The Bangkok Shopping Experience

My boyfriend and I spent an entire week gallivanting around the colorful city of Bangkok and it was the best vacation I ever had! Our hostel was the quaintest little thing, the food was rich and flavorful, and the shopping was absolutely EPIC. I know this word gets thrown around a lot, but trust me when I say that Bangkok is a shopping mecca. There’s something for everyone no matter what your style, taste, or budget is. If you love bargains like I do, there are countless markets where you can exercise your haggling skills. If designer clothes and luxury items are your thing, Bangkok has several high-end malls that put Greenbelt to shame. Bottom line – every girl has to experience shopping in Bangkok at least once in her life. I actually made a list of the malls I planned to visit, and I am so glad Marco is a shopping boyfriend because he didn’t mind following my itinerary. We pretty much spent 70% of our trip checking out various malls and markets, and everything was so cheap that even he ended up buying stuff for himself!

The first mall we visited was Platinum Fashion Mall, a 6-storey version of Greenhills. Actually, Greenhills is NOTHING compared to this place. Even if you had an entire day, you wouldn’t be able to walk the entirety of this mall – it’s that huge. Dresses can go for as cheap as 300 baht, and if you buy at least three pieces they’ll give you a discount. The downside is that girls aren’t allowed to try anything on (I wonder why?), so you’ll just have to take a risk when you buy.

Our trip to Bangkok coincided with the Songkran Festival, a nationwide celebration of the Thai new year. Songkran festivities involve splashing people with water, an act that symbolizes cleansing and renewal, but it’s also common to get your face smeared with white paste as a sort of blessing. In the middle of our shopping, a girl (I think she might have been watching one of the stalls) came up to us and rubbed our cheeks in white.

The girl with white paste clearly had a crush on Marco. He has more white stuff on his face than mine and she didn’t jump into the photo with me. :P (LOL is that a nipple I see?)

I’m a little relieved that girls aren’t allowed to try stuff on because I’m sure I would have bought way more than this! You know all those Korean clothes being sold in Multiply? Many stores in Platinum Mall carry them for about half the price. I hate to tell you this but we’re being kind of ripped off by the Korean resellers; pretty as the clothes might be, the quality of the fabric and mediocre construction are not worth the exorbitant resale price. I wore one of the button-down tops the following day and one button came lose in a couple of hours. It didn’t bother me too much because I only paid 200 baht, but I would have been pissed if it cost double that amount.

On our way out of the mall, I came across an accessories store called The Pink Pvssy with the cheapest statement necklaces I have ever seen! I ended up buying all my pasalubong there and keeping a few pieces for myself. I bought the metal Japanese necklace and the colorful wood necklace for 160 baht apiece. The kitty necklace was from a different store in Platinum. My boyfriend spotted it and bought it for me because he knows how much I love cats. <3

I always buy panties for my girlfriends during my trips abroad, but I think they’d appreciate earrings from The Pink Pvssy.

Not all of the shopping I did was for myself and my loved ones. I also bought a lot of belts for the Ukay Manila Store. Watch out for them in the Trinket Box during the next few weeks!

Marco in one of the many wicked graphic tees he got from Platinum.

I don’t really need new bags but I couldn’t resist these! The owl bag and kitty bag are from the Suan Lum night market, while the red purse is from the legendary MBK. When I asked my friends for advice on shopping in Bangkok, they all said that MBK was great for gadgets and souvenir, but nobody told me that you can find tons of clothes, export overruns, and genuine crocodile leather purses in there. I don’t recall seeing a single store that sold gadgets, but our legs were too exhausted to go any further than the second floor.

I fell in love with these flats at MBK, even though I’ve never really tried wearing mustard yellow.

Of all the clothes I bought, my favorite purchase is a vintage Chanel dress from Suan Lum. I’ll tell you more about it in a different blog post because there’s a rather serendipitous story behind it. The burnt orange kitty bag I showed you earlier was also from the same quaint store where I bought the Chanel dress.

Just when I thought I was done spending, I came across the duty free at Suvarnabhumi Airport while waiting for our flight back to Manila. My wallet trembled in fear as I wandered through the makeup booths, sampling perfume bottles and swatching eyeshadow. If you plan to go to Bangkok, save your makeup, skin care, and other luxury purchases for the airport because you will get them at a cheaper price. The Duty Free has everything you could find at an upscale department store – MAC, Kiehl’s, Bobbi Brown, Anna Sui, designer bags, perfume, even Chanel RTW. Seriously, your wallet will bleed. It’s a good thing I wasn’t in the mood to buy makeup, or I would be in serious debt.

I did, however, walk away with a bottle of Lola by Marc Jacobs. I fell in love with its spicy aroma when a salesman let me try it at the Emporium Department Store, but I sighed with regret when I saw the 4,700 baht price tag. At the airport, my jaw dropped when I found out that a 50ml bottle costs only 2,650 while a 100ml bottle costs 3,300. That’s a huge price gap! I had to have it! I gave myself time to think about it though – I don’t really need new perfume, especially since I don’t use my Moschino Cheap and Chic very often. In the end, the price difference and availability won over. Who knows if I’ll ever find another bottle of Lola at a price this low? I don’t even think this is available in the Philippines. I kind of regret not buying a bottle of Daisy, which is the perfect daytime perfume. Maybe when my Paul Smith Rose finally runs out.

Phew, that was a rather wordy entry! If you want to know more about the best places to shop in Bangkok, I’m writing a Bangkok shopping guide for The POC’s Beauty and Fashion Channel sometime this week. I’ll share the link with you guys once it’s out.

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