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By Marie Moon
Bangkok's Bustling day markets ooze with cultural charm. These
messy labyrinths sell everything from antiques to ants and with
each visit one is guaranteed a spectacle of visually engaging sights
ranging from the inevitable to the ridiculous. It is not only the
items on sale that are fascinating but also the people; the lifeblood
of the markets are the hundreds of thousands of merchants and shoppers
who rely on the guaranteed daily trade.
Two of the most culturally rich markets in Bangkok are Yaowarat(Chinatown)
and Chatuchak Weekend Market. Both are very large and very crowded,
so for the sake of comfort the following culture-shopping tour has
been stretched over a two-day period allowing ample time for browsing,
shopping and taking in the ambience of these raw environs.
Whoa! The Weedend Market
"Whoa, it is enormous!" Chatuchak Weedend Market is generally
described with similar sentiments, with some 15,000 stalls this
market extraordinaire sets the standards to which the craziness
of other markets are compared. Rare animals, antique bronze castings,
woven baskets in thousands of forms, fabric, plants, used shoes,
hair accessories, new fashion, used clothes, fruit, machine parts,
paintings, handmade candles, ceramics, fighting birds... Chatuchak
has it all, but navigating the market is strenuous work for it is
roughly the size of five football fields. Do not expect to see all
of Chatuchak in one day; the heat, the smells, the labyrinth of
interconnecting pathways dense with crowds of often over 200,000
people, spell a hard day's work. The first time I went to Chatuchak
someone told me to stay around the outside thus enjoying greater
ease of escape from humid pockets. However, to deny oneself the
virtual sensory overload of the bowels of the market, is to not
have been there at all. The following guide to Chatuchak aims to
find a simple compromise; we will begin in a perimentric fashion
around the more interesting roadside stalls before delving into
the deep interior of the market.
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The BTS Skytrain Chatuchak one of the easiest places to find. Simply
take the train to Mo Chit (N8) and exit through the west gates.
Orientation is easy if you simply follow the droves of shoppers
all undoubtedly headed for the market.
Begin at the front entrance where a market map is mounted. The
map will give visitors a good sense of how large the market is although
save for a photographic memory it will do no good. Some of the better
bookstores in Bangkok sell detailed maps of Chatuchak; by far the
best and most colourful of them is the map designed by well-known
artist,, Nancy Chandler.
The outer ring road is lined with stalls circling the large central
areas. Following the road to the left will bring you to one of a
few areas devoted to antiquities. Brilliant gold Buddhist images,
jade figurines dominate the section but be sure to have a good look
around for the dark stalls, dense with old relics, are full of surprises.
A stroll through the gardening section, opposite the antiques,
offers an intriguing botanical tour of the sweet, colourful and
showy flowers of the tropics, alongside a good nursery of carnivorous
plants and some other more bizarre flora of South East Asia. The
damp. cool environment of water lilies, lotus and moist, mossy ferns
is a nice place to rest and cool down, but so as not to lose momentum
we do not linger.
The road eventually leads to the car park, but first there is a
very large section of the market specializing in clothes of designs
popular with young Thai men and women. The sizes are generally quite
small and petite women will find more choice at Chatuchak than in
the West.
Another antique section occupies the corner leading to the car
park where the road makes a sharp cut to the right before the ATMs
and To Plu Restaurant, an air-conditioned haven frequented by Thais
escaping the heat and the odd sweaty foreigner. The restaurant serves
a delicious range of Thai meals and basic drinks at wonderfully
low prices making it a great place for a food break or even just
a cool drink and a breather.
Facing To Plu is the section reserved for the rows of vendors specializing
in handcrafting benjarong, the regal-looking Thai porcelain once
reserved for use only by the Royal Family. Today anyone can buy
and use benjarong and Chatuchak is perhaps the best place in the
country to purchase the elegant china, for many of the vendors here
at the market, run their own factories that can fill personalized
orders within a few days.
Heading down away from the benjarong and into the inner sections
of the market, past the menagerie of animals for sale on the left,
will bring you to a large portion devoted to electronics and household
decor items. Houseproud tourists should reserve a portion in their
suitcases for the purchases they will surely want to make in this
section.
The whole afternoon can be spent wandering through the inner circles
of the market but by now the sun is intense and the humidity in
the enclosure is hard to bare. To reach the exit and the end of
our tour, head through the electronics section and another array
of antiques, back to the ring road and the front entrance. Chatuchak
Weekend Market is obviously; only open on Saturdays and Sundays
however more frequently the outside stalls are opening throughout
the week. If the bargains got the better of you and you do not like
the thought of piling into the Skytrain, find the inevitably long
line of metre taxis in front of the market. Be sure to find the
head of the line as although they appear to jostle wildly for position,
at Chatuchak, there is some sort of hierarchy and a police officer
will quickly reprimand those who do not comply. Pile into the taxi,
simply hand the driver your hotel name card, sit back and enjoy
the ride home.
