Ideas For Souvenirs Appreciated!

[toptuan]

Going home in April. This will be my second trip back to the USA after living in Thailand four years. I want to bring some VERY late Christmas presents with me--something very Thai and unique. On my first trip, several years ago, I already did the nice silk neckties, elephant figures, and Thai silk cloth.

This time I want something unique. Most of the typical "souvenir shop" stuff is so cheap and poor quality. I'm looking for gifts in the 500 baht to 1000 baht range. Also, something fairly small and easily transported in my carry-on baggage. (Don't trust the new airport baggage handlers yet).

Any ideas you could share from your souvenir-buying experience, or something that caught your eye recently?

I'm up in Isaan, but also plan to spend a day or two in BKK before leaving the country.

Appreciate any ideas!

[sbk]

River City has some nice antiques .

Alternatively, those embroidered silk pillowcases for couches went down a treat.

There is a handicrafts shop opposite Zen World Trade Center called Narai Phand, govt run, some very nice quality things there. I got my dad a terrific wooden puppet in traditional costume.

[mark lamai]

40 discs of software at 150 baht each is the best thing in thailand.

all my friends love me too much

[lannarebirth]

Going home in April. This will be my second trip back to the USA after living in Thailand four years. I want to bring some VERY late Christmas presents with me--something very Thai and unique. On my first trip, several years ago, I already did the nice silk neckties, elephant figures, and Thai silk cloth.

This time I want something unique. Most of the typical "souvenir shop" stuff is so cheap and poor quality. I'm looking for gifts in the 500 baht to 1000 baht range. Also, something fairly small and easily transported in my carry-on baggage. (Don't trust the new airport baggage handlers yet).

Any ideas you could share from your souvenir-buying experience, or something that caught your eye recently?

I'm up in Isaan, but also plan to spend a day or two in BKK before leaving the country.

Appreciate any ideas!

Shrimp Paste. Chances are they won't have any already.

[luckyluke]

I want to bring some VERY late Christmas presents with me--something very Thai and unique. .

This time I want something unique. I'm looking for gifts in the 500 baht to 1000 baht range.

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a B.G.

[chownah]

Go down to Patpong at night and buy the plastic laminated list of tricks the girls do in the shows....I did this one year and it was a really big hit.

Chownah

[Ulysses G.]

I have found that items that replicate popular and expensive Western brands of watches and clothing are MOST welcome gifts.

[Farma]

I sent some trinkets to friends in the States and they went down a treat.

Those Harley T shirts in Thai writing were well received by a cousin into bikes.

I found a shop selling cheap jewelry in MBK that had little boxed broaches of the royal barge, an elephant fighting scene etc for around 100-150B each. A little old lady now proudly wears then to church each Sunday.

[Goshawk]

Go down to Patpong at night and buy the plastic laminated list of tricks the girls do in the shows....I did this one year and it was a really big hit.

Chownah

Alternatively, you could go for the authentic, aromatic used ping-pong balls

[pumpuiman]

I was looking for some "real Thai" souvenirs a few years ago because I was fed up with seeing the same exact crap from Krabi to Chiang Rai.

My solution was to go to motorcycle shops and buy the jackets they give as a promotion when a bike is sold.

You see thousands worn by Thais every day, they have the name of the bike shop and location on the back in Thai script.

They are very inexpensive, just 100 or 200 baht as I remember.

They were a hit back home.

They come folded and plastic wrapped, so they pack easily.

Good luck.

[britmaveric]

Buddha amulets?

Edited February 8, 2007 by britmaveric

[keenok]

Buddha amulets?

and yellow t-shirts ,so they can all look like wanabes,i dont think theyd get the joke though unless theyd lived here.

[Jet Gorgon]

I did the garden section in Chatuchak one time. Some vendors have silk-type flowers you can squash into your luggage and then primp up before giving away. Cheap, pretty and light as a feather. Also take back many Bt5 mini boxes of monkey balm, Thai spices and Bt2 lighters. Give away to everyone.

[Smilodon]

A wife?

Edited February 9, 2007 by Smilodon

[glaitong]

Take a trip to Chatujak Market and find a selection of gifts for all.

glaitong

[fxm88]

1. Motorbike-taxi jackets! Mix or match (and everyone gets their own number).
   
   
2. Gold flakes (cheap at Tesco)
   

[NguuMuu]

I find the small pillow cases to be pretty popular. If you by them in bulk (10+) you can get them for 75 baht or less a piece. Pretty light and good for packing since they can pad any more delicate souveneirs.

pumpuiman, Are you talking about the orange jackets that motorcycle taxis wear? You can just buy those?

[pumpuiman]

I find the small pillow cases to be pretty popular. If you by them in bulk (10+) you can get them for 75 baht or less a piece. Pretty light and good for packing since they can pad any more delicate souveneirs.

pumpuiman, Are you talking about the orange jackets that motorcycle taxis wear? You can just buy those?

