Cloudland: Day 2 - Chatuchak Weekend Market

After a rejuvenating sleep last night, we woke up feeling extremely excited preparing for our Day2 trip in Bangkok. Our mission today is to cover one of the biggest and famous market in the world - Chatuchak Weekend Market!

After brushing up, we are preparing to go. Before that, I am going to blog about the hostel we are staying that is - Take a nap Hostel.

"'Take a Nap:The sleeping room' hostel and budget hotel in Bangkok city, Thailand, offers great value, friendly backpacker and budget accommodation in central of Bangkok City." Quoted from it's official website - http://www.takeanaphotel.com/

This budget hotel is located in Sri Rama 4 Street and it is an extremely strategic place for backpackers like us, as it is a few minutes walk to both the skytrain(BTS)-Sala Daeng Station and subway(MRT)-Silom Station.

I would call this hotel as a boutique hotel. We can see the design from it's outside until to the inside of it's hotel room, the wall are artistically painted. Each room has it's own different theme. It offers full air-conditioned room and all the necessity you need to have a good night sleep after an hectic outing around Bangkok.

In short, it offers 5 stars service and comfort with 1 star price! The price of the room ranges from 800Baht to 2000 Baht per night. Breakfast is inclusive and the quoted price is Nett.

OK, breakfast time! This is how the dining room look like.

Simple yet filling breakfast is provided. Ranges from oriental to western.

A Pool Table is around the dining area for leisure fun.

This is my breakfast. And for the next few days, it will be more or less the same. :D

Not forgetting to mention, free computer and Internet service is provided. I guess Seng Hui is facebook-ing now.

We are ready to go! At 830am Bangkok time, we headed towards Silom MRT station. Bangkok is a developed country whereby you can see high rise building and lots of flyovers along the road.

Besides that, it don't lose it's cultural sense, as you can see hawkers store selling various traditional thai cuisine along the busy road.

Finally we reached the Silom MRT station. Silom is actually an interchange station with Sala Daeng BTS.

Infront of Sala Daeng Station! Hehehe..

We opted for Silom MRT as we do not need to do any interchange in between. Something special about the train service in Bangkok, it is using a touch token system. And we could only buy the token from our origin to the destination we want to go. In Bangkok, they do sell those tourist One-Day Pass and etc. But it is not worthwhile after all. We opted for the token one. This is how we enter the station.

The five of us with the token of fortune in our hands!

Buddhist Monk is well respected in Bangkok. They have special seat reserved for them in the MRT.

After 30minutes of travel time, finally we reached Chatuchak Park Station.

This is how we are going to exit from the station. The token have to be reinserted back into the exit gantry.

And here the shopping+eating+seeing begins.. Guides for visitor to Chatuchak Market, do visit the Tourist Information Kiosk located on the right side of the station exit to grab your free map of Chatuchak Market.

Get ready for the shopping spree in Chatuchak! Some strategies for visitors:

1. Get a Map

2. Get a bottle of water and a cap.

3. Make sure your wallet is full of "bullets"

4. Prepare to get missing

5. Get the Ball Rolling

I am sure you guys will gone missing. It covers 70 rai (35 acres) of land with over 15,000 stalls and more than 200,000 visitors every Saturday and Sunday!

Let's see what is on sale in Chatuchak:

Colourful sandals/slippers and caps.

Varieties of lighting on sale. Folks, the price they offer is so attractive. At only 220Baht for this and NEGOTIABLE if you buy more. I wished I had brought and booked for a bigger luggage capacity.

Cute souvenirs can be found if you would like to have one.

Nice Paintings and Drawings are on sale too.

Hand-designed t-shirt..

Colourful silk ties. Our friend Seng Hui bought half a dozen back as it is very cheap!

My favourite football jerseys. The imitation ones. I did got one for myself. Guess whom I choose and which country. Hehe..

Thailand designed t-shirt. Only available in Bangkok. It brought out the speciality of Bangkok. Eg, Tut-tut, Beers and so on.

Not forgetting to attract our female counterparts, blouse for girls are on sale too. Most of the clothing sold in Chatucak, may it be men or women, it ranges from 100Baht to 150Baht. Again, NEGOTIABLE if you buy more.

Look at this salesgirl, she was standing on top of the chair shouting and dancing for ppl to buy from her stall. 2 shirts for 100Baht. You got to believe it!

