Asia Travel Guide

Chatuchak Weekend Market is paradise for bargain hunters. Every Saturday and Sunday, 9,000 individual booths are open selling an infinite variety of goods. It is just about impossible to go to Chatuchak Weekend Market and not buy anything. There is just about everything that bargain hunters, home makers, pet lovers or just browsers can imagine.

Handicrafts are every where including pottery, hand-made glass models of the Royal Barges, fluffy toys, colourful tropical fish, singing birds puppies of many breeds, furniture and lots of new and second hand clothing, shoes, handbags, belts. There is so much on offer that even international home decor wholesales come here to shop.

Music lovers can find unique traditional Thai musical instruments being sold direct by the artisans who have crafted them to make the pleasing sounds. One rule for all shoppers to observe is bargain, bargain, bargain. This is part of the fun and also gets you the best prices. Chatuchak Weekend Market has interesting products from all over Thailand as well as things from far off lands.

You should allow the best part of a whole day to explore the many stalls. You never know what you will find. But this is work that will make you thirsty and puckish, so take a break here and there to cool off with a fresh fruit juice or feast on delicious Thai dishes such as Pad Thai, barbecue chicken, noodles and sweets.

How to get there:
BTS Skytrain to Mochit Station or Metro to Kamphaeng Phet Station
Bus Routes 3, 26, 27, 34, 59, 77, 96, 112, 134, 136, 138, 145, 502, 503, 510, 512, 513

Open:
Saturday and Sunday

Admission:
Free

1. The Grand Palace
No visitor should miss the huge Grand Palace complex, which boasts the country’s holiest and most dazzling temple, Wat Phra Kaeo. Allow at least a couple of hours for strolling around the grounds.

2. Thonburi Canal Boats
Jump on one of the public longtail boats that whisk locals around the back canals of Thonburi - a cheap and exciting, if malodorous, way of getting a feel for the city.

3. Jim Thompson’s House
Legendary Jim Thompson, the American who revolutionized Bangkok’s silk industry and mysteriously disappeared in 1967, filled his teak house with a stunning array of Thai arts, crafts and oddities.

4. Chatuchak Weekend Market
For Bangkok’s most exhilarating shopping experience, catch the Skytrain out to the vast Chatuchak Weekend Market, where you’ll find six thousand stalls and a bewildering collection of fabrics, woks, jewellery, foodstuffs, animals, ceramics, lacquerware and more.

5. National Museum
The rambling National Museum hoards a mammoth collection of Thai art, taking you through the full gamut of Buddhist sculptural styles. Look out, too, for the outlandish collection of royal funeral chariots.

6. Thai Boxing
Attend a traditional Thai boxing match - sessions are staged nightly, complete with live orchestral accompaniment and frenetic ringside betting, in the capital’s two national stadiums.

7. Alms Giving at Wat Benjamabophit
Get up early to catch Wat Benjamabophit’s saffron-robed monks lined up before the gleaming marble temple, bowls extended to receive the ritual offerings of food, drink and sundry alms.

8. Chinatown
The narrow, crowded alleys of Bangkok’s Chinatown are packed with intriguing bazaars selling everything from quivering fish heads to paper funeral art. This is also where you’ll find the world’s largest solid-gold Buddha.

9. Thai Massage
Put your body through the works with a traditional Thai massage at Wat Po, considered to be the country’s most distinguished teaching centre of this ancient art.

10. Hemlock
Feast on unusual Thai dishes - such as banana-flower salad and stuffed wild tea leaves - at Hemlock, a charming restaurant in the Phra Athit area of Banglamphu that’s popular with students and other young penniless trendies.