Odean Shopping Centre, Hat Yai

"O.D.," as the locals call it, is a nice place to shop. It is not as fancy as the other department stores in town but they seem to have sale quite often. OD even has "Merdeka Sale" sometimes in August to celebrate Malaysian's independence day!!!

What to buy: For Malaysian tourists, the skincare and cosmetics are cheaper in Thailand. In OD, head to the 2nd floor for these items. But be careful to check the expiration date on the products as I found that merchandise in OD is a bit old sometimes. But you will find good bargain there.

The Odean Shopping Mall is a 5-storey department store and sells medium to upscale products and goods... There is a whole floor dedeicated to clothing with jeans, casual wear, business wear etc together with accessories... Other merchandise include shoes, comestics, swim wear, gift items, sports goods etc... There is also a food court on the fifth floor...

What to pay: As this is fixed price establishment, not bargaining is entertained... There are often sales and promotions where there are up to 30% discount from the listed price...

I'm not exactly the sort of person to recommend a shopping mall, but at least in these glitzy sort of places you can get a feel for how the Thai's want to see themselves in the future.

It's all desperately aspirational, but at the same time the endless pursuit of 'westernisation' is tempered by some little local touches. For instance there is a food court on the fifth floor and a rather stange area with little 'capsules' where you can sing a Karaoke track and burn it onto CD!

I also came across a tee-shirt with the face of Michael Owen (The Liverpudlian Footballer) staring out at me - except that his eyes had been 'slanted' to make them appear more oriental ! - strange indeed.