Towels and Flowers...

Children shirts, accessories and etc.. you can find and buy absolutely everything in Chatuchak.

Look at this nylon stringed elephant and dragon. I really admire the skills of the Thai people possesses. Brilliant artwork!

Some antiques were on sale too...

Foods are also one the major attractions in Chatuchak. The first food that we tasted in the market is this Coconut Ice-cream. There are 3 types of flavour that we can choose from:

1. Young Coconut

2. Fresh Coconut Milk

3. Assorted Fruit

At only 20Baht, you get 4 scoops of your choice(You could either mix it or choose one only) + 3 toppings of your choice!

The girl is busy at work preparing the ice-creams for us. Each of us bought one for ourselves. Under the blistering heat, this ice cream would really cool us down. In addition, it is so creamy and fresh! Must try!

Well, this is called the coconut palm juice. It is like a child coming from Palm + Coconut. Look at the shape.. It is believe to have a cooling effect.

Connie gave a thumb up for this juice. I think she loves it. Haha..

Roasted Pork a.k.a Siew Yok(Sao Rou) and fried chicken wings are on sale too! Look at the meat, it is very lean and golden brownly barbequed and fried. Saliva dropping? Hehehe..

Fried squid, fried popiah, french fries, bird eggs all are only 20Baht each! I almost wanted to buy eat, but my stomach is still full. Never mind, I will be back.. :)

Barbequed Fresh Prawns! Look, the prawns are in the oxigen container to keep them alive before they are barbequed. Price? 150Baht, you get tasty big prawns..

Big red juicy strawberries. Some might wonder in a hot country like Bangkok, where the strawberry comes from. Infact, there are some cold and high places in Thailand such as chiang Mai. I think their strawberries looked even tastier than those we found in Cameron Highlands. :P

Bangkok is very famous for it's ice blended strawberry. This is how it look like. A healthy drink that will suit everyone needs. Introducing the Strawberry Shake!

Big mangos are on sale as well. It is really sweet indeed. I have never tasted such sweet mango before.

Fresh blended tangerine. This is again one of the must try in Bangkok. No sugar added and they blend it infront of you. 20Baht only.

Walk, Buy, Eat, Walk, Buy, Eat... The loop continue until we reached the Clock Tower. This is the landmark in Chatuchak. Normally ppl use it as a meetup point in this market. People will say, I meet you under the clock!

After that, it was noon time, and the sun was right on top of our head. We decided to go to Chatuchak Mall to chill up as well as having our proper lunch. Some might wonder how can we eat so much? I need to tell you guys, we sweat, we walked and all the energy are used up and we need to replenish in order to continue the second half on the day. Hehehe..

We headed straight into the foodcourt in Chatuchak Mall and this are what we ordered.

4 of them ordered Glass Noodle Shrimp Phad Thai.

For me I opted for Khao Phat Tom Yam Goong. I feel that, it should add some extra spice in it in order to have the extra kick in it.

The donuts originated from the US. Freshly made. Dip it with the sauce of your choice(We choose Blueberry). And it is ready to serve.

I don't know what is this called. All in Thai Words. But, I called it as Coconut Pancake. The pancake and the cream is actually the same. The different part is the coconut. They are having different flavour in it. Look normal, but taste different. Worth a try!

After the lunch, we are back into Chatuchak Market and continue shoppping spree..

Hmm.. I got myslef a 1carat diamond earing which is sold at only 40Baht. Hahaha..

Look at this. How they arrange the corn. It is very nice. I guess the water below is used to steam and to keep the corn warm.

Very big red peanuts..

It is almost dawn and why everyone stand still on the busy road? And it was a sudden silent except a song in Thai language on air. I was shock too. Oh, it was the national song on air. Look how patriotic the Thai people is.

We decided to go back to our hotel and freshen things up. We took a cab to bring us to the doorstep of our hotel. We are too tired to walk.

After the bath, Connie and me went for some traditional Thai massage located in Patpong Area. The name of the shop is call Art of Massage.

Huang Ying, Ming Wee and Seng Hui looked so enjoy while having their foot massage.

After the massage, we felt whole body is rejuvinated and relaxed and it is dinner time. We end up to have our dinner in a shop called The Noodi Bar.

The restaurant is decorated in a Chinese traditional way. It is having wall to wall chinese words and some longevity noodles to suit the name of The Noodi Bar.