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Yaowarat, crowded, chaotic yet charming Chinatown
Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown district is a warren of shops selling
gold, jewellery, hardware, food, stationary, fabric, clothing and
almost anything else you can imagine. Chinatown seems perpetually
crowded and amid the chaos are sights and scenes you won't find
anywhere else in the city.
The best route of travel to Chinatown is by ferry along the Chao
Phraya River. Catch the BTS from your hotel to Saphan Taksin (S6)
on the Silom Line. Riding the ferry has been made much easier in
recent years by influence of the Thailand Tourism Authority. City
maps now show major ferry stops and each points of discembarkation
is clearly signed with the name and corresponding number. Any ferry
heading up river will take you toward Chinatown but in case of any
confusion head for the information booth, the friendly assistants
will point you in the right direction. The fare should be no more
than 15 baht to Ratchawongse (N5), which is on the right hand side
as you approach. Follow the straight road from the ferry into town
until you reach Sampeng Lane, clearly identifiable by the bottleneck
congestion of pedestrians pouring into the lane. Sampeng is a narrow
street lined with shops. Turn left into Sampeng Lane and marvel
at the mass of stationery, arts and craft accessories and other
fascinating curios. The end of the lane is packed with electrical
goods and it bisected by Trok Itsaranuphap Rd, a good place for
a nice morning cup of tea or coffee. Of course many of the traditional
Chinese snacks can be found all around Chinatown but the stall on
the left side of Trok Itsaranuphap Rd makes exceptional fried scones
and coffee.
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Continue straight along Trok Itsaranuphap Rd to find a collection
of Chinese herbalists. These old shops are intriguing and the aroma
of all the herbs and vegetation is worth savouring for the next
leg of our tour guides us past the fish market and left into Yaowarat
Rd the main thoroughfare of Chinatown. Lined wit gold shops Yaowarat
is probably the best place in town to buy gold chains and trinkets
for the wide range of selection and prices.
Follow Yaowarat Rd to its intersection with Mangkorn Rd one block
along. Those with strong stomachs may like to enter Mangkorn Rd
to get a sense of the real, raw Chinatown; headless chickens speed
around fattened pigs awaiting their own d-days, ducks waddle alongside
tanks of fish gawking at the outside world. The small soi is populated
with ancient looking Chinese men and women all wearing toothy grins
and splattered sprons.
Back on Yaowarat Rd; walk on for another block and at the intersection
of Yaowarat and Ratchawongse there are some fabulous dim sum restaurants,
that is if your stomach has recovered. After lunch, turn left into
Ratchawongse Rd and walk one block to another congested opening.
This lane stretches for approximately four blocks and is an electrical
paradise offering an extensive range of products at retail, discounted
and second-hand prices. DVD machines and discs, cameras, home theatre
equipment, watches, toys, remote control items and accessories and
almost every possible apparatus for electrical connections line
the street.
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Retrace your steps back to Ratchawongse Rd, head one more block
away from the lunch spot and back to Sampeng Lane. Having covered
the southern stretch of the lane we now turn right and follow the
soi through an eclectic collection of shops selling incense dried
Chinese foodstuffs. Buddhist paraphernalia and the odd clothes shop.
There are numerous smaller lanes leading off this strip, mostly
selling clothes or fabrics. Sampeng Lane continues into a wonderful
textile market located at the western edge of Chinatown. Chinese
and Thai silks are among the best buys as well as cotton textiles
but be sure to have to good search through this warren of shops
for often the best bargains are to be found in the deeper circles
of the textile jungle. Many of the stalls are operated by Indian
Sikh merchants, many of whom reside in the nearby Indian district
of Pahurat. This Indian area bordering Chinatown is a good place
to have an Indian meal if the earlier dim sum suggestion fell on
squeamish stomachs.
Rather than entering Pahurat you may wish to turn left into Chakrawat
Rd and walk the one block to find the Nakhorn Kasem market on the
left. Now full of Chinese and Thai antiques, the market was once
a hot spot for the black market, and is thus more colloquially known
as the Thieves Market.
The walk back to the ferry requires you to retrace your steps back
down Sampeng Lane to Ratchawongse Rd, then to follow this street
back down to the ferry. On the ferry you will need a ticket to Sapan
Taksin where the BTS waits to drive you back home.
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