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Karon Beach is a five-kilometre stretch of squeaky white sand three
kilometres south of Patong. The Karon area is home to several large
hotels and is much less crowded than neighbouring Patong as it is
more spread out.
Shopping in Karon starts at the beach traffic circle. Here, you
will find a supermarket for all your drinks/snacks and hygiene needs.
If you walk up the main road towards Karon's Buddhist temple you'd
be forgiven for thinking that the area is made up entirely of photo
labs, pharmacies, banks and tailors and more tailors and more bars
than Las Vegas, although with more modest prices.
However, after a while you will find a wide selection of shoes,
fake name-brand watches, sunglasses, bags and suitcases and all
sorts of souvenirs, from silk cushion covers to wooden handicraft
items, to toy elephants. There is also a squeaky clean brand-new
optician shop, KT Optic that offers pretty good discounts on name-brand
sunglasses (Ray-Bans, down to 5,900 baht from recommended price
of 7,300 baht). In Thailand, spectacles cost a fraction of the prices
they command in the west and of course computerised eye-examination
is free here.
Further up the same road, the shops (mostly tailors) are soon outnumbered
by bars and restaurants. In the side streets by the Centara Karon
Beach Resort stand more tailors and a dental clinic (dental treatment
is a bargain for foreigners visiting Thailand and many people come
here expressly for this reason) but this two parallel backstreet
area is largely guesthouse and bar/restaurant territory.
Beach Road Shopping Paradise
A few hundred metres south, going towards Kata on the Beach Road.
you'll find shoppers' paradise in the form of Shopping Karon Plaza.
This is a huge marquee/bazaar that features just about everything
you'll ever need with not a tailor shop in sight. The Plaza is neon-lit
and concrete-floored and it's a buyer's market as so much of the
merchandise is for sale at neighboring stalls, too - so bargain
hard. Here you'll find DVD's CD's computer games, sunglasses, silk
tablecloths and bed covers, hats, copy shoes, snorkel sets, body
boards T-shirts, watches, belts, suitcases, beachwear, handicraft
souvenirs and a whole lot more if you dig deep. Open from late morning
to late at night you will even find a couple of places to eat there.
The next through-road heading east if you continue down the Beach
Road. features much of the same merchandise as Karon centre as well
as a large supermarket and several tailor shops and opticians.
Having a suit made? Then read this first
Some tailor shops can be downright treasure troves of bespoke tailoring.
This is because the tailors' overheads are low here, although their
starting prices can be a little optimistic - for them, that is.
Still, it's not unusual to get a well-cut suit with two shirts thrown
in for as little as US$75. A good tip is to leave plenty of time
for your measuring process. Any reputable tailor will point out
that a 24-hour service is bound to get something wrong along the
way, and that tailors who boast of this service are to be avoided
like the plague. Four days should be a reasonable time enough for
a fitting; a week better.
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