Pratunam: Shopping

Few other cities offer such a vast choice of goods, much enhanced by the polite sales techniques and good-natured haggling that accompanies most transactions. Provided you have sufficient time, following the standard tourists' shopping rules will help you secure some incredible deals.

Deciding what to buy, and comparing prices around, is a good start. Things start to get really cheap when you're buying bulk. And don't worry about carrying everything around with you; most places will package and deliver straight to your hotel, and there are also several shipping agents around. The golden rule for bargaining is to do so with a smile - your most important negotiating tool!

Use the Baiyoke Sky Hotel building as a marker - easy enough, because you can't really miss it - and work your way around it. You'll find a maize of shops, stalls, the main market area and several smaller, interconnected air-conditioned small malls and arcades.From 16:30 onwards (until about 22:00) is gets especially frantic (except on Sundays), with trade spilling out into the streets behind the Indra Regent Hotel; every available space is used for trading.

The Indra Square consists of several floors with hundreds of small shops, and is directly connected to this popular hotel. There are several shops and stalls on the ground level of Bayoke Sky Hotel too, and at Bayoke Suite Hotel (known as Bayoke Garment Centre), 100 metres away.

Also look out for Fashion Street Centre and the Pratunam City Complex. For six floors of more fashion and related merchandise, the modern Platinum Fashion Mall on Petchburi Road is becoming more and more popular, and about a ten-minute walk away.

Not far from there is Pantip Plaza, Bangkok's foremost computer shopping mall. If it's electronic or digital, you'll find it here. It's a great place to violate copyright laws and get bootleg versions of software for PC and Macintosh, games for consoles, MP3s, VCDs, and DVDs. It's always very crowded and busy, but well worth checking out - even just for the experience.

By now you should be all shopped out, but, let's assume you're not... Head towards the Chidlom-Ploenchit area. Here you'll find CentralWorld, and other options like the posh Gaysorn, a Big C Superstore (department store), as well as upmarket Amarin Plaza and Peninsula Plaza. A skywalk also connects from here all the way to that other of holy shopping grounds, Siam.

Learn More About Pratunam: Where to Stay, List of Hotels, What to see & Do, Where to Eat, Nightlife, Getting Around

Learn more about Shopping Areas: Sukhumvit, Chidlom, Siam Square, Ratchaprasong, Sathorn, Riverside, Khao San Road, Old City, Chinatown, Chatuchak, Ratchadapisek

Related Links: Computers & Audiovisual, Counterfeit Culture, Fashion & Clothing

The mother of them all. Walking through the main entrance of this multi-storey IT complex, you'll be greeted with the latest copy software for sale (100 - 150 baht), along with DVD's, MP3 CD's, and anything else that can be put on disk. If you're looking for a new wireless mouse, USB stick, CD-Rom drive, or whatever you can think of, sift your way through as many vendors as possible to compare prices and find the best deal. Most IT brands are well-represented, and the safest places to buy from are credible and established outlets. The secret is to take your time, and to compare prices. To put it simply, Pantip is a must, especially if you' re shopping on a budget. Even just for the experience, it's well worth your time to explore the sheer variety of IT products on offer, packed from floor to ceiling.

Open: 10:00 - 20:30 (every day)
Location: Petchaburi Road, directly across the street from Pratunam's City Complex and close to the Baiyoke Market and stylish Amari Watergate Hotel. To get there, take the skytrain (BTS) to Ratchathewi station, and then either hire a tuk-tuk / taxi, or just walk ten minutes down Petchaburi Road.

For more IT malls, have a look here.

A relatively new shopping center in the Petchburi area, Platinum Fashion Mall caters especially to wholesale clothing, selling a similar range of clothing to the Pratunam Market across the street, except in air-conditioned comfort. The mall has six floors which are filled with small outlets - most of them specialising in women's clothing and fashion accessories. Since this is a wholesale mall, you can get items at very reasonable prices - provided you buy larger quantities, usually three items and up.

The price you pay will be about 30% lower per piece. Some shops allow you to mix different types of items, for example, purses and bags, shirts and trousers. And as with most shopping malls in the city, there is also a food court on the fifth floor, along with cafés and fast food chains. If you're coming from CentralWorld, you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. Just head north, cross the small canal, and turn left into Petchburi Road, a few metres along and you're there.

Open: 10:00 - 22:00
Location: Petchburi, Ratchathewi (next to Pantip Plaza)
BTS: The nearest Skytrain station is Ploenchit