Shopping Tips in Bangkok, Thailand
Once surround by the numerous stalls in Thailand, it is best to be prepared with your shopping & negotiation tactics. Here are some that I have used and tested:
Clothing: Wear loose & comfortable dresses or spaghetti & skirts to keep yourself cool in the hot weather. More importantly, dresses & skirts allow you to try on shorts without any difficulty as most stalls don’t provide you space to try things on.
Footwear: Do I even have to say? Haha…still Slippers & sandles are the BEST for their comfort, ventilation, ease of slipping off to try a pair of shoes and light (so that you have space to put more stuff into yr luggage!)
Food: Pack some light finger food and bottles of water. Although you don’t feel that hungry while shopping, it helps to keep your body nourished and hydrated throughout the day. That little boost of energy can keep you going a long walk!
Shopping Strategy: If the stall owners aren’t interested in negotiating with you and their attitude is not very friendly, just GO to the next stall. Better not to buy from them as they are most likely to charge you higher prices. Part of the fun in shopping is negotiating with a SMILE – both for them & you.
It is best to go in a group, as they tend to give you better prices when you buy more. Generally it is 3 pieces and above to get their lowest, wholesale prices.
Also it is good to have a look around at the different stores to get the feel of the average prices that the clothes are going for. Here are some of the average prices that I got for my clothes:
Shorts: 250 thai baht
Tops: 200-270 thai baht (depending on the design & complexity)
Tube: 170 thai baht
Shoes: 100-170 thai baht (simple designs at the night market)
Dress: 160-190 thai baht (simple designs from MBK & pratunum)
Here is a top & shorts combination from Bangkok, isn’t it cute? Both are my favorite purchase because I got them at such a good deal.
Top is a steal @100 thai baht in a little stall manned by an old lady & the shorts @200 thai baht in the weekend market.
If you have any experience shopping in Thailand, do leave me a comment!
Be blessed,
Littlelamb
Shopping Spree in Thailand, Bangkok
Just got back to Singapore from my 4 day Thailand trip to Bangkok and for a non-shopper, I certainty shopped for 4 days straight. I can’t imagine for those hard core shoppers they’ll probably go full steam ahead.
As it is, it was an interesting experience for myself as I never thought that there could be enough things to look at, buy, negotiate and catch my interest (even after seeing the 100+ shops that I have popped my head or turned my head to look at for 4 days).
Pictures I took of me and my friend!
My friend in one of the stalls along Pratunam market
- Feeling the heat at Patpong night market before it rained
In the midst of the crowds at Chatuchak Weekend Market
TOP Shopping Areas in Bangkok (that I went)
- Platinum Fashion Mall
- Mah Boon Krong (MBK)
- Pratunam Market
- Siam Paragon
- Patpong Night Market (6pm -1am)
- Chatuchak Weekend Market (8am onwards)
Platinum, MBK & Pratunam: I bought most of my tops, shorts, dresses and accessories.
Siam Paragon: I didn’t buy anything but the range of food, restaurants and big supermarket is a sight to see and try.
Patpong Night Market: I bought a nice tube, however for this area you gotta look around for the best deal and avoid the tourist trinkets as unless you are willing to negotiate hard.
Chatuchak Weekend Market: Saw many stalls and it is good to go early to avoid the crowds and the heat. Quality of clothes aren’t as good as MBK but for the price, go for the shoes and better quality tops.
If you have been to Bangkok and would like to share your shopping tips and experience, do leave me a comment!
Be blessed,
littlelamb
What Gals pray that Guys will Do
“The most terrifying question any husband ever asks his wife: “What’s wrong?” Especially when the answer is a unknown and you (guys) have no idea what the question will release in response.
Yes, truly…that’s just all what we women need. We don’t want to be related with formulas, and definitely not to treated like a project that has answers to it. We don’t want to be solved; we just want to be KNOWN.”
Excerpts from WILD AT HEART (book)
These guys do get it…the heart of a women that is created in God’s image.
