name it. But look carefully at the quality. Oddly, sometimes the workmanship far exceeds the quality of the material. You can find intricate “silver” jewelry that is actually silver plated. But, frankly, who cares? In this case, it’s the beautiful patterns of the metal that count.
Top on the list of handicraft spots is Bangkok’s Chatuchak (weekend) market. This is truly, as one guidebook put it, the Disneyland of markets. More than 8,000 vendor stalls serve nearly a quarter million shoppers every Saturday and Sunday.
You name it, you can probably find it here. Our busload of 20 visitors descended on one Saturday morning, and after three hours, each person came back with huge bags of goodies without a single duplication.
The stalls run in rows and tend to be grouped in specialized sections. Jewelry here, pottery there — carvings, household goods, clothing, flowers, antiques and food all in their own separate areas.
By early afternoon, the people in our bus had come back with handmade note paper for $1 a packet, exquisitely carved bone necklaces for $3, silk scarves for $4, silk dresses for $4, metal temple dancers for $6 (they were $20 at the airport) and an endless pile of hand-carved kitchenware, T-shirts, wood statues, hill tribe bracelets, lacquerware and much, much more.
A word of warning: This place is huge and can be very confusing. The stalls are packed in so tightly, there’s hardly room to walk. They run in rows, and after walking down a half dozen or so, one row looks like the next. It is very easy to get lost, so pick a landmark outside the market and use that to find your way back to your entry point.
If you travel outside Bangkok, you will find a street market in virtually every town. Try them. Though many carry the same carved wooden elephants and cheap metal jewelry, you never know what gem you might find. Chiang Mai, for instance, is the jumping-off point for visiting the northern hill tribes, and that’s the place for the best hill tribe handicrafts.
And, of course, don’t forget to bargain. Offer half of the asking price and be willing to settle for about 70 percent.
Silk and other textiles: Thai silk is one of the best silks in the world. Its coarse weave and soft texture means it is more easily dyed and produces very bright colors.
Thai silk tends to be thicker and stiffer than Chinese silk (also sold in many places), but the Chinese silk doesn’t need to be ironed after washing and–because it’s thinner–it’s the better bet if you’re looking for a very lightweight shirt. Some sell for as little as $3. Thai silk, however, is especially good for business suits and evening dresses.
Many people just buy cloth and take it home, but sooner or later, you’re going to think about having something tailor-made. If you do, be careful about quickie, 24-hour tailor shops. The clothing is inexpensive because the material is cheap and the workmanship is poor. When you hear about the arms falling off a suit in three weeks, it was probably from one of those quickie shops.
So where should you go? Ask friends for recommendations. Or, if you have no local contacts, stick with the known places. Shops in major hotels are fairly safe.
The hill tribe cloths are magnificent. Hill tribe embroideries have intricate geometric patterns and brocade borders. You can find just about anything made with this cloth, from purses and shoulder bags to wonderful jackets for $20 or less.
Overall, Chiang Mai has the best selection of hill tribe clothware, though smaller towns such as Mae Hong Son and Mae Sot may have better prices and the occasional unique find.
For example, we were visiting one of the more remote hill tribes outside Mae Hong Son when a local woman offered a bridal outfit for $70. It had taken her almost a year to make and was incredibly intricate–a once-in-a-lifetime find that eventually made a beautiful wall decoration for the woman who bought it.
Jewelry: Here’s where shopping gets much more serious and trickery becomes an art. You really must be careful.
While in Bangkok, we visited the Chinatown (Sampeng) district in search of Thai gold. After a lot of bargaining, one shop settled on a price, but when we tried to pay with a credit card, the price mysteriously jumped 30 percent.
Outside, a man introduced himself as a “dentist” studying in the U.S. who just happened to have a friend with a gem shop. We wanted to see the city, anyway, so we jumped aboard the tuk tuk (a small, motorized rickshaw named for the sound it makes) that mysteriously appeared and went to a shop where, as expected, the jewelry was cheaply made and overpriced.
We wound up getting better bargains in our hotel.
Also, be aware that gold here comes in two forms. “Thai” gold is 22 carat and the jewelry is made by pouring the metal into molds. It has an unusual orange cast and almost looks fake. It is also much cheaper than the export gold. “Export” gold is usually 18 carat, which would make you think it should be cheaper. But actually, it is not as soft and is more durable than the Thai gold and is also hand-worked, which makes it much more costly.
The bottom line: The better quality Thai gold necklaces might run $800 to $1,000. But the better quality export gold necklaces can easily run four times more.
Gemstones: Here, again, you must be careful.
While we were in Bangkok, a story hit the newswires: Cheap cat’s-eye gemstones had been bombarded with radiation to make them a rarer brown color. It also made them dangerously radioactive.
The other problem is general quality. If you do not know what a good quality gemstone looks like, you can easily wind up buying stones that look pretty but are flawed.
However, Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of gems, rivaled only by India and Sri Lanka. Though sources for rough gemstones have dropped in recent years, stones are also imported from Australia and Sri Lanka, among other places, then cut and polished here.
The best gemstone bargains are in sapphires, rubies and jade. But unless you really know gems, buy only from reputable dealers. And take your time. Shop around.
Lacquerware: This is one of those incredibly labor-intensive crafts that produce deceptively simple items. It’s hard to look at a lacquer bowl or plaque with a graceful, simple design and understand that it might be the product of five months of repeated engraving, painting, polishing and sanding.
The problem is cheap lacquerware can look like good lacquerware to the casual observer. The stuff in the market that sells for $3 is almost certainly cheaply made. Look at the back of it. If you can see wood grain and ripples on the back, it is already beginning to fall apart.
Lacquerware seems to come in three grades: the really cheap market stuff, which might not even survive the trip home; medium grade bowls and panels sold in larger shops and some hotels, and the top-price pieces sold in expensive hotels, shops and at the top-quality lacquer factories.
Stay away from the cheap stuff unless you plan to buy a gift for an ex-friend. The medium-price stuff, especially jewelry boxes and bowls, is great for casual friends. But for someone special, stick with the top-quality ware.
As to quality, top quality lacquerware is flexible. You should be able to squeeze a “good” bowl and easily move its sides without damaging it. Also look at the quality of engraving and painting. The cheap stuff looks cheap.
Wood carving: People sometimes overlook the wonderful wood carving here. You can have the most exquisitely intricate panel carved of hardwood for a very reasonable price in one of the wood carving factories.
These days, teak furniture is scarce and expensive, but there’s nothing wrong with rosewood. It has a beautiful grain and furniture can be made to order.
As for statues, remember the old saying about “buyer beware.” The latest trick is cheap elephants. They look carved, they seem to be well done, they’re really inexpensive. And often, they are molds made of poured wood paste powder.
This just touches the highlights. There’s so much more here: rattan furniture, painted peasant hats, funny noise-making toys that sound like crickets — all kinds of things you don’t know exist and don’t think you want until you see them.
Just remember, one of the cheaper things you can buy on the streets here is an extra suitcase to haul everything home. Keep an eye out for one. You’ll need it.
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For more information, contact the Tourism Authority of Thailand, 303 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 400, Chicago, Ill. 60601; 312-819-3990.
