EXPENDITURE IN THAILAND

MONEY

Thai currency is the Baht, divided into 100 Satang. Exchange rate, as at April. 2007, approximately 35 Baht to the US$ (or 47 Baht = 1 EUR). Thai notes are in denominations of 1000, 500, 100, 50 and 20. Coins are of 10, 5 ,2, 1 Baht and 50 and 25 Satang.Cash and travellers cheques can be exchanged almost city of Thailand freely, with banks or money changers giving other rates than hotels. Major international credit cards are widely accepted in hotels, restaurants and shops(VISA, MasterCard and Local Bank credit card are widely accepted on everywhere in Thailand) .
SCB Bank Currency Exchange Rates
K Bank Currency Exchange Rates
BBL Bank Currency Exchange Rate

SHOPPING

What To Buy
Many goods await you in Thailand. Always haggle to get the best price except in department stores (when you would like to buy some goods, you should ask price for 2 or 3 shop on the same area). And don't go shopping in the company of touts, tour guides or friendly strangers as they will inevitably. You should buy goods at the department stores, OTOP shop, Souvenir local shop and any shop that many Thai people have entranced.

Shopping Tips
Department stores and a number of shops in Bangkok have fixed prices; some department stores will even offer a discount on expensive items like jewelry and fine furniture. No fixed rules can be given on the process, depending as it does on the bargainer's skill and the shop keeper's mood, but the final price may be reduced as much as 30 percent to that first quoted. An important point to keep in mind is that Thais admire good manners and a sense of humour and tend to be put off by a loss of temper. Providing you have the time, a good general rule is to make a survey of several shops selling the sort of items you want before coming to a final decision.

VAT Refund
Visitor to Thailand can now claim VAT refunds at Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hat-Yai and Phuket airports for a minimum purchase of 5,000 Baht with no less than 20,000 Baht/receipt/day. Upon purchase, visitors should request the store to process a Vat refund form (por.por.10) When departing, visitors have the customs stamp the form prior to airline check-in.When passing through Passport Control, visitors will have the form processed by the Revenue Department and receive a VAT refund. Please note that valuable merchandise such as jewellery, watches, eyeglasses and pens must be declared before customs and revenue officials.

THAI PRODUCTS

Silk & Cotton

The gorgeous Thai silk favoured by many Thai and international designers originates from northeastern Thailand where cloth weaving is a traditional folk craft. Northeastern silk is renowed for mudmee and khid silk varieties, usually made into tubular skirts or phasin. Phu Thai folk employ an elaborate weaving style called chok to create unique phrae wa and phrae mon silk. Hang kra rok silk is the speciality of Thais of Khmer origin, in which complicated weaving patterns create a harmonious, multi-coloured Combination of threads.
Northern hand-woven fabrics include cottons with distinctive patterns, such as nam lai and tin chok. The North’s most famous rustic cloth is the traditional dark blue mo hom denim-like cloth favoured by Thai farmers.
In southern Thailand, Phum Riang silk is produced by Thai Muslim villagers who apply traditional weaving patterns to Japanese silk. The Yok Nakhon cotton of Nakhon Si Thammarat is equallydistinctive, while batiks and patae skirts glow with the brilliant colours

Gems & Jewellery
Thailand is rich in precious stones, with a natural abundance of rubies, sapphires, zircon, onyx, jade and opal. Local cutting, design and manufacturing skills ensure a fine range of quality items with a wide choice of prices. Thailand also has a long tradition of fine jewellery cutting and making. Design and cutting skills ensure a fine range of quality items, with a wide choice of prices. Kanchanaburi and Chanthaburi are both well-known gemstones mining areas, while Bangkok is the major manufacturing centre, the venue where experts converge to judge, grade, buy and sell.How to Buy Gems: There are four criteria to judge gems known as the '4 Cs'

1. Colour
For a diamand, the clearer and whiter, the more expensive, but for other gemstones, it is more difficult to evaluate. There are many kinds of gemstones and thee has never been a single standard to judge them, unlike a diamond. Other gemstones include:

1.1 Sapphire : a blue kind of gemstone. The most valuable kind of sapphire possesses a blue velvet colour while sapphires with much lighter or darker shades are relatively cheaper.

