Bali is also known as a shopping paradise.
If you love shopping, Bali is the place to go as on the island there are plenty of art markets and even clothing stores. I visited one too many but there is only one place that I find amusing to visit. It's a place called “Pasar Sukawati” which is located in Gianyar, just 30 minutes drive from Ubud Central Market. Inside the market, they sell clothes, jewelry, and gift shops in bulk but you can also purchase in smaller quantities. This is the place to go if you want to get gifts as opposed to the popular gift shops center.
The quality of goods here are okay, they should last you long enough for over a year or two. Not to mention, in this place you can find things that would remind you of your visit to Bali other than just a collection of pictures.
Although personally I am not a fan of shopping and haggling, my mom loves it. She loves haggling to the point that I shy away but apparently, what she didn’t isn’t wrong. While on the market, I enjoyed her interaction with sellers because it was just amusing.
Pro tip #1 if the seller offers you certain price, haggle it 50%
It might sound crazy but that’s the way to go. Let’s say the price is 100.000IDR you can haggle it down to 50.000 IDR. In the end, you’d get the items for either 65.000 IDR or something. Our driver told us the same thing though my mom sort of already knew it since she's a shopper.
Pro tip #2 Shop early
My mom has been in Bali way too many times that she caught on the characteristics of the sellers. Basically if you shop very early, you’d get it cheaper than if you shop during the noon. The balinese would say, “penglaris” meaning, the first person who purchases things would hopefully give me more customers throughout the day. When we were at sukawati, apparently after we shopped at one place, customers started crowding the shop we went to.
Pro tip #3 Scan the place if you really like a certain item
Usually different sellers will offer different prices. So, if you really like a certain item, you should scan the place just in case you can find a better deal. If you can’t find the item elsewhere then that’s the only item left, that means the price offered was a good deal. There was a handbag that I really like and only after going through the other 5 spots, I only find the bag in one spot. So that's when I know, it was such a good deal and steal.
Funnily enough, I had to bid a big higher because other people took the bag I like. In the end, the seller actually has 2 more and that was the only item left in her inventory.
I personally don’t like shopping so when I was at the place, I got overwhelmed. Sellers would try to get you into their shop and offer you things. My mom loved the experience but I already told her that we’re running out of time, although actually we have plenty of it. I just try to make her shop less and not waste her time on the shopping market. If I were going alone, I’d probably be a snack for these sellers because I can’t bargain and would likely get things more expensive than my mom would. But if you enjoy bargaining, you’d love this place because this is where you’d like to be. This is also where you see a lot of locals shopping than foreigners because foreigners would shop elsewhere which I tried and apparently, it was such a rip-off.
I compared the prices in that market vs the place filled with foreigners.
Guess which one is more expensive?
Obviously, the foreigners spots. The quality is the same, same model but they would be priced differently. So whenever you want to shop, just stop by at these markets instead buy it from boutiques or local shops nearby the foreign spots.
We also visited the biggest gift shop in SEA called “Krishna ''. The shop is pretty massive, offering various items and always packed with tourists. Although things in this giftshop are pretty expensive compared to the market & you can’t haggle. If you can’t haggle, this is the spot to go as it offers fair prices for the items. Still, if it were me, I’d shop at more local places than huge places like this. We visited this place out of curiosity and were only purchasing a few items for my mom’s colleague. Other than that, there was nothing out of the ordinary that we like to get from there.
I hope these options could be your consideration when visiting the island. Depending on your preference you can choose either. If you want to follow more of my adventure, stay tuned and don’t forget to re-blog this !
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