Saturday 19 March 2011

Day 2: Chatchuchak Weekend Market

Please bear in mind that Chatchuchak is a WEEKEND market. Don't be like me - I booked the air tickets thinking that it was a night market and opened every day. I had to change the date and pay a premium for the change at the last minute just so that I could go Chatchuchak.

Generally, there are 11 sections in Chatchuchak:

· Clothing & Accessories (sections 2-6, 10-26)
· Handicrafts (sections 8-11)
· Ceramics (sections 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 25)
· Furniture and Home Decoration (sections 1,3,4,7,8)
· Food and Beverage (sections 2, 3, 4, 23, 24, 26, 27)
· Plants and Gardening tools (sections 3, 4)
· Art and Gallery (section 7)
· Pets and Pet Accessories (sections 8, 9, 11, 13)
· Books (sections 1, 27)
· Antiques and Collectibles (sections 1, 26)
· Miscellaneous and Used Clothing (sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 22, 25, 26)

Map of Chatchuchak:

We went to Chatchuchak the next morning.

It opens at 9am and lasts till 6pm.

I have read enough to have the wisdom to go there early in the morning as it gets 'hot and dusty' in the afternoon. The word 'hot' came up in almost every comment about Chatchuchak so I did not want to take any chance, especially when I have a tod with me.

Our entrance and exit point - Entrance and Exit 3

The first sight that greeted us


You can get a map of Chatchuchak from the guard house and change your currencies here

The outdoor area of Chatchuchak
Inside Chatchuchak
Lots of tiny stalls
Pickpockets and bag-slashers are not unheard of

The zinc roof in Chatchuchak

Art gallery

20 baht per toy. William even asked if 10 baht was possible. She said no.
Funny shoes
The couple was bargaining with the shop owner. The owner kept saying 'No'. Who said Chatchuchak can bargain one?
Accessories
Bubble-blowing toys. We bought one. Very cute!
Leather goods
Street food
A pretty 18-year-old salesgirl Cute knitted hats. I bought 3.
Pretty mailboxes. A pity I would never have any use for them.
Artificial flowers It was hot. Shoe bags
Doughnut sticks More food and drinks Their orange juice is more sour than sweet, but quenches thirst anyway.
... Very obscene we thought ...
Their fizzy drink popsicles
Strawberries in a cup
Roast meat. What made me think they couldn't eat pork?
William loved these - chicken mid-joints
Home decor section

For some reason, I love lamps
Very ingenius make of tuk-tuk from used drink cans. My sister said I ought to have bought them. Shucks!
A pretty lamp made from plastic bottles
More white clothes
Clothes that teach you how to draw comics
Pets section
Hats
There are cargo companies that transport your furniture or goods back to your country.
49kg and below cost 70 baht per kg


'Sex is my religion ... Let us pray!'
Decorative clocks They even sell hammocks!
Mashes that regain their shapes

I am naughty by nature too!
I brought a battery-operated foam fan along as advised by a colleague. The most decent decision I ever made for this trip!

On our way back, we saw the red t-shirt protesters all smiling, all ready for their protest exercise

Chatchuchak is hotter outside than inside when it hits noon. Although the shelter is made of zinc, the interior is hardly warm because most stall-owners have electric fans installed in their stalls, so the customers or just potential ones get to enjoy the cool air too!

However, I didn't get to stay from morn' till evening because it gets tiring after 2 or 3 hours of walking. I had the map of Chatchuchak with me because I went with the aim of visiting the home decor and furniture sections, but after a while, I abandoned the map because it got too confusing. The place was like a maze! Although the section numbers were indicated, but the placement of sections did not seem to fit with the map's most of the time. Aimless walking was exhausting!

I had read that we ought to bargain for any price we got, but the stall-owners' bargaining skills were infinitely superior than mine or their customers. They probably have more than ample opportunities to hone their bargaining skills since they are doing that every Saturday and Sunday.

Word on the internet has it that Chatchuchak opens on Friday for wholesalers so the public can visit it on Friday as well. If it happens that you are free on a Friday, you may pop by to see if it is true. However, my tour guide told me that it is only on Sunday that all the stalls are opened.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hello can i ask you where you buy artificial flower & mail boxes at your photo in chatuchak ? i mean which section ? thanks

Rain said...

Oh dear, I am afraid I don't remember. Chatuchak is so huge it's a maze to me. We were just walking wherever an exit led us.