1.2 Ruby: normally red, but the standard colour is vermilion. Paler or darker shades are slightly cheaper.

1.3 Emerald: a green velvet stone. The cheapest kind of emerald is one that is light green, approaching yellow. To buy gemstones with their colours as the main criterion, customers should look for those with medium shades, not too light or too dark. They can also seek and experts advice before making a decision.

2. Clarity
This concerns the level of contamination inside a gemsotne. The less contamination and fewer defects a gem has, the more expensive it is.

3. Cut
This concerns the shapes and balance of a gem's facets. A quality cut creates a glittering reflection inside a gem.

4. Carat weight
Quality gems are priced by their carat weights while inferior ones are priced by unit tagged with a fixed price. One carat weighs 200 milligrams.

How to Buy Jewelry
1. The weight and percentage of gold in jewelry The heavier and more percentage, the more expensive.

2. The weight, size, amount and quality of gems The principle of the '4 Cs' can be applied. Buyers should consider the weight of each gemstone because a single, large gemstone is more expensive than several small ones.

3. Craftmanship and designs

4. Buyer's satisfaction As Jewelry is an art, there is no standard of pricing. Buying depends on the taste and satisfaction of individual buyers. Buyers should enter standard jewelry shops, request for receipts that clearly describe the details of the products, the dates of bying, and the names of sellers, as well as ask for a warranty in order to prevent problems. Visitors can buy quality and satisfaction-guaranteed gems and jewelry at shops which are members of the Jewel Fest Club. These shops are ready to provide visitors with excellent services.

For more information contact:
Jewel Fest Club: http://www.jewelfest.com/
Thai Gem & Jewelry Traders Association : http://www.thaigemjewelry.com/

Gold
Gold has been used primarily in temples and palaces, as golden Buddha images, jewellery and royal insignia and decorations. Buddha images are decorated with gold leaf and gold is used to enhance modern jewellery.

Pearls
Cultured pearl production mimics the natural process to produce pearls of guaranteed quality. Cultured pearl farms are found principally in southern Thailand, particularly in Ranong, Phang-nga and Phuket provinces.

Shadow Play Puppets

The hand-made nang talung shadow play in southern Thailand features distinctive puppets with moving parts, while the classic nang yai shadow play associated with the royal courts of Ayutthaya and Bangkok features larger pieces which have no moving either principal characters or scenes from the Thai version of the classic Ramayana.
Shadow play puppets make unusual souvenirs and are manufactured principally in the south of Thailand.


Wickerwork
Folk wisdom and the countrywide distribution of bamboo combine to make basket-weaving an important folk craft. Rattan sedge, kok, bullrash or kra chud are also used to produce beautifully designed furniture and attractive souvenirs. These natural materials are widely used for woven mats and other woven handicrafts, while the popular and delicate lipao vine ladies’ handbags were introduced by her Majesty the Queen.


Ceramics & Pottery
Thai kilns have a long, primarily Chinese-influenced tradition of pottery making. Of the various styles, hand-painted 14th century Sangkhalok, produced in Sukhothai, and 19th century Bencharong with decorative porcelain bowls, jars and spittoons are the most popular. Bencharong has proved the most desirable among Thai and foreign collectors due to the rarity and rich surface decorations. The northeastern community of Dan Kwian produces as distinctive range of rust-red objects including vases, flower pots and tiny ornamental accessories. In northern Thailand, high fired seagreen celadon produces an effect similar to venerable Sangkhalok ceramics.

