Retail Therapy. That's what they call it, and living on a tiny island with 8 gazillion people, sometimes you need an escape. Two friends planned a weekend getaway to Bangkok for shopping in early November. Remember that we didn't plan any Fall trips so I had been stuck on this island for over 3 full months with no reprieve. I wouldn't dare miss some time away!
We left before dawn on a Friday morning. The maxicab picked us up at 4:45 am. We stumbled into the airport and made a quick check-in. All of us took a very large suitcase to check. Inside the suitcase was a carry-on size suitcase packed with a small amount of clothes for the remaining 2 days in Bangkok. We all opted to pay a small fee to increase our luggage weight for the trip back to Singapore. That's some serious shopping plans! One coffee later and we were on the plane for our 2 hour flight!
We arrived with no troubles. The Bangkok airport is newer and very clean and white. The first thing we all noticed were the large numbers of Muslim folks in the airport that day. Women in burkhas and robed men everywhere that morning. It was a bit unsettling to me, a western woman in shorts. Ugh. We gathered our large bags and headed for Starbucks in the airport where we grabbed breakfast and more coffee! Our driver took all of the bags and loaded them into the van while we planned.
We finished our drinks and got into the van for the drive into Bangkok. It was a clear sunny day. We did not drive directly to our hotel at all, oh no! We needed to stop at the Jim Thompson Factory Outlet. Can't drive past that important gem!
Jim Thompson was an American military guy who was over in Asia. He ended up leaving the military and establishing silk manufacturing in Thailand. This gave the Thai people work and really helped their economy. Plus it made him a millionaire. One day he went out for a walk in the Cameron highlands of Malaysia on Easter Sunday and never returned. No one knows what happened to Mr. Thompson, but his factories remained and continue to make beautiful fabrics.
The Outlet is a four story building on a nondescript street. It houses everything from silk shirts, ties, pillows, handbags, cosmetics bags, bags of every shape and size! Plus large rolls of fabrics in beautiful prints and solids. I spent my time on the shirts, ties and bags. Two of my friends actually bought fabrics for making clothes and recovering furnishings. Everything was gorgeous and we were in rare form. I snapped a photo of Devon and Sue with some purchases in the outlet:
After the Jim Thompson outlet, we drove on into the city for more shopping. Did we check in our hotel yet? No way! More shopping! We hit the store for stainless stuff and jewelry next. But first, here are two views of Bangkok, which I found to be a spread out city much like Beijing. Unique to Bangkok, in my view, are the buildings which are very white in color. Interesting!
Here is my hotel room that I shared with friend, Melina. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Silom. It was brilliant! Five star all the way! I was surprised! We stayed club level at a very cheap rate which meant breakfast, drinks, and evening hors d'oeuvres included. :
Beautiful room. But back to shopping! We stopped a the Stainless store where we priced the flatware out and bought some serving accessories like salad bowls, trays, ice buckets. I picked up a tray, a dip bowl, and an interesting serving dish/bowl. Nearby (as in one block walking), we shopped at Lims Jewelers for sterling silver pieces at cheap prices. By this time, it's lunch!
We walked down this Bangkok side street and found Harmonique, a lovely lunch spot:
Excellent Thai food and cold beer to drink! Can't drink the water, remember? Too bad :(
Guess we have to drink beer! Cheers!
Here's my dear friend and roommate, Melina. She was in Australia last spring break, too, remember? Her husband ate a grub with mine. We eat Thai food together. Much better! This was also taken inside Harmonique:
I can't remember where we shopped after lunch. Or if we shopped. We may have gone to the hotel at this point to check in. I do know that once we were at the hotel, we freshened up and had drinks in the lounge and then headed off for the night market:
It was in the To Bang Sue direction of town. Here is my friend, Sue:
Big laughs, of course. The night market was disappointing. I think we were exhausted and the merchandise in the market didn't look as nice as in the stores. We left after and hour or two and one US $2.50 half-hour foot massage. Pure bliss!
The next day was a big day! Chatuchak market! Here's some info:
Chatuchak (or Jatujak; Thai: จตุจักร) weekend market in Bangkok is the largest market in Thailand. Frequently called J.J., it covers over 35 acres (1.13 km²) and contains upwards of 5,000 stalls. It is estimated that the market receives between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors each day[citation needed]. Most stalls only open on Saturdays and Sundays.
The market offers a wide variety of products including household items, clothing, Thai handicrafts, religious artifacts, collectibles, foods, and live animals.
Here are some of the live animals, precious puppies. I felt so bad for all the animals. These pups had to be way too young to be separated from their mom. There were stalls and stalls of them:
This is what one aisle looked like, just to get an idea:
You can find all sorts of things:
Here's one thing I found with Sue and Melina:
Loved them. I say loved because when I got them home, I realized that they smell of cigar to high heaven! Now they sit on my front porch. I've got to figure out how to rid them of the smell or get rid of the shoes. Only about $5 USD. So fun! I didn't buy much here. I think just the shoes, actually! We spent all day here and had a lovely Thai lunch with beer again. One friend bought some bells, others bought silver jewelry..... Sue bought some pillow covers..... all around good day.
Okay, now I am embarrassed! I totally forgot that the first stop we had on the Chatachuk market was Jane's stall with the stainless. I purchased my stainless flatware here! I got 16 place settings plus several serving pieces (hanging rack, coffee spoons, tiny appetizer serving forks, carving knife and fork) All for under Us $250. The above picture is of the total loot I bought over the weekend.
The evening of Chatachuk day we went to Silom square for purse shopping and had dinner there at another great Thai place. We took at tuk-tuk. More laughs. Here's the photo:
Our last day. We decided to hit some of the same stores again to purchase what we didn't purchase before. Melina and I got a sweet sterling necklace. :) Then we also stopped at a Celadon store. I picked up two cute small bowls. One day I'm getting a set of Celadon. It's on my container list.
See, we like to play the "what's on your container list?" game. It goes like this: you found out your moving in one month. What are you rushing out to buy?
It's a right of passage. Every one that moves back has that frantic rush of "Oh my, I have to pick up X, Y, Z and I only have one month left!" We like to play the what are you getting, you're container is coming game. Here's the beautiful Celadon:
We had lunch at a restaurant recommended by our driver. I have the card but can't remember the name and, of course, we are blocking the name:
Kim, Melina, Devon, me, Sue. Kristie headed home on saturday night. She has a small baby.
Great food. Great weekend. My belly hurt from laughing so much and my wallet hurt from the purchases. :) I'll have to go back, I think. We'll see.....
