Hello and welcome to Thailand!!!
Sometime in January, the Boy and I decided to make our way to the Land of Smiles to have a holiday.
We have had a big roller coaster year, and this would be our first proper holiday alone.
I know, it does seem kind of weird that after nearly 11 years together, we finally have a proper holiday alone. But! It was one of the best holidays I have had in a long time!
As a first stop in our travel itinerary, I would like to take you along with me to The Market!
This isn’t any old boring market at all. This is the world’s largest weekend market.
Where everything and anything is available to see, eat and buy!
I’m taking you on a revisit to the famous Chatuchak Market in Bangkok.
If you have been to the madness that is Chatuchak, you will understand that there is a method to the madness in the set-up of the stalls. Indeed, there is even a map (scroll to the bottom).
One of my favourite areas of the market is the Art and Decor section which housed local artists in makeshift galleries with their masterpieces on display.
Popular tourist items tend to change from time to time. It occurs in waves.
For instance, when I last visited in early 2010 with Madam Mummy, there were a lot of shops selling “coffee art”, pictures drawn with coffee.
This time round, there were a few stalls selling carved soaps. I couldn’t resist and bought a few as gifts. Aren’t they delicate and pretty?
As we trundled up and down the market lanes, the Boy and I were tempted to eat as much as possible from the available food stalls. However due to lack of hands (too many shopping bags :P), we found that it would be much easier to find a stall with proper seats and tables and have a sit down meal instead.
For our breakfast, we found a little food court in the middle. Please don’t ask me where it is located though, we somehow stumbled upon it and couldn’t find it again after we left!
As per our norm for the trip, the Boy enjoyed a plate of Pad Thai whilst I inhaled my spicy Som Tum (Papaya Salad) accompanied by an abundance of coconuts.
The food at this stall (in the food court area) wasn’t the best unfortunately. The Pad Thai was a bit dry and the Som Tum was lacking in the balance of flavours.
We didn’t really have much choice in terms of food in the morning, as most of the food stalls weren’t quite ready for customers as yet (we arrived about 9am and were hungry at 10am).
Now, I won’t go through in detail on every store or sight we experienced at the market, but the Boy has compiled a very nice glimpse of the time we spent there (6 hours) in a slideshow for you, below 🙂
Because we were there for such a long time (the Poor Boy), we also spent our lunch there, which was markedly better than the breakfast we had!
This restaurant (as they had a proper shop) was big and catered to a crowded house.
Everyone stopped here, including the locals, so we knew we had found a good place to rest our tired feet.
I’m not too sure what the proper name for the dish is, but the sign displayed read, “Noodles with Chicken Soup”.
It was definitely a rich, dark herbal broth.
We were able to choose the type of noodles to go with the dish. The Boy went with flat rice noodles and I went with glass noodles.
Quite a lot of the locals and school children (teens) ordered the soup with Thai instant noodles, which was quite an interesting thing for me to see.
It was truly a satisfying meal to be had.
Whilst we continued to shop, the Boy and I made several pit stops for fresh coconut water, sugar cane, and Thai Milk Tea!
We also curiously found a stall selling Teh Tarik (the Malaysian version of Milk Tea) with the seller proudly stepping up on stage to twist and turn to pull the tea for his customers.
If you have a spare weekend in Bangkok, do make sure you drop by this market.
Full of bargains, exotic foods, art, craft, you name it, they have it!
Address:
Kamphaeng Phet 2 Road
Chatuchak (or Jatujak; Thai: จตุจักร)
Website: http://chatuchak.org/
Chatuchak Map:
How to get there:
those soap flowers are soooooooo purty!!
They are, aren’t they?
I didn’t realise this was your first solo holiday together! (Solo – together… that doesn’t quite make sense…) I hope it was all wonderfulwonderful! And boo unbalanced Som Tum. Boo!
Solo Holiday does to makes sense 😛 I UNDERSTOODED IT VERY MUCH INDEEDY! 😛
The noodles with chicken looks like something i would happily dig into!
I wouldn’t mind digging into some now!
I’ve never commented but I’ve followed and loved your blog ever since I moved to Melbourne 2.5 months ago.
Thought I’d just share my own experience of Chatuchak with you. In spite of weather warnings, we headed out to Chatuchak on our last day in Bangkok. The morning was great, and we had fun looking at weird trinkets, cute puppies, ate enormous amounts of food and had a sit down lunch. After lunch the sky started to cloud over and before we knew it, it was pouring down with rain and the markets were completely flooded, even the somewhat covered bits. In places the water was almost knee deep for me and totally brown. We headed back to the train but it was easier said than done. The grass we had to walk over had become marshy mushy mud fields and the sides of the uneven roads were like small swimming pools. I wasn’t wearing appropriate footwear and my boyfriend ended up CARRYING me most of the way back to the railway station. People stared, some cheered, others commented on how cute it was/how lucky I was. It was one of the most memorable days of my life, but I’d love to go back again and enjoy a full day at the market in different conditions.
Oh my goodness me!!! So much drama! You poor things! I can only imagine what a havoc place it would be as it is already chaotic enough!
Luckily when we went, the floods had pretty much receded, so it was still safe. We did have torrential rain whilst we were there and the parts of the roof were leaking, but nothing like how you went through!
Thank goodness you are safe now 🙂
Your photos are amazing 🙂 I went to Bangkok in July with my parents but I didn’t know about this market ~ and I wasn’t blogging then so may pictures…are lets just say not ‘presentable’ 😛
I would’ve loved to check out this Chatuchak Weekend market! A shame the Som Tum was’t good! I love Som Tum one of my favourite salads ~ Love the spice hehe but your lunch looks wonderful!
Glad you and the Boy were able to spend some quality time together 😀
Aww thanks! Photos’ are photos, it all depends on your experiences anyway 🙂
The best som tum I’ve had is coming on a different post!
What a terrific market. I want a soap flower! We were in Bangkok in December 2010 but didn’t know about the market – wish we had! Sounds like you had a great holiday 🙂
Remember to bargain for things, we were quite nice and let them bully us, as they are still recovering from the floods. However, most sellers don’t even entertain bargaining anymore 🙁 It’s like they’ve lost their market mojo!
yeah we found that too – we just thought we were really crappy hagglers!
Oh good! We weren’t the only ones! Hahahaha
GOLLY GOSH!!! How good is that teh tarik show? Some more can sideway..LOL, I love markets and the soaps look gorgeous and I am totally drooling over the pad thai.
Wow, love it. I want to go to Thailand next. Looks like you both have had an amazing time.
I know! So canggih! Hahahaha… Keep an eye out on the next coming weeks 🙂
Nice slide show! Love markets and how massive this one is. Would be keen to go visit one day. 😀
It’s definitely worth the visit!
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Take me next time, take meeee!
You take me too on your coming one! I WANTS!!!