In the Arab area on Sukhumvit soi 3 (ish) there are many Arab shops. Many appear to be travel bucket shops but quite a few seem to sell oils (perfume?) and pieces of old dead wood. Any idea as to what it is and why Bangkok should have so many shops selling this??

Do you mean piece of wood as in like a plank or a twig that's just broken off a tree? If it's the latter, I guess it's a miswak stick Looks like this :

It's used as a toothbrush in the Middle-East. You can get more info here

Thanks Guardian.... no, it's not those twigs.. I've seen those in the African areas of Paris and in health food shops... the one I'm referring to really look like pieces of driftwood.. but with a coarse grain rather than smooted bu the waves. Plus they look really old... like the petrified wood I knew as a kid in Zambia. It must be special or the shops wouldn't be selling it.

I'd hazard a guess and say it's sandlewood and other aromatic wood they burn as incense. Some woods command a very high price.

You may find frankensense and murr being sold as well. The burners are normally 4 sided and elaborately decorated about 20cm high.

Small chips of wood are toasted until they turn into glowing embers. The resulting smoke acts the same as incense sticks and also used to make the clothing smell nice.

That makes sense Farma.... thanks.... but why in Thailand??

The arabs I work with are always asking me to bring sandlewood from Thailand. They claim it's a lot cheaper. That may be the reason you see so much for sale.

it's actually agarwood mostly, maybe some sandalwood. Arabs burn the agarwod for it's aroma. Good quality agarwood retails for upwards of 20,000Bt a kilo. The jars are agarwood oil. Can also be burned or put on the body as perfume. Top quality oil sells for more than USD30,000 a litre. Both the wood chips and the distilled oil comes from the tree species Aquilaria, which is a native here in Thailand and elsewhere in SE Asia. Locally known as krissana or kritsana. The tree is a protected species but there are people growing them in plantations.

That must be it...... question answered!! Thank you all.