Best Of Bangkok : The Shopping

If there’s one thing I have learned about shopping in Bangkok, it’s to stay in a hotel nearest my favourite shopping mall, the mall I know I am going to spend the most time in as I don’t have to shop till I drop. I can shop and drop off my haul at my hotel room and go back for some more. My favourite shopping mall is probably most visitors favourite too – MBK. Six floors of retail therapy, I never get bored, no matter how many days I spend there. This was the 1st mall I went to as soon as I left my luggage in my room and I was there every single day of my stay in Bangkok. Still, I don’t know every nook and corner of this massive mall and still get a bit lost despite walking from one end to the other on each floor.

As we all know, traffic in Bangkok is gridlock most of the time so it pays to spend as little time as possible in a cab and during my stay, the only time I was in a cab was to and fro the airport. I wasn’t about to be whisked off to a gem wholesaler again en route to my destination despite my protests.

I didn’t splurge so much during this visit but I couldn’t resist these beautiful soaps from Chatuchak Market. It’s more expensive to purchase them as singles but the vendor was selling 6 for 330 baht which was much more reasonable than other stalls.

There are at least 3 Hem Aroma outlets at Chatuchak and they offer possibly the best value for burner oils as it’s just 150 baht for each 60ml bottle and the variety of scents was amazing as they even offered Sprite and Ralph Lauren Polo apart from the more conventional scents like ginger, orange, lemongrass, chypre, etc. I purchased 4 bottles and the vendor packed them in bubble wrap and gifted me a dropper. Great service!

As soon as I got out of Mochit BTS Station and walked towards Chatuchak, I spotted a vendor selling a myriad of nail stickers for 20 baht each, they are also 20 baht at a nail product supplier in MBK but for some strange and inexplicable reason, I never found the MBK supplier again despite my best efforts. I found the MBK supplier on the 1st day of my visit and tried looking for him everyday after that but all my efforts were in vain, it was as if he had disappeared into thin air and it didn’t help that I couldn’t remember what floor he was on. The Angry Birds and festive sticker sets are from MBK while the others are from Chatuchak vendors.

I totally love the pet shops at Chatuchak as they offer so much more than Malaysian pet shops and the products at Chatuchak pet shops are so much cheaper than here. I am still kicking myself for forgetting to get Frontline as it was only 640 baht whereas the same box here retails at RM85.  See the massive savings? Of course it helps that some of the products are made in Thailand.The attire for dogs is just 60 baht each, over here you won’t be able to get them for less than RM25. As for the other pet products, they totalled less than 1000 baht. I wish I could teleport myself to Chatuchak every weekend.

I can’t say that I was surprised to see a stall selling “MAC Cosmetics”. What was surprising though was that there were customers. I wouldn’t purchase MAC Cosmetics unless they are from a legit MAC outlet. This MAC outlet at Chatuchak even offered more than MAC in the form of a Marilyn Monroe palette. Some of the products look so similar that I am sure I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference until I started using them.

Yup, it is a shopper’s paradise in Bangkok and already I feel the withdrawal symptoms as it was so much fun looking at all the shops had to offer. The retailers there are so savvy that they even offer you a discount before you open your mouth to ask. Now that’s the way to do business! Fabulous…..can’t wait to go back.