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[BANGKOK] Khao San Road Market & Chatuchak Market @ Thailand

Since the van from Mama tour dropped us at Khaosan Road after back from Amphawa market, we then leverage on this opportunity to visit Khaosan Road market. It is a short street at the central of Bangkok, presumably the favorite place for backpackers as it has numerous backpacker lodges here. Khao San Road is a street run with stalls at both side of the road, selling clothes, shoes, bags, pirated DVDs, counterfeit certificates. At night, it turned to be very happening and it was like a mini European country, with more westerners or tourists than Thai people there.

Khaosan Rd. day version.
Leng Lui selfie
Khaosan Rd. night version - 1
Khaosan Rd. night version - 2
Pad Thai, Thai noodles meant for tourists
Pomegranate juice (40 baht)
Coconut ice cream (40 baht), still the one from a random mobile stall at Hua Hin tasted better
There are several food stalls here and they kept changing their place, giving you a fake impression that there are new stalls keep coming. As Khao San road is catering for tourists’ business, the foods here are largely meant for tourists as well – Pad Thai etc.



One of the exotic food, which is only available at Khao San Road is fried insects. I have always wanted to challenge myself for this. A scoop of small fried insects such as mini crickets and silk worms (can be mixed) cost 50 bath, while each small grasshopper cost 10 bath and the big one cost 20 baht. The most exotic and rare dish will be tarantula, bettle and scorpion for 50 bath each. Of course, these exotic foods are only meant for the adventurous and brave ones.

I tried grasshoppers and mixture of small insects. They did not taste anything funny, just tasted like flour and chewy, with a slight aftertaste. A gentle reminder to remove the grasshoppers’ legs as there is a high change it will stuck in your throat.


There are nothing much interesting about Khao San Road then. It is a place meant for tourists anyway. We were too skeptical toward the food quality here as well, hence we took McDonalds and spaghetti from 7-11 for dinner. We love the 7-11 at Thailand so much, they are really the true convenient store and the price is friendly as well!


Shogun Pork burger set (119 baht) is the burger not available in Malaysia as it is not halal.  Served with a teriyaki pork patty and an egg with some lettuce, it tasted simple and good. The chili sauce from Thai McDonalds is great as well.


To further satisfy our hunger, we went to 7-11 to grab some more foodies. Spaghetti with chili pork basil leaf (30 baht) might appear to be a simple dish but it was good. The friendly 7-11 personnel will reheat the spaghetti for you upon purchase and you can have it straight right away. The chili with the spaghetti is truly Thai style as the spiciness comes in very challenging and it led to real opening of my nostrils too. 

Signature clock tower at Chatuchak Weekend Market

If you are heading for a shopping spree at Bangkok, then Chatuchak weekend market is definitely your choice of destination. It has more than 8000 stalls operating within the market, divided into 27 sections. Basically it has 9 kinds of goods: plants, antiques, pets, food and drinks, fresh and dry food, ceramics, furniture and home decoration, clothes and books.

External stalls at Chatuchak market
Interior stalls at Chatuchak market
The exodus of people at Chatuchak market
The market setup is basically the style with Malaysia pasar malam, with the exception that Malaysia pasar malam is inferior in size. It is like a maze here, and if you see something you are interested to buy, just buy it else you will have a hard time returning to the same stall. On top of that, it is a no smoking zone gazetted by the government. Officers are seen patrolling the area, getting those who went against the law and curbing criminal cases as well.

Recognise the Soi number so that you will not get lost
There are several ways to get there, by taxi or train (BTS or Metro). For BTS, just stop at Mo Chit station and follow the exodus of people and you shall reach the front gate of Chatuchak Market. For Metro, just exit at the Chatuchak Park station.



It is truly a wonderful experience shopping here as you can basically find anything you would think of here. However, as this market is like a puzzle, locating the particular stall might pose a problem somehow. On top of that, haggling is strongly encouraged as most of the vendors tend to overprice their items and you will be surprised sometimes you may get 30% off the original price.

Roast pork (140 baht), tasted awful and oily, we almost feeling like throw away the whole packet
Preparing coconut ice cream
Coconut ice cream with Sago (30 baht), still the random mobile stall at Hua Hin tasted better
Owner with cute mango attached to hat selling mango glutinous rice
Mango glutinous rice (50 baht), the ones we had at Hatyai night market tasted better tough

Fish balls (20 baht for 4), tasted good
Som Tom aka Thai papaya salad (50 baht), not worth the try. The ones we made at Silom cooking house tasted better
There are a variety of foods available here but sadly all the foods we tried are not as good as others which we tried randomly on the street. Perhaps the food here are catering more to tourists’ needs hence the quality may have compromised too.

Fret not, if you are running low in monies, there is a mobile CIMB exchange van to cater for your money exchange!

Chatuchak weekend market
Saturdays and Sundays (9:00am – 6:00pm); Fridays (6:00pm – 12:00pm)
Plant section only, Wednesday and Thursday (7:00am – 6:00pm)
How to get there? Exit from Mo Chit BTS station

We left the market at 5:00pm to rush to Silom cooking school and ready to do some rocking there!

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