Woke up to a leisure morning. Calmness before madness :O)) No weekend visit at Bangkok is complete without a trip to Chatuchak Weekend markket!
Beautiful warm morning as we set off...but by 11am, sun was blazing hot ! At 8.30am, we took a short BTS ride to Mo Chit and had breakfast there first before taking on the feat to conquer this super huge weekend market.
Look at the human snake traffic! PS: If you intend to take your breakfast or lunch there, you can find real good roadside stalls. Once you come down from the bridge, just follow the human flow ( you should be walking towards another overhead bridge (Pic below). When you come to a right turn into a smaller road, turn and walk down this smaller road, which will also be lined with stalls. Walk to the end and you will find food stalls. After you've had your fill, you should see the Chatuchak entrance. Scroll down for pics..
Stalls along the way...
This mango sticky rice seller sure has an eye-catching head-dress! PS: Look behind the fence. You can see umbrella shades. The food stalls are located somewhere there.
Food Stalls to have your noodles or rice. If you'd rather eat inside Chatuchak, there are also plentiful of eateries around. More than you can count! But because we went rather early, we prefer to eat first, which turned out to be a wise choice because some stalls / shops in Chatuchak don't really open till 10am or later.
After a fulfilling bowl of hot soup slurpy noodles, we crossed the road to this entrance.
See this red tent? It's manned by police / security guards. Go here to grab your map. Once you are inside Chatuchak, you won't get it free as stall holders are trying to sell this for like 10 or 20 baht?
Without a map, will be kind of hard to navigate..
The "landmark "of Chatuchak - The Clock Tower
You mus try this coconut ice-cream ! It is located next to the clock tower. If you can find the clock tower, you will see this stall. Many tourists raved about the other cocomut ice cream with a little flag. (refer to pic further down). I tried that too..but in terms of richness of the coconut ice cream, this is much better. Also, it come in "slices" of ice cream, not your normal scoop. Free cocomut juice comes with it. You can ask for 2nd round free of charge if you want more. Emmmm..each of us had 2 rounds of ice cream, not too greedy, good stuff mah!
We bought hand-made soap from this stall. I have already used one bar (Jasmine Flowers) and good soap indeed. Moisturizing. Many westerners buy a lot..probably because of the moisturizing oil which is good for use in cold weather.
Directly opposite of the soap stall, roast pork ! Yummzz... Not very cheap by local standards, but worth the money for sure! Crispy, ahhhh and the taste of spice and salt...
Some more random pics....
This is the coconut ice cream stall that tourists talked about I think they gained popularity because they are easier to locate (outer most perimeter of the market). If you imagine Chatuchak as a circle, then this stall is located along the circumference. Lol ! Hope it makes sense.
Popsicle ice cream..
Beehoon and sticky mango rice for lunch..
Lol! Just to show you how cheap those fizzy drinks cost!
We left Chatuchak around 2pm and the following photos are taken along the way to BTS. We exit from the same place / gate that we used to enter Chatuchak. By noon, even more stalls appear, jamming both sides of the small lane road!
Some of the things we bought from Chatuchak. Please excuse the horrible handwriting as I have limited writing materials in the hotel. :))
Hand-made leather strap watch..by a young roadside designer.
Over-paid for this pair. Elsewhere costs only 150 baht.
I noticed that at Chatuchak, most stall owners will put up no photography signs. And some shops even put up NO DISCOUNT / PLEASE DON'T ASK FOR DISCOUNT signs. I guessed through the years, after dealing with tens and thousands of tourists, shop owners too become wiser and think of ways to stop buyers from bargaining. They rather lose the business than to spend time in heated negotiations on the prices. SIMPLE UNDERSTANDING :You hard up for the merchandize, you pay, they no hard up for your business or giving discount. LOL!!
After Chatuchak, usual routine. Back to hotel for old folks to rest and nap..:)
Dinner time !
Went back to the salt bake fish stall that we went to on our first night in Bangkok. Ordered the following dishes and it still tasted finger licking good, just like our first meal there !
After dinner, we cross the bridge to Big C..Come out with almost 5 big bags of stuff and goodies !
Look ! Magnum ! And so cheap and affordable !
Directions :
Chatuchak
BTS Staion : Mochit, Exit 1
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