Continuation from:-
Hour Past Midnight
Along Chao Phraya
The Grand Palace, Bangkok
Majestic Wat Pho
Culture Shock

28th February 2009
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One of the many highlights of Bangkok is the Chatuchak Weekend Market which you would have guessed by the telling name of the very popular flee market, is held only on every Saturday and Sunday from the early hours of 8am til 6pm in the evening. Getting there is fairly easy because you could easily take the MRT or BTS, although i must say the BTS proved to be a better choice since the BTS Mochit station is right in the heart of the market.

As the bunch of us were walking towards the BTS station, a friendly old man approached me. He too were on the way to the station. Perhaps the Chatuchak Market is undeniably world famous or the seven letters T.O.U.R.I.S.T. were plastered on my forehead… or perhaps but least likely he has an uncanny ability of reading the mind of confused-looking tourists (i’ve been told it’s the first but i believe it’s a mixture of the three), the gentleman’s first guess was straight on, we were indeed heading to the flea market. Before he departed to his destination, the gentleman was kind enough to lend us some directions and share with us few tips/warnings too.

If all Bangkok people are as helpful and as hospitable as he is, i am utterly in love with this city.

Chatuchak Weekend Market

Chaktuchak Weekend Market is quite the shopping heaven, an extremely large shopping paradise at that. In fact, so large is the area that it occupies, that it is dubbed the world’s largest flee market (over 26 acres and 100,000 square meters) with more than 5000 booths selling goods from all over Thailand. With its very own “Chatukchak Weekend Market Map” dedicated to it, that’s saying a lot.

It is a good idea to get your hands on the map to avoid getting completely disoriented in a congested market like this. And believe me it can get really congested. It was only a quarter before 10am when we arrived but already the place was streaming with all walks of life.

Nonetheless, maps are of not much use to me - i can’t decipher a map to save my life. Maps and me equals LOST. We went looking for it all the same not because everyone else in the group had a better talent in map-reading but more so that we could look the part (full fledged shopper).

Chatuchak Weekend Market Map

Under the blistering sun while our skin started to sizzle and bake, I realized that hunting for the map wasn’t as easy as i thought it would be. I had no idea where they placed the maps or whether there was a mini kiosk with the usual “Take one” sign which they probably have but definitely not one that i spotted. (Ok, i found out later that there is an information kiosk distributing maps, probably at the entrance of the market)

Nonetheless, we gathered from a lovely Finnish couple that most hotels carries the map at the the front desk. Obviously our hotel had none since the reception didn’t mentioned it at all but it’s a good idea to ask less like us you’ll have to hunt and pounce on the poor uniformed official whom was strolling around the market distributing the few maps he had.

Labyrinth of shops

As i stood surveying the lively market, i felt an instant surge of adrenaline. Chaktuchak is veritably a wondrous place.

Just as told by the old gentleman at the BTS, it’s full of B grade fakes, fake Levi’s, LVs, Burberrys and almost whatever international or local brand you can think of. But mind you, the quality is way better than fakes from China and the selection is wide. It is very much like Malaysia’s Petaling Street but at least 3 times larger and carries higher quality goods minus the Japanese punk-style type of product affectionately term by locals as “la la” products. That’s already one brownie point earned.

They even have puppies!

Chaktuchak Market is not in any case for brand hunters nor is it for the faint hearted because most of the time you’ll need to wrestle your way through the narrow alley, duck and dodge in every direction to avoid being smothered by sweaty, smelly bodies, and assert your bargaining skills with a vengeance.

If you’re lucky, you’ll come out with just a few bumps and sores and two handful of well-earned merchandises to bring home. And if you are even luckier like us, you’ll get a peep at some ample bussom, get a sneak preview of someone’s “bushy” region and meet Captain Jack Sparrow on the way out.

Like i said Chatuchak is a wondrous place.

Look at the plump retriever. Super adorable!

There are all kinds of imaginable merchandises on sale in Chatuchak Market with offers ranging from tourist junks to clothes and fashion accessories to kitchen wares and live pets. I could go on and on, the list is endless. Hence for convenience sake, the seemingly endless labyrinth of shops are organized into zones, with each zones occupied by shops selling the same genre of goods.

