- A travel guide for visiting the Chatuchak Weekend Market
in Bangkok, Thialand.
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun, informative, entertaining,
and in this video I'm gonna tell you everything
you need to know if you're considering
a weekend visit to this market.
The biggest market in all of Thailand.
15,000 stalls, if you like street shopping,
you'll love this place.
All right, so the Chatuchak Weekend Market
to get here you've got two main options
if you don't wanna sit in traffic.
One is to take the BTS, that's their sky train.
The station's right there, it's called MO Chit station.
You can also take the MRT, which is the subway.
There's two stops, you can take it to Chatuchak Park.
There's also another stop
that's at the other end of the market.
First thing you'll wanna do visiting the market
is find one of the handy dandy information booths
and pick up a paper map.
This will help you navigate the really huge market.
Chances are, if you're looking for something
and it's for sale in Thailand,
you'll find a store in this market that is selling it.
From clothes, to souvenirs, to food,
to everything under the sun.
Even, I bet pets you'll find in here too someplace.
It is an amazing market.
What I'll say, it is so huge
that if you're walking around
and you see a store and you wanna buy something,
just buy it then,
'cause the chance that you'll walk by that same store
is probably slim to none.
If you're one of those people that needs to feel like
you need to cover everything in a day,
it's pretty impossible in this market.
There's stuff that's outside,
but there's also these little narrow alleyways
and if you look down this way,
this is one of those little narrow alleyways.
That's where you'll probably find some of the best deals
and some of the most interesting things
so don't just stay on the main street
but head down there too.
The market can be quite confusing to navigate
because there's so many different lanes and alleys,
but the best way to figure out where you're going
is to find the clock tower.
The market basically rings around the clock tower
in 26 different sections,
and then the alleys are called sois, S-O-I.
And so you can find what you're looking for
based upon what section and alleyway
it rings around this tower.
If you're trying to meet somebody,
this is probably a great place to meet them too,
because it's that one thing you can see
from many places inside the market.
One of the neat things about this market,
is just how different and vary it is.
We've probably passed 500 stalls so far
and each one sells really different stuff.
It's not like some markets
where you pass like 10 of the same sock store
selling the same stocks.
Everything's really unique
and the different sections are unique too.
Like take this section for example,
with the leafy trees in the center.
By the way, Bangkok can be pretty hot,
so if you wanna avoid the heat,
then come here in the morning hours.
It'll be less busy,
but it's also the weekend market so it's only open
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The best time to come is definitely Saturday and Sunday,
9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Fridays it's a limited market
open from 6:00 p.m. to midnight.
Well if you get tired of walking all around the market,
head over to section seven for the rest area.
Its a rest area of all these animals.
Toffer blends in pretty good.
But the real reason to visit section seven
is it's home to a lot of independent Bangkok artists.
So if you wanna pick up something particularly unique,
artsy and handmade,
you'll find these stalls in section seven.
When you come to Chatuchak Market
make sure to bring plenty of Thai baht, plenty of cash.
Most of the stalls here don't take credit cards
and only take cash.
So if you're buying things you will want some cash.
Now many of the stalls it's okay to haggle,
it's okay to barter.
You'll see some that have signs say fixed price,
but if they don't,
then you can ask for just a little better of a price.
Maybe if they tell you how much it is just ask and say,
hey, can you give me a better price?
If it's not a good one, walk away, see what they'll do.
The market has ample toilets, well toilets.
I don't know if ample is the right word.
There are toilets.
This one is actually under construction.
They're pay toilets.
They cost two baht each.
The women's restrooms had really long lines,
so maybe don't drink too much.
You'll be hot, so you'll be dehydrated.
If you need toilet paper,
you might want to bring some with you from home,
because they charge extra for the toilet paper
and there's none in the stall.
So don't get in the stall
and be looking for that toilet paper.
Be prepared and have it with you.
If all that walking around Chatuchak Market
has made you hungry and hot,
well head over to the JJ's shopping mall.
It's right next to Chatuchak
and they've got this great indoor food court
where you can get lots of tasty Thai dishes.
Right now we're dining on some delicious Mango Sticky Rice.
80 Thai baht.
The food is gonna to cost a little more in here,
but after schlepping around that market the whole morning
you will enjoy the air-conditioning in this place.
The bathrooms in here don't cost any money either.
One of the quintessential foods to get at this market
is coconut ice cream.
You'll find tons of coconut ice cream stalls,
but there's one, that's Coco JJ.
It's the original coconut ice cream.
At least that's what the sign says,
but you can see, they're cuttin' up the coconuts.
They got these coconuts right here.
When you get this ice cream, they cut it in half
and then you get the ice cream right in the coconut
and it comes with a cup of coconut juice
from the coconut, which is pretty tasty.
And you got a couple of different toppings,
um we got some,
um sticky rice and some mango.
And I have some coconut jelly,
and then this is the coconut ice cream.
Let's pick that up with some jelly.
Give it a taste.
Mm, it's really refreshing.
On a really hot day.
Which is like everyday in Bangkok.
One thing to keep in mind
when you're walking around this market,
wherever there's a lot of tourists,
there's gonna be a lot of pickpockets too.
They've got tons of signs that tell you
to be careful of your bag and be careful of pickpockets.
One of my favorite bags is the Pacsafe bag,
it's what I always carry around.
It's like a pickpocket proof bag,
because it lets you snap your zippers into these snaps
so people don't steal the stuff,
or just keep your stuff in front of you.
But do be mindful.
So if your travels take you to Bangkok, Thailand
and you're looking for that shopping cornucopia,
extravaganza, mega shopping experience
you get the point.
It is here, check out Chatuchak Market.
Well Toffer and I we thank you for watching.
If you enjoyed this video,
you'll love watching more of our Bangkok series.
You'll find links in the description below,
or you can click one of these other videos to watch them.
Well we won't say goodbye
because we'll see you in the next video.