Not interested in the glass palaces of the high-end shopping malls, I decided to pay the streets of Bangkok’s Chinatown a visit. Once again I took the Skytrain/riverboat taxi combination transportation option. Following the Lonely Planet’s map, I headed towards Sampeng Lane. Indeed, this shopping street was very crowded. Dollies full of more goods were being pushed through the crowds of people who had to sometimes jump towards the racks and displays in order to get out of the way. A motorcycle trying to get through made you move even faster. Vying for one’s attention was a lot of cheap Chinese crap. Colorful plastic-looking jewelry, stickers and temporary tattoos, and T-shirts with a variety of English phrases or pop icons were available for the taking. Rows and shelves of sandals and purses also abounded, including quite a selection of Crocs knockoffs. For the Bangkok native sporting both a regular cell phone and a Blackberry or iPhone, plenty of fuzzy, studded, or character cell phone covers could be had. For those tiring of shopping, food stalls were squeezed in between the stalls. As for me, I didn’t find the scene or its goods very inspiring, so I moved on.
2 comments:
Sampeng lane is a small lane that is busy with market activity. You can buy all kinds of stuff here and at the beginning of Sampeng Lane you find mostly shoe shops, approximately all of them selling just wholesale that means you have to buy at least 6 pairs of shoes.
Actually I found my best gifts here, exactly the same things they sell in tourist places where you end up paying 3-10 times more. And so: silk, pearls (both genuine, you just have to have skills to distinguish those); handpainted pottery Thai-style, and finally - a wonderfull embroidered dress, exactly as they were selling in a boutique my hotel at over 500 euros, here it was merely abt 35...
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