Can I join? 
Really want to go back to Thailand, but my friends are passionately committed to ruining plans… Yes, @saifbukhari, that means you.
Anyways, jokes aside,
TDAC is mandatory, but it’s not a visa, just an arrival card. You still need to comply with all other visa requirements, such as passport validity, return tickets, accommodation proof, and funds.
You may be asked to show proof of funds. They do this randomly, so ensure that you either have a 10k thb equivalent balance in a credit card or a forex card or in your account; you don’t need to have it in cash.
I’ve been to Thailand twice, I carried cash both times, and one of my friends was asked for proof of purchase. We just showed them the forex transaction slip we got from our forex company for converting INR to THB, and that was enough for us.
I’ve personally never been asked for proof of funds, in any country i’ve travelled to.
Proof of accommodation can be a “pay at a hotel” or “100% refundable”, heck, you can even book a hotel, print the booking details and cancel it, and you’d still be fine (don’t do this though)
As for shopping, everything depends on budget, as you have plently of options, from knockoff to 99% copies, but generally if you need close to original copies you can go to China Town market, there are both day and night markets in this area where people sell 99% copies of almost everything, but be sure to bargain like crazy, if you don’t know how to do it, you will be ripped off.
For normal shoes that are not copies, you can go to The Platinum Fashion Mall or any of the malls, and if you want street shopping go to Chatuchak market but only when you want to buy wholesale, as they don’t sell 1 pc, you would need atleast 3 in qty, but it is cheap and it is a huge market as well.
Don’t carry more than 7Kgs of clothes with you, infact if you can just travel with limited clothes you can buy stuff there easily, buy a trolley bag there as well, no known brands but local brands are good as well, i bought a full size trolley bag from there for just under 2K INR and it is still works exactly as it did when it was new 5 years ago.
Oh and no need to go to the premium queue to clear yourself, just use the regular line it is fine, don’t need to spend money where not necessary. The regular one has more stations than the premium ones, so it doesn’t take that long anyways.
) what they should be ordering. Expats dont take any offence to being called a Falang they often use the term themselves in day to day conversation.