Bangkok Bangles

Hi Suze,

Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but I doubt that our friend, jewelry designer Matt Laurenza, is pleased. "Inspirations" of his beautiful bracelets are available in markets and malls all over Bangkok.

To be fair, these copies can't begin to compete with the real thing. Upon close examination, most are cheaply made and the stones don't have the bling of the sapphires and precious stones used by Matt.

Take a look at the photos... Bracelet number one, with gold plating, was displayed in the window of a fancy jewelry shop in an upscale mall. It was very expensive (close to $900) and as far as I know, Matt doesn't use gold. I found the second one in a discount clothing store. It was offered to me at a "special discount of 50%", which brought the cash price down to about $58.

I also found very cheap imitations on the 5th floor of the Platinum Fashion Mall (next to Panthip Plaza) for 450 Thai baht, or about $12. When I tried to photograph these beauties, I was asked to put my camera away!

MCL Design jewelry is available at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, and at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman in the US.

with hugs,
Sarah

Pantip Mon Amour

As catnip is to cats, Pantip is to me...and any international shoppers who come to what is called the Computer & IT Market in Bangkok, but turns out to be HQ for all of Asian life.

We planned to simply work it-- you know, spend maybe an hour. We spent three hours and could have moved in. Here's what we bought and didn't buy:
* 1 Skype phone handset, $15 (I paid $24.99 for mine at WalMart in USA);
* 2 vials of copy perfume, $6 each in purse sized roll-on. I actually bought "Coco " which I have never worn before but since August 19 was Mlle. Chanel's birthday, I thought why not? Sarah bought Poeme, a Lancome scent I am pretty sure, that she's never heard of. Copyright and intellectual property appear to be things the vendor has never heard of.
* A few DVD's of hit movies, including Hangover, which was requested by a friend and The Proposal-- each a fixed price of $3. Ooops, I forgot. We didn't buy the DVD's, we just looked at them and when we were told you had to come back in 15 minutes, we left. Forgive the mis-information. And in case you are curious, illegal DVD's bought at the night markets go for twice as much. Hey, it's my job to ask these things and to go to night markets too.
* Legal CD boxed set of oldies, $30. Sealed with a Kiss. (Yes, it's gonna be a long, lonely summer.)
* Legal DVD set of BBC series for Tom's birthday next week so you don't really expect me to tell you what it is, do you? Cost: $15.
* 1 electrical adapter, UK to USA, $1.
* 1 computer screen skin-- this very confusing as prices for different brands varied enormously so I paid $6 for the top of the line. (I have CHUMP written on my forehead.)

There were ten million mice on sale, many mouse pads-- the cutest with animals and their names (as in rabbit, sheep, cow, not Ben, James or Sam) in Chinese, zillions of netbooks in fashion colors, camera and phones galore, flash drives in all sizes and many shapes. Memory cards for the camera were less than in China.

If you don't care what we bought (or didn't buy) or what we paid (or didn't pay),note that this market sells everything but is very very different from electroncis and IT markets in China. It's much more into trends, junk merch, bins of things, adorable this and that, programs, printers, ink and toner and Rosetta Stones. Best of all, is the giant sign that warns you not to buy fake goods...which we would never do. There's also handbags, vibrators and curling irons. If the vibrators don't curl your hair, then you maybe need the flat iron. Special for you, missy, look this way.