Bangkok: Chatuchak Weekend Market

One of our top goals of moving to Singapore was to travel more.  We've been here for just over two months so we were due for a trip!  The first place we chose to visit was Bangkok which is a short two hour flight away.  We made it a long weekend and packed in as much as we could.  The next several blog posts will be all about the things we did.

The first full day we were there was Sunday and we decided to head out to the Chatuchak Weekend Market.  Several expats told us it was the best place to go to find just about anything.  We woke up bright and early to catch the Sky Train and beat the crowds.

Waiting for the Sky Train

When we arrived at the market it was difficult to decide where to start.  The market consists of 15,000 booths crammed into 27 acres.  I realize that is a lot of land, but its also a ton of booths.  Most of the booths were only about 5' x 10' and they sold everything!  You could buy artwork, pets, clothing, jewelry, housewares, etc.  The only problem was finding which booths sold what you were looking for.  We quickly realized that if we saw something we liked we had to buy it because we would never find that stall again in a place that large.  We wandered the aisles for almost four hours and came away with a few pieces of jewelry, a hand painted tea set,  a small hand painted tray, and two wooden vases along with the silk flowers to go in them.  Thankfully all of these pieces also made it to Singapore unbroken.

Long, narrow rows with everything you can imagine.
Thai boxing shorts, anyone?

Hand painted tea sets everywhere! Don't knock any over!

We saw a few of these shops and I was just in awe of how
beautiful the produce was.  When we finally got close to
it we realized it was all fake!

That Monument in the distance is at the center of this
market.  It goes on forever.

Cramped little shop with lots of flowers.  I've never
seen such a collection of silk flowers or been through
such narrow aisles.

If you are ever in Bangkok and want to pick up a few reasonably priced souvenirs, plan a trip to the Chatachuk Weekend Market.  Your feet will be tired and you will probably be a little overwhelmed, but you will definitely find something you never knew you needed!  Just make sure you go early because it becomes difficult to move around in the market as it begins to fill up around noon.

Hand painted tea set we purchased

Carved wooden vase and flowers I picked out