Love,
littlelamb
Top 10 Time Stealers
As promised in my previous post, I would like to share the Top 10 Things that we tend to spend too much time on, compared to our relationships. *These are primarily from my observations.
Top 10 Time Stealers
1. Computer, being Online
2. Watching TV
3. Gaming
4. Work/School work
5. Sleeping
6. Clubbing
7. Snacking
8. Drinking
9. Reading Romance/Fantasy/Sci-Fic Fiction
10. Busyness/Aimlessness
Yet, more than the things themselves I want to look beyond the symptoms and into the heart of the matter. Which is - We don’t know why we are on earth...
As a result we do all we can to kill time in the “HI-things” that can provide us with the short burst of adrenaline rush that can never last, but to lead us into addiction and numbness.
There is something better than all these temporal distractions and that is ETERNITY. It says in the Bible that God has placed eternity in the hearts of men so why do we do all we can to distract our attention from our Heart’s Cry? A cry that says, there is an emptiness which only an Eternal God can fill.
What will you choose?
Littlelamb
What is Life & Living About?
I have always wondered what life is defined by. I mean, if you consider how people lived in the past. Imagine you were born way before this era, for myself, it is easier to imagine myself in the BC or AD period since I’m more familiar to those times from stories I read in the Bible.
During the biblical times there were no such things as companies, factories, banks, F&B outlets, supermarkets, shopping malls, LV bags and the many things that we associate to life today. IF I just did a straw poll of what my friends foresee themselves doing in the next 5 years, the two main focus would be:
- Finding a job and career advancement
- Becoming wealthy enough to enjoy a life of travel, luxury, etc
- Getting married and starting a family (hardly ever, and very rarely anytime soon)
Yet, are these the true definition of one’s life? Do we exist just to work like mad, earn lots of money and lavish ourselves? There’s nothing wrong with working because work is a blessing from God (Ecclesiastes 3:13 It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts (aka work of his hands).
Yet life is more than work. For if our life is to work, life would not hold much meaning because work was never meant to define life. God has shown us since the beginning of time, in the garden of Eden, to Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Paul and many other people, Mother Teresa…that LIFE is ALL about LOVE.
If we take a real look at the 10 Commandments (God’s life manual to all mankind) and see the heart of God in them, Jesus himself said that it can be summed in just two sentences…
- Love the Lord your God
- Love your neighbor as yourself
Realize that Jesus focus is on RELATIONSHIPS and Not what we do. For Paul also writes to us in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “Even if I dole out all that I have (to the poor in providing) food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing.”
God says that relationships are what life is all about. Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things are what defines life. (excerpts from Purpose Driven Life, Chapter 16 What Matters Most)
Are relationships the first priority in your life or are they given a backseat? What are some the things that you find are taking time away from spending with God, family & friends?
Do leave a comment. My next post will be on the Top 10 things that take time away from our relationships.
Love,
Littlelamb
No.1 Book for Ladies
Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge
This has to be my favorite book about the truth of life that God made women for.
Here’s the excerpt from the book’s synopsis:
“Every woman was once a little girl. And every little girl holds in her heart her most precious dreams. She longs to be swept up into a romance, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, to be the Beauty of the story. Those desires are far more than child’s play. They are the secret to the feminine heart.
And yet – how many women do you know who ever find that life? As the years pass by, the heart of a woman gets pushed aside, wounded, buried…”
Just reading the back of the book was enough to get me hooked onto the book…and when I finally got to buy the book and bring it home to read, it totally blew my mind away.
Every struggles that we girls and women face are written with real stories of real women who have struggled with issues that we also struggle with but were able to overcome it.
Where fiction falls short of true evidence, the reality of these real women who choose to bare their heart that we may also receive the hope that IT IS POSSIBLE to live a life of romance as God created us women for. Not lost in our addictions to food, being thin or watching romance shows and wishing that it was us…it is possible! Regardless of who we are, with what we have been through and how we look…looking beyond to the one who desires us, heart, soul, body, mind and will.
