Little Gifts - What to buy???

[chilli13]

my mates always seem to appriciate exactly those gifts as they're struggling with all the SE England bad muffs

[think_too_mut]

>I haven't been to the park yet. A taxi, with the request to go to "Lumpini Park" would work? Would it be hard to find the Night Bazaar if one is not familiar with the area? What time at night would you suggest going there?

 

 

Taxi drivers shouls all know about the place. It's so big and many thousands people go there.Many ambassies around there, very well known area.

 

 

It is called a 'Night Market" but many shops open as early as 3pm. Unprepared for the size and variety, I had only one hour to spend there (6-7pm). Will revisit it this week.

 

Fake goods are still available but not in piles and when you encounter them the shop is well arranged.

 

By 7pm (it was dark) the place was buzzing with more and more people pouring in.

 

If you are taking a break from nightlife or have a companion, an evening there and some dinner could be appropriate.

 

The way it's been layed out reminds me of Scottsdale, Arizona. That neat and clean.

 

The place gives BKK a taste of a first world country with everything still Thai. Airforce should be called in to flat out the Patpong market.

[BelgianBoy]

Says think_too_mut:

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Just little tuk-tuk miniatures,

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TTM,

 

That explains it !!!! Thanks !!!

 

(your first typing said tik-tuk )

 

Cheers !

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

 

If you're in Pattaya go to the Luk Dod souvenir shop. It's in a back alley close to the bus station where the Ekamai busses depart. Many of the street vendors buy their gods there. All items have two price tags. The higher price is for single purchase and the lower for buying several items (i think 6), There is no haggling but you will get a better price than you will in south Pattaya no matter how good you are at haggling.

 

regards

 

ALHOLK

[mongatu]

If you're in Pattaya go to the Luk Dod souvenir shop. It's in a back alley close to the bus station where the Ekamai busses depart. Many of the street vendors buy their gods there. All items have two price tags. The higher price is for single purchase and the lower for buying several items (i think 6), There is no haggling but you will get a better price than you will in south Pattaya no matter how good you are at haggling.

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I saw a place very similar to that in BKK in Chinatown. Can't remember exactly where it was, but among other things, they had hundreds of different watches, many hanging on the wall, many with single watch price of 175 baht. If you bought 3 or more price dropped to 125 baht each. I saw one guy, who probably was a street vendor, or perhaps an exporter, buying 500 and getting an even bigger discount.

 

In general, I think you can get some good deals in Chinatown in BKK, plus, it is interesting to walk around there.

[New Petchburi Pete]

You can tell the better copies (watches) by looking at the movement of the second hand ... if it sweeps smoothly

(withoiut brief stopping at each second), it's of much better

quality. I know a gent at MBK who has some really nice

knock-offs that he keeps hidden .... send me a PM and I'll

give you his name and location.

 

Another idea for small, but interesting gifts are the beautiful

stamps that can be purchased so cheaply at most Thai Post offices ... a little more cerebral.

[luckyfarang]

I generally get them at Patpong night market.

 

You must make it clear that you know the difference between Hong Kong cheapos and the better quality Taiwan knockoffs with Seiko movement inside. The good ones are only about 200B more.

 

After you find a vendor who helps you distinguish between the two, stick with that vendor.

 

The cheap Hong Kong replicas have a junk movement inside that cannot be repaired and you are lucky if they run for a week before dying. They have plastic face instead of crystal, and are generally not as heavy, although sometimes they appear prettier and shinier than the good ones from Taiwan.

 

The easiest way to tell the difference is to look at the side edge of the metal watchband (doesn't work with leather or solid metal bands). If you can see that the individual links are not nicely sealed, it is a HongKonger.

 

If you speak Thai fluently and buy several, you might bargain the best quality ones down to 450B, if not, you're lucky to get it down to 600B.

 

Also, another poster earlier gave bad advice about watching the ticking of the second hand. You want the one that ticks once a second. These are battery powered and will last for many years and keep perfect time.

 

The ones that tick five times per second are self-winding automatics, which cost more and don't last a year. If you want an automatic, spring for a real one, not a copy.

[AllenBlue]

Thanks for the generous advice about the watches....since I don't speak Thai...guess I'll expect to pay the higher amount...I haven't spent much time shopping in the night market in Patpong...place kind of turned me off....when I first started going there (Patpong) there was no night market...when that appeared it sort of drove me away.

 

Thanks again!

 

AllenBlue

[Shit-Spattered Dog]

Says ALHOLK:

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Hi!

 

If you're in Pattaya go to the Luk Dod souvenir shop. It's in a back alley close to the bus station where the Ekamai busses depart. Many of the street vendors buy their gods there

regards

ALHOLK

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Are you sure they were street vendors and not motorcyle and Tuk Tuk taxi drivers? ::

 

( nothing better to do tonight )

Shit

[mongatu]

Since we got on the subject of watches, specifically the quality of the automatic self winding type knockoffs, I was wondering about the quality of the genuine Seiko self winding automatics (with the clear see through backs). I saw these in some BKK stores (that were not selling knockoffs) going for about 6000 baht (if I remember correctly). I would assume, being Seiko's that they would be pretty good, but does anybody know about these?