Jungceylon Shopping Mall in Patong

The 200-plus other stores in this shopping heaven sell brand-name clothes, spectacles, sunglasses, colognes and perfumes, shoes, DVD-CD-VCD's, computer games, electrical goods, pewter, gold and silver, sportswear and goods amongst myriad other items.

Carrefour

Security guards stand between Robinson and Carrefour upstairs floors and they heat-seal your purchases in a new plastic bag as you enter the French supermarket.

The upstairs section of Carrefour is a neon-lit affair featuring sports accessories, TV's, digital cameras and computer accessories. Downstairs features a large food supermarket, a stand of magazines and DVD's (395 baht) and rows of household goods.

The chic liquor store has Johnny Walker Black Label for 1,119 baht and Chivas Regal for 998 baht (down from 999 baht!). Local spirits, however, cost a fraction of that. 

Music, Phones and Electronics

An interesting DVD/CD/VCD and cassette factory outlet stands opposite Carrefour's ground floor entrance featuring mostly B movies, although Lord of the Rings # 3 was on sale for 149 baht which has got to be unbeatable value. A word of warning though; the 'Best of' CD's are imitations.

The VCD's are in Thai - even though they have English language covers and who buys cassettes nowadays? Still, it's worth a look through the mountains of discs and DVD boxes for that special B feature you've always wanted but were unwilling to shell out for.

Robinson

Robinson's downstairs majors in perfumes, cosmetics, watches and timepieces. The brand names featured here are Lancôme, Estée Lauder, Clinique, H20+, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Revlon and Paul Smith. The watches are mostly Japanese and are of middle-range quality.

Upstairs, Robinson features women's shoes and accessories, and probably the biggest selection of women's underwear in Thailand – certainly the largest in Phuket. Further through is a very attractive child's clothing section which, predictably enough leads to the toy department. To one side here you will find an interesting collection of pewter goods; vases, cups, cigarette lighter covers and souvenir plaques as well as salt and pepper shakers, all at reasonable prices.

You'll also find a household appliance department here as well as a sensibly priced men's shoe section – this appears to be a bargain area in Thailand and Robinson features shoes with labels such as Pierre Cardin, Lacoste, Matino, and Polo. 

Shopping Arcade

Downstairs at Jungceylon you can buy everything from a Kashmir-made rug to a facial massage. It's all cheerfully lit and open spaced and is designed to handle an estimated 45,000 shoppers daily - though this figure seems a little optimistic, given that Patong's official population is 14,700 (and swells to up to 60,000 in high season). Still, it's good to have enough elbow room while shopping..

There are some great bargains to be had here but you have to dig a little. And big doesn't necessarily mean best: One large optician outlet was offering Ray-Ban Aviators for 7,000 baht whereas a smaller competitor was sold out of them - because they'd disregarded the factory 'recommended' price of 5,400 baht and offered exactly the same model of Aviators at 3,000 baht. One facial massage parlour was asking 2,500 baht for an 80-minute treatment whereas across the way, an hour's facial massage was 360 baht. Caveat emptor indeed…

Sport Shops

Near the main entrance there are two large sports shops almost next to each other: SuperSports and Sport World and so you're going to come out a winner simply by comparing prices in both.

Both are on the left-hand side as you enter Jungceylon and of course Carrefour has a sports section. Also present in the complex is a Surfer's shop with all the necessary accessories.

Facts-wise, Jungceylon has:

• Seven banks
• Five eyewear outlets
• Forty clothing and accessory outlets
• Ten fast food and beverage outlets
• One food court
• Two furniture outlets
• Ten health and beauty outlets
• One pet store
• Two electronics and IT stores
• Seventeen restaurants
• One Thai arts and crafts centre consisting of 70 shops and 35 kiosks
• One tailor's shop
• Two travel and luggage outlets

Did you know?

In Thailand the law states that alcohol can only be sold in shops from 11:00 till 14:00 and from 17:00 until midnight. This applies to all stores so do not expect to nip out to the 7-Eleven or Tesco and buy a few beers mid-afternoon. Of course, you may order alcohol in bars and restaurants anytime and - strangely enough - you can buy in bulk (a case of wine or whisky) at anytime of day but if you enjoy An afternoon holiday tipple it's best to stock up first.