Bangkok offers excellent opportunities for purchasing silk, gems and jewellery, and collector-quality Oriental antiques.
Thai silk is perhaps the country's best known quality product, available in an enormous range of colours, designs and widths. Silk can be bought by the length, as tailor-made outfits, or in a huge variety of accessories and decorative items.
Even more dazzling than silk are gems and jewellery. Thailand is a major source of rubies and sapphires, as well as
an established cutting and setting centre for all kinds of precious stones.
From sophisticated plazas and chic emporia to hustling bazaars and street stalls, Thailand is a shopper's paradise. With a
huge choice of not only what to buy but also where to buy, bargain hunting is more an engrossing experience than just the simple purchase
of souvenirs, handicrafts or
luxury items.
Classic buys such as exquisite Thai silk, gems and jewellery, and precious antiques are rightly at the top of most
shopping lists, as are leading international brand-name products. But there is also much that is new, and Thailand today pulses with artistic
innovation.
Inspired by traditional crafts, talented Thai designers are finding imaginative new applications of ancient forms and styles, transforming
fabrics, gemstones, precious metals, wood, ceramics and synthetic materials into international-quality contemporary clothing,
accessories, jewellery, home-furnishings and decor items
Paralleling creative development has been the physical growth of Bangkok, where travellers will now find a dazzling
array of modern air-conditioned shopping plazas and malls housing glittering department stores as well as select independent
boutiques.
These complement rather than replace the many old-style markets and street stalls, the biggest of which is the famed Chatuchak
Weekend Market, a veritable Aladdin's cave for dedicated shopper and browser alike. As a final note on shopping,
bear in mind that while fixed prices are the norm in department stores and some of Bangkok's larger shops, bargaining is
not only acceptable but also expected at most other places. There are no hard-and-fast rules for bargaining, but patience and a broad
smile will serve you well in enjoying shopping as an art.
• Shopping is a great attraction
for visitors to Thailand. Nowhere else in Asia offers such a diversity of products, representing such amazing value.
Matching this variety of goods is the dazzling choice of places in which to shop. These range from open-air markets
and street stalls to specialist shops, department stores and sophisticated shopping malls.
The visitor can browse in air-conditioned comfort, or explore exotic markets village to bargain for original souvenirs. Fuel
Where to shop 
