Similarly, buying gadgets abroad also gives you the opportunity to buy brands not yet available in India, such as an Archos Mini - reputed to be the most popular portable media player (PMP) on the market. Now, if you’ve always wanted one, then it would make an ideal buy when traveling abroad - Singapore or the US, for instance. The only caution you need to exercise is to check about guarantee/ repairs that you will avail on the product, even it is only available in the country you bought it from. Of course, if you don’t think you will be making a return trip to the same place, a Creative PMP would perhaps make an appropriate substitute. Creative offers replacements for your buy in case the product fails to operate within the warranty period at service centers in India.

The other products worth buying on your brief sojourns include digital cameras and camcorders and in fact, these are smart options to go for when vacationing. Firstly, it is because a digicam can straight away be put to use for capturing your best ‘on a break’ pictures. The same applies to camcorders as well. Says Jana Iyer, an executive with Alcoa, who frequents Singapore for official purposes, “On my very first trip to Singapore, I bought an Olympus digital camera. I was walking through Mustafa mall and just happened to browse through the digital camera section. The price of the camera in India was, at that time Rs 18,000 and the price I was quoted amounted to Rs 11,000 approximately. And since Olympus is a well known brand in India with outlets and service centers across the country, I decided to go for it.” Yet another example of good shopping capture is Doris Dey who bought a Sony digital camera - the now discontinued DSC S600 - for just about Rs 8,000, with a 1 TB card at Fortune Mall in Bangkok. Absolute steal; at the time of buying, this digital camera was available for double the above amount. Fortune is usually considered better than Pantip Plaza, another electronic hub. Check out gadget shopping options in Bangkok here. For discount cards and VAT refunds, visit this link. Another destination to get home spoils is Dubai - known for lesser import duties. Murshid Bazzar and Dubai Duty Free are a few examples. For more shopping centres, click here.

Considering the good bargains available at large retail chains, it shouldn’t be difficult to resist the urge of buying off the street despite the attractive prices. Even if you do find a street or lane that offers you tech products for steals, you need to have the right warranty/guarantee papers, if not, a bill of receipt. Ideally sticking to large malls is a good option, as there is more variety and more often than not fairly huge discounts as well.

It’s not just tech products, with dollar prices coming down, buying abroad is becoming a more and more attractive option and the lowered custom duties make the prospect even more appealing.

For those who don't want to get back bags filled with gadget luxuries, there are shops in India that are appropriate hubs for such spoils. One such is Tech Zone in Chennai's largest shopping centre Spencer Plaza. Tech zone claims to have products that are available nowhere within the country.

Basically, do your homework on prices and availability of products here before you head out to shop gadgets abroad. May be the next time you take a trip, you could find a 'must-buy' deal that you can surprise your folks with.