Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Good Bargain @ Padang Besar

Padang Besar, which is located in Perlis, is a border town between Malaysia-Thailand. Padang Besar is a popular place for shopping, particularly items from Thailands. Shoppers can purchase variety of items (e.g. leather goods, accessories, households items, groceries, clothings, snacks, etc.) that came from Malaysia and Thailand at a bargain price. A duty free shop is also available at Padang Besar. I will not miss to visit Padang Besar, every time I went back to my home town.
Padang Besar is not only an attraction for local and international travellers, but also business owners. Some of business owners get their supplies from Padang Besar, and sell the items to end customers at affordable price. So, those who don’t have the opportunity to visit Padang Besar, but would like to buy something from here, they can get it from the business owners. That’s why we can see nowadays, most products available at Padang Besar are also available at other places. But, may be it is sold at higher price.



In my opinion, Padang Besar is more popular among the ladies, compared to men. This is because, sometime I can see several grouped trip arranged at own cost, to go to Padang Besar for just 1-2 days, and most interesting things, they are all ladies. The main purpose is just to “shop” at Padang Besar. Of course there are several places nearby Perlis that are very popular for shopping too, for example Wang Kelian and Bukit Kayu Hitam. These places are just border of Thailand. Look for forthcoming entries on these two places in near future.



Padang Besar is also synonym with Rantau Panjang, which is located in Kelantan. The shopping experience that one may have in these two places is very similar. I can see many tourists spend their money to buy households items such as comforters, home decors, towels, etc. While the children love to go there because there’s a lot of toy, teddy bear, snacks that they could have at Padang Besar. The man, may be they can shop their casual clothing and enjoy the fresh coconut drinks with Thai meals at the food courts.



Although most of Padang Besar items can be made available at many other places, the popularity of this place remains especially during festive seasons and school and public holidays. Many people who visited Perlis should not miss the opportunity to visit Padang Besar, a must-place to be visited in Perlis.