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Can’t face the high street crowds for your Christmas shopping this year? Bored with endless surfing online?
Buy your stocking fillers on one of these exotic city breaks instead, writes Robin Gauldie.
Marrakech
Best buys: cotton, silk and velvet tailormade clothes for men and women, ethnic jewellery
The souks of Marrakech’s medina are filled with tiny shops where you’ll find leather slippers in rainbow colours for around £2 and striped wool or cotton jellaba gowns for about £7, with compulsory haggling.
Chic shops just outside the medina include Kulchi, which sells Florence Taranne’s clothes and accessories for men and women (a modern take on the 60s hippy look) and Hassan Hajjaj’s designer T-shirts. Tops and shirts start at around £25.
Beldi (9-11 rue Mouassine) is where Marrakech’s beautiful people go for tailormade velvet coats and jackets from £150 and silk and linen shirts from £70. Such fine tailoring would cost you many times those amounts in an overpriced capital such as London.
Chez Faouzi sells Berber and Tuareg ornaments in silver, amber and coral – from £15 for silver rings to £150 for exquisite ornate necklaces.
Athens
Best buy: reproductions of ancient gold jewellery from Byzantino(Pandrossou 30), from around £80
Athens in winter? With an average six hours’ sunshine a day in the Greek capital, you can stroll and shop at leisure.
You’ll find collectibles of all kinds at the flea market on Odos Ifestou and smart linens, cottons and leather goods (sandals from £15-£20, linen shirts from £15, cotton knit sweaters from £20) on nearby Odos Pandrossou.
The shops at theAcropolis Museum and the Benaki Museum sell fine copies of classical jewellery and works of art, such as pottery figurines from £50 and amber worry beads and and life-size heads of Greek gods from around £200. Needless to say, the original items are often priceless – yet these are very faithful reproductions.
Bali
Best buys: batik sarongs, scarves and shirts, carved wooden masks
The town of Ubud, in Bali’s green hills, is one big market for batik print clothes, colourful weaves and woodcarvings.
Haggle for cheap and cheerful versions in the central Ubud Art Market. Threads of Life is a fair-trade store that sells handmade work by island women, including silk and cotton scarves from around £80 and heirloom sarongs from £200.
Shalimar has men’s and women’s batik shirts from around £12, silver bangles set with semi-precious stones for about £45 and wooden bowls from £6.50.
Treasures features opulent jewellery by Bali-based designers. Exquisite gold and pearl earrings go for around £650 – good for window shopping or a very special Christmas recipient, perhaps.
A pair of wayang shadow puppets – unique to Indonesia – can cost up to £60, depending on workmanship.
Bangkok
Best buys: anything in silk and convincing clones of designer gear
Bangkok’s huge Chatuchak weekend market has 8,000 stalls selling everything from vintage denim to antiques, jewellery, handicrafts and baby crocodiles.
Visit the Rot Fai night market, next to Seacon Square shopping mall, for oddball collectables such as vintage Japanese action figures. There’s no such thing as a fixed price in a Bangkok market, so how much you pay is down to your bargaining skills.
For fixed prices try malls such as Amarin Plaza or River City. Jim Thompson Thai Silk Shop has upscale stores around the city, but for bargains, visit its factory outlet at Sukhumvit Soi 93 – silk scarves, shawls and slippers for around £10, shirts from around £15 and a vast variety of silk fabrics.
Cape Town
Best buys: traditional masks and highly memorable township art
South Africa’s most vibrant city offers everything from ethnic art to dazzling diamond and tanzanite jewellery.
With dozens of traders, the Pan African Market on Long Street lives up to its name. Painted colonial figures from Congo start at around £10, wooden masks from Mozambique and Namibia from around £20.
You’ll find quirky and appealing so-called township art by self-taught painters from South Africa’s shanty towns here and at the market on Greenmarket Square, with prices from around £10.
Baraka has funky gifts such as colourful baskets and bangles made from recycled phone wires for £5 and ostrich leather handbags from around £80. Or how about an ornamental wildebeest skull from £90?
The curiously named …& Banana sells handmade beaded, shell and feather jewellery. Pearl and natural shell necklaces start at £23.
Istanbul
Best buys: Saffron and other spices, silver earrings, handicrafts
Europe’s biggest city offers shoppers a bewildering choice, from spices and sweets to cutting-edge design.
Buy spices such as real Iranian saffron (£6 for one gram) at the covered Misir Carsisi, aka the Spice Bazaar. Try Arifoglu, (shop 39 and shop 59) for more authentic products. You’ll also find every kind of lokum (Turkish delight) here from £6 for 1kg.
Skip the commercialised Grand Bazaar to discover hip shops favoured by trendy Istanbullis such as Artefact, on Kumbaraci Yokusu, where designer Senay Sahin sells intricate jewellery made from gold-dipped brass and bronze wire, crystals and hand-cut silver. Prices start as low as £11.
Also in Beyoglu, Aida Pekin sells gold and silver pendants inspired by Istanbul’s buildings, people and animals starting from around £10, while Janset Bilgin makes bracelets, earrings and pendants from silver, leather and silk from £20.
Mumbai
Best buys: glitzy costume jewellery, toy soldiers and dolls, silk sari lengths
Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar is where Mumbaikars shop for jewel-encrusted gold necklaces, bracelets and rings.
At Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri a modestly priced pair of ruby ear studs costs around £300 – a bargain for the gem stones. D Popli, near the Taj Palace hotel, has costume bangles for around £20 and pricier stuff, such as diamond earrings from £200.
Bungalow 8 is good for colourful clothes for men, women and children in cotton and silk (shirts, trousers and jackets from around £30).
For cheap and cheerful stocking fillers and quirky gifts from all over India, try the Central Cottage Industries Emporium, where costumed dolls, colourful wooden masks, toy soldiers and wooden pull-along toys start at under £5.
