Bali and Asia jewellery attractions

Bali and Asia jewellery attractions and maybe future opportunities

Finally my last year at uni in England is about to start and I find
myself already planning for what to do in 12 months time. After a
lot of thought, I have decided I would like to appreciate a more
relaxed pace of life and am considering moving to asia (although the
US is always in the back of my mind also). So in anticipation, this
summer I will be travelling asia and looking at all things jewellery
related and trying to decide where I would like to live and how to
go about it. Two main ports of call will be Bali and Singapore - so
if anyone has any ideas on interesting places to visit, or places I
should check out - or even if there are orchid members who would
like to meet for a drink or two, I would absolutely appreciate any

Thank you!!!
Lucy

Try a trip to Myanmar and Bangkok. Incredible gold work and
inexpensive high quality stones. Singapore is a lovely place to
visit, very clean, fairly safe, the signage is in english, and very
expensive. Bangkok is dirty, can be very dangerous, but inexpensive
and the gold work is breathtaking. Myanmar (Burma) has only recently
opened their borders. It has been controlled by military junta for
along time. Parts of the country are still off limits for outsiders.
Burmese rubies sapphires and jade are legendary.

You would need a guide for thailand and burma as the local language
is a derivation of sanskrit. Pretty to look at but impossible to
translate easily. My husband and his cousins get a great deal of
enjoyment at my attempts to read, translate and speak thai or
burmese.

Hi Lucy

I have decided I would like to appreciate a more relaxed pace try
Australia. We are so laid back we are almost comatose. So why not
come and have a look

while you are on our doorstep?

Richard
Xtines Jewels

Dangerous? Not in my experience. Having spent a 2 to 3 months
in Thailand almost every year since 1985, much of it in Bangkok, but
also throughout the length and breadth of the country, I have found
it to be safer that many American cities. As for the gold work, much
of the 22k in the gold shops certainly shows excellent craftsmanship
but little variety. Doesn’t compare to India’s traditional hight
karat gold jewelry.

Jerry in Kodiak

Hi Bird et al
inexpensive high quality stones

be very careful buying stones in Asia. There are many synthetics
pretending to be the real thing.

Unless you know your stones don’t. I am often shown stones from Asia
bought by the unknowing.

They get upset when I tell them it is a CZ worth a few bucks.

I had a fellow student at the School for Silversmiths who was a
gemologist. Went to Thailand to buy stones, he had some serious
dollars to spend. It was all good till he took out the testing
equipment and then was thrown out of every gem dealer!

In Thailand they say the best sapphires are Thai and the low quality
come from Australia.

The opposite is true.

Still having been born in Asia and have close contacts with the
Asian community here in Australia I would say it is a wonderful place
to visit with some very friendly wonderful people. Business is another
matter. It is the same in the west caveat emptor, buyer beware.

He Ruide
Richard
Xtines Jewels

Thank you for the replies guys!!

I have spent many many months in bangkok and love the place Bird,
Thailand is definitely on my list of places to consider living
eventually, I did live almost two years in Philippines too and loved
that, just looking now for a new adventure! Although I agree with
Bird in that I have never ever felt threatened in thailand or
anywhere in asia to be honest - I feel much less safe in england or
the US :confused: Where do you travel to in thailand Jerry? Hoping to visit
again this summer!

Where in Aus are you Richard? I am hoping to get to the gold coast
this summer too, but it is getting a pretty hectic schedule already,
so I hope I dont’ have to drop that one :(I did love sydney though,
but man that is an expensive city!!! It does seem that there is the
possibility to emigrate there as a jeweller too!! I have looked at
that :wink: Comatose sounds like heaven right now!!!

Thanks again guys!
Lucy in rainy miserable england :slight_smile:

Hi Lucy, If you have the time check out the possibility of takinga
course at AIGS (Asian institute of gemological science) in Bangkok.
Theyare fantastic teachers and really nice people too. Also if you
are going to be there in either september or early march the Bangkok
Gems and Jewelry show is pretty spectacular and there are good deals
to be found there sometimes. Happy Travels… :slight_smile: