First Day out after a good night’s sleep. Daniel, one of our hosts, insisted on taking us to the Chatu Chak Weekend market in person to explain us everything. So there we go: 3 Austrians and one Thai in a car, heading for the north, about 45 minutes – or is one hour? Time just passes so quickly, since there is so much to see even on the road. Temples hugged in small spots between the lower houses, new skyscrapers being built everywhere and a highway that – different from other places I have seen – runs in harmonic bends between the houses a few floors above ground level. Somewhere under us the normal streets with their cars, their buses, motorbikes and their tuktuks (which have reduced in number considerably since my last time here) and their millions of people on the street, many of them offering their food and other stuff at their various street kitchens and food stalls. Sunday and shops/restaurants/businesses closed? A concept that is fairly unknown to this part of the world.
Finally we park the car on the rooftop of what seems to be a huge storage building, except that there are the first furniture shops in the first (i.e. ground) level. Heading over a passage way above the main road we come to a first estimate of the size of the market area: HUGE! Daniel explains that many shops are open all week long, but only on weekends the market is completely open. And there are different dedicated districts: the part, where you get furniture, the part with textiles, the market for x and that for y … You get everything. And the saying of “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it” must have been coined here and nowhere else.
First way leads us to food court (very important concept – what a pity we don’t have that in Austria yet!). We have a first brunch/lunch after a rather small breakfast in the hotel. You have to buy a prepaid voucher card for whatever sum you want, then you walk from food stall to food stall, check what you would fancy today, order it and take it away within minutes. Main course from this kitchen, dessert from over there, drinks from a third one… all paid from the prepaid card, all enjoyed in the central (s)eating area – and everybody in the group gets what he/she prefers most.
On our way back we pass through a small part of the pet market. And you really get EVERYTHING: not only the usual fish for your aquarium, you can have small langustes, crabs, all sorts of fish, plants. But the show continues: Aras and other kinds of parrots, other birds, mice, spiders, snakes, … even baby squirrels. All that in the in the meantime stinging heat created by the sun and the street kitchens you find even here. The creatures are pitying me…
We shop for a few things, gifts for those at home. Prices are much lower than at the markets in town. Daniel estimates the prices in the usual town markets to be 6-10 times higher than here. Still, mostly we take photos ‘cause that’s the reason we are here for.
Time passes quicker than we thought with so many impressions. Around 5 PM we start heading back to the car to make our way back to the hotel. Time to experience another aspect of Bangkok: The main road in our direction is still blocked (it was already when we left lunch four hours earlier), so we take a major “drive around” which is longer, but right now still faster than the direct way.