Nonetheless, it is impossible to seek out each and every shops in the market within just one day and even the most determined shopper not to mention myself could get overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the site. In between navigating and jostling through the crowd, scanning for potential buys and constantly making sure not to be a target for pickpockets, it could get extremely exhausting and dehydrating. Having a few bottles of bottled water would save you much hassle and misery.

Food stall

That being said, after hours of cramped up in the narrow shops trying to get the best bargain,  the stuff we bought never seemed to be enough.

Many had come here believing the things are dirt cheap which i suspect it actually was few years back or maybe more than affordable for European tourists or visitors from other countries with a upper-hand in currency exchange but the price of the goods although are slightly lower, weren’t that much of a difference compared to stuffs sold in Malaysia.

Fruit stall

It’s not that good of a bargaining ground either. Even after much coercing, most of the shops assistants would not budge after the final offer, a reluctantly lowered price at most only minus 3 to 5Baht. That is unless you buy in bulks like many personnal boutique owners who came all the way from Malaysia or other countries just to take stock. To me, the only consolation is the wide variety and higher quality of goods that’s not available in Chatukchak as opposed to the monotonous stocks in Petaling Street and that similar goods selling in other part of Bangkok are almost double the price in Chatukchak.

But that’s the beauty of Chatuchak Market. The merchandises are affordable but not outstandingly cheap, yet people still flock to the market dragging large empty luggage (seriously) filling it to the brim with souvenirs and wares. With so many selections of colorful merchandises displayed in the dozens of shops it’s difficult to resist.

All walks of life

Chatuchak Market is not all only about shopping but also much of it to people-watch. You get to see all type of interesting characters, be it tourists or local drenched in sweat but still very much lively. It’s also amusly fascinating to watch people so absorbed in the shopping frenzy and others minding their own business without a care in the world.

Imagine standing next to people stripped down to their bare undergarments (there wasn’t enough fitting rooms/changing rooms to occupy so many customers), trying on clothing in the public. The shop assistant didn’t even blink an eye, neither did anyone else for that matter. Being first timer there and also being typical Asians - we are admittedly only an itsy bitsy teeny weeny conservative and since running around in public half naked is not something one can do without getting arrested in my country, we were curiously surprised. Yet we did not want to appear in lack so we pretended not to stare… too much. After a few more rounds of bumping into half naked men and women in the market, it didn’t seemed as outrageous.

There is another incident that will forever be implanted in my memory, involving a local shop owner and her… uhm… nether regions. It was a hilarious incident whereby my mom was casually looking at some clothing displayed outside a shop.

The lady shop owner were in the shop sitting in a rather immodest manner, legs wide open like she was about to give birth, and she wasn’t wearing anything underneath her extremely lose shorts. Mom got quite a scare when she looked up and was greeted by the unappealing but luscious view. It was quite obvious she knew her intimate area is showing but all she cared was how hot the weather is. Quite fortunate for my boyfriend but unfortunate for me, by the time mom told me to look, she had gone to the back of the shop.

And there you go, an eventful day of people-watching at Chatukchak Weekend Market. What fun!

Clockwise from top right: Variety of noodle, roasted pork, spring rolls, round sausages

The blaring sun doesn’t show no sympathy even when it’s soon to be evening. In fact, the heat was getting even more impossible. With our bottled water all finished we had no choice but to emerged from the shops to quench our thirst.

Quails egg

There are many stalls selling drinks and fruits and more than a handful of food stalls selling cheap Thai food and snacks such as sausages, satays, noodle, small pieces of roasted pork and others. We were looking for a more adventurous variety like fried grasshoppers and the likes but seeing that we didn’t spot any of those we settled for a round of snacks which were not bad at all especially the coconut ice cream and roasted pork.

I later learned that the fried grasshoppers and crickets could be purchased at the insect area. My, that’s really appropriate.

Non-dairy coconut ice cream

Having rejuvenated, we dive back into the crowd for another round of bargaining. A little before dinner time we reluctantly walked to the BTS to return to our hotel.

And who shall we bump into but Captain Jack Sparrow.

Pirates of Caribbean

Didn’t i tell you we would?

To be continued at:-
Patpong District
Siam Square and Hua Lamphong Railway Station

Note:
All photos are taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX8.