November 4, 2018
Some twenty seven years ago, yes that long, Edmund and I swung by Bangkok for a night en route from Paris to Manila. PAL flights to Europe stopped over in Bangkok in the 80s 90s.
I was able to buy a pure (96.66 %) gold bracelet from one of the shops walking distance from the hotel where we stayed at. If I am not mistaken, after some haggling, I paid the equivalent of Pesos 3,500 more or less.
After about two years, while I was in HK with my 5-year-old daughter, I lost the bracelet. I didn’t know what happened. I must have dropped it somewhere. Ang swerte nung nakadampot. It was about 3/4 inches thick but hallow, squarish design and glistening golden yellow. I was extremely sad the whole day and the days following.
I’ve lost several bracelets before so after this incident, for the longest time I stopped buying and stopped wearing bracelets. Losing one made me sad, losing two, three made me heartbroken.
A few days before our scheduled Bangkok trip I thought of buying a gold bracelet, not really to wear it but to replace what I have lost a quarter of a century ago. My intention was just to keep it. Parang ano lang, psychological effect kunwari nabalik yung nawala.
On our last day in Bangkok, Oyen wanted to bring me to another famous market daw and the biggest. We’ve been to too many markets na and it was too hot to be in an outdoor market. I told her it’s something we can do in our next Bangkok trip but for our last day here I wanted to look for a store selling gold.
We asked the front desk and she directed us to Chinatown. Right, that’s the best place to find gold.
And gold it was! Grabe, nakakasilaw sa dilaw.
At first, I was looking for something exactly the same or similar to the one I lost but I couldn’t find any. Then Oyen spotted something cute but very different in design.
We went to several gold jewelry stores to check out their designs and prices.
This one store has hundreds of buyers crowding their small area. Apparently this is where the King buys his gold. The store earned the reputation of being trustworthy.
After I got tired hopping from one store to another I picked one store that gave me a 200 baht discount.
I was happy with the design and even happier with the price. Kala ko sobrang mahal hindi naman pala kasi magaan lang because the price was based on the gold’s weight.
Advice: Cash payment is better. No 3.5% transaction fee and no foreign exchange losses.
