Look Over Here, Beautiful Girl!!

If you are suffering from some low self-esteem issues, visit the Silk Road Markets.

I have never received as many compliments in such a short period of time!

But don't be too disheartened when you realise that the man saying "You beautiful lady!", suddenly changes his tune when you decide you don't want his "Guxxi" silk tie. (As though you didn't realise the brand is actually Gucci...)

My experience with these markets left me with a pounding headache and an empty purse.

Nothing has a fixed price, so it can easily take anywhere up to 20 minutes to seal a deal.

It is such a game.

• Don't act too interested (even if you are wetting yourself to buy fluro green leather Balenciaga handbag).
• Don't start the bidding too low (or the shopkeeper will chase you yelling obscenities - poor Katie)
• Try and buy a few things at the one stall (buddy up and play off each other)
• Find something wrong with the product (as minor/difficult as it may be)
• Don't back down (they're desperate to sell you whatever they can)
• What really worked for us, plead that the product is just too good for you, that you aren't worthy of 100% silk and that you'll just have to go to the polyester knock-offs stall. They love it.

I got my bag down from Y3000 to Y1000 with an Alexander McQueen scarf in there as well.

Katie and I pooled resources to get two gorgeous silk scarves down from Y1800 each to Y200 for both.

But, don't expect to make friends when you get them to go so low.

I wouldn't want to cross either of the sales assistants that I did the above deals with again!

For a less stressful experience for today's lazy, rainy afternoon, we stayed local and hit a tiny boutique we passed on an earlier walking tour.

It is an incredible store with some designer labels, (fake, faulty & near-new) as well as other random fun stuff.

We were able to wander in with a subtle "ni hao" and just rat through the racks, uninterrupted.

Judging by our fellow rack-ratters, we definitely picked it as the "It" place for the cool kids to shop.

There's only one of everything and the stuff I liked in the window last Friday was long gone today.

Everything seemed to be great quality and for a tiny shop, there was a lot on offer.

Here are two of the three great little numbers I got for less than $A40:

I'll most probably head back down the Silk Road but nothing beats the ease of slightly off-beat, small-scale stores.