I guess why the book spoke to me is because of the deep relevance of every topic in the book in my own life. It’s a book that as you read you say to yourself, “Hey, I’ve been through that” or “Oh, I can relate to that” or “I understand better about myself, as a women” Moreover the literary style is on the narrative side, which appeals to the romantic in me…all of us wish that our life is a Love Story…not a Love Manual. 
Do leave me a comment if you have read this book too!
Love,
littlelamb
Light, clouds…Wow…
The Heavens Declare the Glory of the Lord
Snapped another wonderful shot of God’s beautiful workmanship. What can I say but just looking at it fills me with awe…
Littlelamb
When Life Isn’t Perfect
When those you care most about fall into sin and you know that it will eventually hurt them, yet there is nothing which you can prevent it from happening…What can you do?
Here are some wise advise from my earthly dad, and my heavenly dad God.
- Do not say anything (do not respond immediately because your 1st response is always emotional and you may say words that may further hurt the relationship)
- Do not judge (judging is forming a conclusion on what you see happening, always give a benefit of a doubt or even when it is obvious, do not focus on the act or result because it doesn’t help you or them)
- Be a friend (ask non-threatening relationship-building questions that seeks to understand in order to develop a relationship)
- Be patient (give yourself time to seek support, counsel and advise from those around you because in every relationship, God did not meant for you to do it alone-it’s a joint effort)
Yup, just as Jesus took time to develop his relationship with his disciples who became great men of God, likewise you have Jesus as the model for your life.
Be blessed,
littlelamb
Glorious Morning
Sunrise over Queensway
God knows how much I enjoy His sunrise, especially since I’m such a morning person and no one else is up except God who never sleeps! =)
Littlelamb
Depression: Absence of Joy
When it seems like your heart is dead of emotions, joy is nowhere to be seen while feelings of worthlessness and loneliness sinks deep into you…You know that you’re in BIG trouble.
Yes,depression, that deep heaviness in one’s spirit, devoid of life’s meaning, joy and hope. Feelings of worthlessness, loneliness and frustration as one’s constant companion commonly leds to strained relationships to those once closest to you. Why is this happening…?
DID YOU KNOW?:
Everyone will at some time in their life be affected by depression–their’s or someone else’s, according to Australian Government statistics. (Depression statistics in Australia are similar to the US and UK.)
- 30% of women are depressed. Men’s depression rate was assumed to be half that of women, but new estimates are higher.
- 41% of depressed women are too embarrassed to seek help.
- 54% of people believe depression is a personal weakness.
- 80% of depressed people are not currently having any treatment
As a women, we face a greater tendency of experiencing depression. Often feelings of being unloved and lonely, the two greatest heartache of every women. Lacking the needed attention from loving parents and family, gals and women alike find solace in anything that can take that emptiness away…often turning to things that harm us the most.
This is the main reason why teenage pregnancies, AIDS, anorexia, emotional depression, promiscuity, addiction, the list runs on, are so common among gals and women alike.
Ever since the fall of Eve in the garden of Eden, we fallen women have broken relationships or habits that can only numb but never fulfill the depths our romantic hearts…except for the one who has completely romanced us. JESUS, the LOVER of our soul.
JESUS, whose life spoke of the great romance between God and us. The one who DIED on behalf of us, fallen women, so sorely in need of a knight in shining armor willing to die and rescue us from the evil dragon, in this case the devil. The devil whose desire is to “steal, kill and destroy” and one of his greatest lies is that we are worthless of anything that is closest to our hearts, love and attention.
JESUS is the only one who has showed us what True Love is, one that choses to die that the other might live, not considering the cost to himself but by God’s Great Love, redeeming us for an eternal relationship with him. One that is loving and constant because God says that “I will never leave you nor forsake you” and his unfailing love is ours.
What love is there in your live that can compare to the LOVE OF GOD for you, His Beloved Daughter.
Be blessed,
Littlelamb