Antiques

Real antiques cannot be taken out of Thailand without a permit from the Fine Arts Department. No Buddha image, new or old, may be exported without permission - again, refer to the Fine Arts Department, or, in some cases, the Department of Religious Affairs, under the Ministry of Education. Too many private collectors smuggling and hoarding Siamese art (Buddhas in particular) around the world have led to strict controls.Chinese and Thai antiques are sold in Bangkok's Chinatown in two areas: Wang Burapha (the streets which have Chinese "gates" over the entrance) and Nakhon Kasem. Some antiques (and many fakes) are sold at the Weekend Market in Chatuchak Park. Objects for sale in the tourist antique shops are fantastically overpriced, as can be expected. In recent years Northern Thailand has become a good source of Thai antiques - prices are about half what you'd typically pay in Bangkok.

Wood Crafts

Chiang Mai has been the commercial centre of wood crafting in northern Thailand for decades. Wooden elephants were popular souvenirs items at first, while today craftsmen have enhanced wood carving by featuring mythical angels, dancing figures, animals and the reproduction of ornamental fragments from old palaces and temples.

Lacquerware, Silverware, Neilloware, Pewterware
Lacquerware is an ancient oriental craft, and entails a repeated process of coating structural bamboo or wood with lacquer before hand-painting it with elaborate designs. Generally, objects are produced either in gold and black, or yellow and green on a red-brown background. Chiang Mai is the major centre of lacquerware. Products include boxes, trays and dolls.
Silver beating is another traditional northern craft. Bowls, boxes, cigarette cases, vases are fashioned in a craft which has been practiced in southern Thailand for hundreds of years.
Nielloware, or khrueang thom, is the craft of decorating objects with delicately etched designs which are filled with a metal alloy to produce a smooth patterned surface in back and gold. The art is widely practised in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Pewterware, essentially an alloy of lead and tin which produces a metal with a smooth and silky feel, comes mainly in the form of beakers, goblets, tankards and decorative figurines

Fake or Pirated Goods
In Bangkok, Chiang Mai and all the tourist centres, there is black-market street trade in fake designer goods; particularly Benneton pants and sweaters, Lacoste (crocodile) and Palph lauren polo shirts, Levi's jeans, and Rolex, Dunhill and Cartier watches. Tin-Tin T- Shirts are also big. No -one pretends they're the real thing, at least not the vendors themselves. The European and American manufacturers are applying heavy pressure on the Asian governments involved to get this stuff off the street, so it may not be around for much longer.In some cases foreign name brands are legally produced under licence in Thailand and represent good value. A pair of legally produced Levi's 510s, for example, typically costs US$ 10 from a Thai street vendor, and US$ 30 to US$ 40 in Levi's home town of San Francisco! Careful examination of the product usually reveals tell- tale characteristics that confirm or deny the item's legality. All pirated foreign movies, popular softwares and popular musics can be found in IT market around Bangkok. (This is wrong for selling these pirated goods, Thai government try to clear these pirated goods from Thailand.)

WHERE TO SHOP

Shoppers in Bangkok have a wide choice of areas in which to pursue their search for bargains, most of them located within walking distance of major hotels.One such area, for example, is along Silom and Suriwongse Roads in the vicinity of the Dusit Thani Montien, and Tawana Hotels. This includes Robinson's department Store, Central Department Store, the Charn Issara Shopping Centre, dozens of silk shop, antique and decorative reproduction shops, boutiques of ready-to-wear women's clothes, men's tailors and shops selling leather wear and other goods.

From the Ratchaprasong intersection, near the Meridien President Hotel, it is but a short walk to the Amarin Plaza shopping Centre Department Store in one direction and to Ratchadamri Arcade and Narayana Phand Store in another. Directly opposite Narayana Phand is the Centre World Plaza, and enormous complex with two department stores and hundreds of boutiques selling everything imaginable. Also nearby are the upscale Peninsula Arcade and Galleries Lafayette.Off the Ratchaprasong intersection eastward to Sukhumvit Road stands the Emporium shopping Centre, where brand name clothes and fashionable decorative items are found in attractive and unique style.Shoppers should not overlook Bangkok's many department stores, which offer locally made goods as well as designer name brands and feature alluring sales. Twice a year, visitors can take advantage of the month-long Amazing Thailand Grand Sale, which is held throughout Bangkok and other major cities. Watch for the Grand Sale, which takes place in June, and again in mid-November and offers valuable discounts on all kinds of goods.

