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Karon Beach ShoppingKaron 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 ParadiseA 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. |
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