No, I'm talking about the light windbreakers worn by everyday Thai folks.

If you look around you will notice the Thai script on the jackets of motorcycle riders.

They come in lots of colors.

The motorcycle dealerships give them away to customers buying new bikes.

I wondered what these jackets were, and my wife informed me. She thought I was crazy to want to give some as gifts....but was surprised that they were a hot item in the U.S. with the nieces and nephews.

You may get some odd looks at the dealership when you make your request, but be persistent and they should come through for you.

[pumpuiman]

Taxi vests are not for sale to the general public.....and are very expensive for the motorcycle taxi driver.

It's considered a license so to speak....as well as membership to a sort of mafia organization.

Lives have been lost over those orange vests.

[devildog683]

I brought back flasks (not the really cheap ones though)

[bkkmei]

Not very original but there are some beautiful photo frames made from silk or local materials. Stick your picture in too as a nice treat

[baabaabobo]

the little flowers made out of carved soap are always popular.

[toptuan]

A wife?

On a 500-1000 baht budget?

[Martin]

What a great thread!

The topic concerns me as, in July, I am going to re-visit Baffin Island, in the Canadian Arctic, where I served on the Distant Early Warning Line of radar stations in 1959/60.

I need to take presents for my Inuit (which we used to call Eskimo) hosts. Things up there are terribly expensive and it is only because some, who I photographed as children, have offered to let me stay with them that I can afford to go.

The airline will be very strict on baggage weight, though, as Ottawa- Iqaluit-Qikiqtarjuaq is not a route on which they can be generous.

So I want lightweight things that are useful for immediate presents, and ones that are colourful to leave to be opened at Christmas. (I will be there at the time of "Never dark", with twenty-hours-a-day of sunshine, but six months afterwards any bit of colour is appreciated.)

Any more such suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Martin.

PS 'Little flowers made of carved soap' sounds good. Are they available in Khon Kaen, or Udon, or by mail order, does anyone know, please?

[Jet Gorgon]

What a great thread!

The topic concerns me as, in July, I am going to re-visit Baffin Island, in the Canadian Arctic, where I served on the Distant Early Warning Line of radar stations in 1959/60.

I need to take presents for my Inuit (which we used to call Eskimo) hosts. Things up there are terribly expensive and it is only because some, who I photographed as children, have offered to let me stay with them that I can afford to go.

The airline will be very strict on baggage weight, though, as Ottawa- Iqaluit-Qikiqtarjuaq is not a route on which they can be generous.

So I want lightweight things that are useful for immediate presents, and ones that are colourful to leave to be opened at Christmas. (I will be there at the time of "Never dark", with twenty-hours-a-day of sunshine, but six months afterwards any bit of colour is appreciated.)

Any more such suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Martin.

PS 'Little flowers made of carved soap' sounds good. Are they available in Khon Kaen, or Udon, or by mail order, does anyone know, please?

You lucky, sod!!

Those soap flowers are everywhere, for sure BKK on your way over.

Please take lots of snaps for us!

[leisurely]

Tins of crocodile meat are always good for a laugh. A practical suggestion are those wallets/purses made from stingray skin. Apart from being virtually indesructable (mine has had scissors, knives and flames attack it) I have never seen them outside of Thailand.

[toptuan]

Tins of crocodile meat are always good for a laugh. A practical suggestion are those wallets/purses made from stingray skin. Apart from being virtually indesructable (mine has had scissors, knives and flames attack it) I have never seen them outside of Thailand.

Do you know how I would inquire, in Thai, for "stingray skin?"

[dgoz]

Don't take back anything that can't be cured by a shot of penicillin.

[Martin]

Thank you, 'leisurely'. I am sure that crocodile meat will go down well with the Inuit.

Also for me, it will be a change from seal or arctic char.

I don't know if they still have them, but a "Southerner's" first experience of being invited to an Inuit feast was usually an occasion for Culture Shock.

Expecting tables laden with a variety of dishes, the sight of a whole, uncooked seal lying on a sheet of cardboard (and nothing else, except knives with which to hack off lumps) brought home the message that life was different there.

Walrus had to butchered as soon as it could be got to the beach. I have found a couple of photos that I took when I went to collect one of my colleagues who had been walrus-hunting with an Inuit hunter on my colleague's day off. I was too late to see the walrus 'all in one'.

[DeathbyDurian]

On topic but out of country...

In Vietnam they sell 'weasel coffee' which is basically coffee fed to a weasel, which is then, uh, "passed through" and then resold as gourmet. Makes for a great gift and apparently great coffee.

I'm sure Thailand has something as disturbing that serves as both a gift and a conversation piece.