Also worth visiting are several air-conditioned shopping complexes the offer a wide variety of goods and prices. The Oriental Plaza. In an atmospheric old building houses jewelry and Thai handicrafts as well as clothing and fabrics. River City Shopping Complex, located adjacent to the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel, has two floors devoted to small shops selling antiques and decorative items as well as a main floor that features exhibits of art, handicrafts, antique furniture, paper products, plants and more, Siam Centre and Siam discovery Centre near the Siam Inter continental Hotel are filled with numerous fashionable boutiques and in the vicinity is Mah Boon Krong.{add shoping1.jpg} A particular favorite with younger Thais, this teeming emporium contains hundreds of shops as well as the Tokyu Department Store.As comfortable as these centres are, any serious shopper will also want to explore some of the city's markets for their colorful atmosphere and generally lower prices, Pratunam, near the Indra Regent Hotel, specializes in ready-to-wear clothing of all kinds. Opposite the Pratunam shopping complex is Nai Lert Market offering a variety of inexpensive trendy products, ranging from hairpins to shoes. Don't miss the delicious oriental food sold here at very low prices.Near the Grand palace is Khao San Road filled with clothes, jewellery and accessories popular among the backpackers and younger crowds. Just up from Khao San stands Banglamphu Market, which has authentic Thai goods and contemporary products.In the older section of town, at the corner of Phahurat and Chakraphet, is the Phahurat cloth Market, where locals go for textile bargains, while Sampheng Lane and Yaowarat, both in Chinatown, have countless shops selling. Gold, jewellery, cooking utensils and other items.

The biggest market of all, and the most fascinating, is the Chatuchak Weekend Market, open on Saturday and Sunday at Chatuchak Park, not far from the Central Plaza Hotel. Here, just about everything Thailand makes or grows is on sale, from blue-and -white porcelain to hybrid orchids, and huge crowds go there to buy or just to enjoy the market atmosphere. Another much smaller market is the Pat Pong night market that has good souvenirs, but nothing like what's available a Chatuchak.The Floating Market, despite the emergence of the ubiquitous farm pick-ups, paddy farmers and orchard gardeners still continue to meet and barter their products in age-old trading sports on the canals (Khlongs). Early every morning, sampans laden with all kinds of tropical fruits and vegetables and fresh products, wind their way to the floating markets around Bangkok. There is one particular floating market in Bangkok that visitors can enjoy: Taling Chan Floating Market is a weekend market in front of Taling Chan District Office, open from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Boat trip services are available for sight-seeing along the canal where gardens and a village lifestyle are still to be seen. The market is also accessible by bus No. 79 and 83, which pass nearby. Contact Taling Chan District Office on telephone 424-1742 for more information. Outside Bangkok, the main city for shopping is Chiang Mai, the unquestioned centre of traditional Thai handicrafts. Visitors can find beautiful sandstone pieces, antiques and more. The Night Bazaar, is a good place to sample the full tange of local products such as cotton, lacquerware, silver hilltribe clothing, Burmese tapestries, painted umbrellas and woodcarvings.

While in Chiang Mai, make a point of going to some of how these goods - particularly lacquer, silk, silver and paper umbrellas - are actually made.Pattaya also has many shops selling Thai goods and a particularly wide selection of precious and semi-precious stones since the popular resort lies near Chanthaburi, where numerous gem mines are located. Hat Yai, a district in Songkhla province in Southern Thailand is home to the Kim Yong Market, Where tax-free electronic goods, dried fruits and clothes are sold at very low prices.

PACKING AND SHIPPING SERVICES

Thanks to the ever-increasing number of tourists coming to Thailand. Most shops are experienced at shipping abroad and will attend to all the documents such as insurance, customs and necessary permits. The Central Post Office also offers a parcel-wrapping service for those who want to make small shipments themselves . For larger items or bulk shipments, there are several Bangkok companies who specialize in such matters.

(Information from Tourism Authority of Thailand)