I figure this entire experience deserves its own post! Here are some stats: About 35 acres, with 27 sections in all- Over 10,000 shops and stalls offering a wide range of products from Thai handicrafts, handmade products, clothing, accessories, arts and painting, house decorations, households, souvenirs and gifts, pets, plants and books. Are you impressed yet? Let’s just say we walked around for about 4 hours and I doubt we saw a quarter of it! It’s delightfully managed chaos with sois (streets) and sections and its very nicely mapped out- but trust me when I say this, there is NOTHING you can’t find there if you look hard enough!
We started by looking for some food and I got a bag of fresh mango for 50 BHT ($1.50)- great way to start the day!
Its about 85 degrees and the humidity is high so that bottle of water in my arm will be drank and many more consumed by the end of this journey. There are SOOOO many people and of all different cultures roaming around and every vendor will call out to you Sawadee Ka- or Hi! with a big smile on their face. In the back is where the food soi is (again Soi is Thai for Street). There are about 4 to 5 long rows with vendors selling sausages, corn, all types of Thai foods and everything is super cheap- roughly less than $3 to get pretty much any kind of food you can imagine. Deciding on a break from the sun, we pop into one of the little restaurant kiosks to get a dose of AC and great food. This place was the size of a small shipping container but the AC felt wonderful and the food was just insane! I had a pineapple fried rice with pork floss on top and golden raisins inside and know from the first bite that I will be craving that for the rest of my life! Matt ordered a Pad Kra Pao which is a pork dish with Thai basil and egg.
Officially sated, we head back out into the hotness to discover the market and get some much needed clothes as I only bought and packed enough for 3 days- hey now you know the secret on how I got my luggage to be under weight! 😉 This market is so fun to wander but anticipate that you will get lost and that is totally OK. I attempted to take some video as we were walking but you can get turned around easy and lost from each other with the amount of people walking through. Luckily they do organize it very well and all the signs for sections and what not are posted everywhere. We discovered the artist quarter and spent time wandering the stalls looking at truly incredible artwork and wondering how on earth we would get it home with us!
We had to start taking notes on the stalls we want to come back to before we leave Thailand to get souvenirs- better to get it on the way out right instead of dragging it all over Thailand! Clothing shopping is fun and YES haggling is expected, just remember how much you are actually getting a deal for. For example, the shirt I want is 440 BHT, this is $13- so I bargain down to 400 BHT which takes it down to $11.82, what a steal! In that case it works out, but haggling over what equates to roughly a dollar is sometimes a little nonsensical but they are more than happy to go back and forth with you. Matt is GREAT at this practice as him and his mom have pretty much wrote the book on how to get a good deal at a garage sale! I am not so good at bargaining but I will get better by the end of this trip to be sure!
All the vendors are lovely people and always greet you with a Sawadee Ka or just Kaaaaa (Hello/Hi) and thank you when you leave “Kap Koon Ka” using a “wai” which is a way of bowing your head slightly with your hands in front of your face prayer style either touching your chin, nose, or forehead depending on the level of respect you are paying. Monks are the highest, down to children being the lowest if you would even “wai” them at all. (Wai is pronounced “Why”)
Holy cow its hot here! Glad we got the extra deodorant but lots of stalls have fans and a couple have even figured out how to close in enough to have A/C which is a nice reprieve. We sit down at a cool outdoor patio bar which is shaded and watch an in house DJ spinning music while we suck down fruit slushies. My watermelon one was straight up watermelon puree and I could have drank a bucket of it! Take some time to people watch while you are here as there are so many different types of people and cultures to see. During our resting period I mention to Matt that my apple watch band is not what I should be wearing in Thailand as its metal and has no give to my swelling wrists.. should have brought another one. He laughs at me and says if there is ANY place I would find a watch band, it would be here. Turns out he was right and situation is now rectified 🙂
At this time we need to head out to get back to the Bnb and take a cab (no way I am doing another train situation with luggage) to the airport to go to Samui. I can’t wait to come back to this market before we leave and see more stuff, my words and pictures truly do not do it justice! Time to head out to paradise…
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