After spending two nights in Pattaya, I went back to Bangkok for another night stay before heading back to Singapore the following night. I stay this time at a small boutique hotel just a short walk from the Sam Yan BTS station. I have the whole day still since my flight out was at 10:00 in the evening. So after a quick late breakfast, I hurried out to explore Chatuchak Weekend Market. I took the BTS train from Sam Yan station to Chatuchak Park station, its quite a long journey I guess as compared to taking the metro line.
The reason that I checked out Chatuchak Market was that it supposed to be a must-visit place for tourists because of its diverse collection of merchandise having more than 8,000 market stalls. But I guess for the seasoned shopper tourists yes its a must-visit place, as for me its just another market typical in any asian city. But I must say that Chutuchak is huge and not easy to navigate, inside there is one main walkway that encircle the entire market and it branches into a series of numbered alleyways that might be confusing when alleyways becomes overcrowded. My aim was to purchase clothes and few home decors, but since I go for a quality ones my shopping ended with none. I traversed alleyways of clothing and dry goods sections of truly cheap but low quality items, until I ended up in alley close to the main road. All the items were of good quality but the price is comparable to the one in the air-conditioned malls. I employed my negotiation skills in bargaining by walking away when a deal fails my way and hoping to be called back for a lower price offer. I have done this whenever I spotted items I liked but not a single call back never happened. I guess the vendors were used to it already that this kind of tactic were no longer worked for them. As the crowd thicker and the afternoon heat becomes bearable inside the stalls I went out to the main open walkway to rest and tried the local food fare. My lunch was not that good, nothing special but the coconut ice cream in one of the stalls were quite good, i ended ordering three cups lol. The stall has a fogging effect installed so sitting there and enjoying an ice cream while people watching was just quite a very enjoyable experience after a tiring uneventful bargain hunting.
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| Outside the market along the main road, antique stalls |
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| the main walkway |
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| the dry goods alley |
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| View of the main road from Mo Chit BTS station, to the left is the Chatuchak Market |
But if you enjoy shopping irregardless of its condition and love to haggle perhaps this place is yours. Chatuchak Weekend market is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 09:00 - 18:00.
