About two thousand fashion shops.
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Thailand's biggest wholesale clothing hub, around the Pratunam junction in central Bangkok, drawing traders from Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and Arab families looking for clothes at low prices. Its streets and covered lanes are packed with thousands of stalls and small shops selling clothes, shoes, bags and fabric. At its heart is the Platinum Fashion Mall, with around two thousand shops over several air-conditioned floors, mostly Thai designers and factories, with wholesale prices for anyone buying three or more pieces of the same design. Above the quarter rises Baiyoke Sky Tower, one of South-East Asia's tallest hotels, with a revolving observation deck at the top overlooking the whole city. Wandering is free; Platinum opens from about nine in the morning until eight in the evening, and the open market starts early in the morning. Haggling is fine at the stalls, less so in the mall. The quarter has many halal restaurants, Indian and Arab. Bangkok's big malls usually have prayer rooms and halal counters in their food courts, so ask at the information desk. Come on a weekday morning to avoid the crowds and heat; it is easy to reach by Airport Rail Link to Ratchaprarop station or by Saen Saep canal boat to Pratunam pier.
About two thousand fashion shops.
Clothes at low prices.
A revolving deck over the city.
Pratunam junction, Phetchaburi and Ratchaprarop roads, central Bangkok
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