Chatuchak Market

To quote wikipedia, "Chatuchak Market covers over 35 acres of land and includes upwards of 5,000 stalls.  It is estimated that the market receives between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors per day!  Most stalls are only open on Saturdays and Sundays.  The market offers a wide variety of products including household items, clothing, Thai handicrafts, religious artifacts, collectibles, food and live animals.  In recent years the market has gained considerable notice among conservationists and the World Wildlife Fund; Chatuchak has become a notorious hub for trafficking illegal and endangered species.  This activity was covered on CNN's "Planet in Peril" series.  Despite publicity, Thai law is rarely able to pursue a course of action in preventing the illegal trade."

I have made many trips to Chatuchak so far and each one gets easier.  It is amazingly overwhelming when you make your first visit there.  It is blazing hot on the outside and stuffy on the inside due to lack of airflow.  It is exceptionally crowded and it is seriously a maze.  You can easily get lost and have difficulty finding your way out.  If you find something you like and don't buy it because you want to think about it - when you go back you either cannot find it or you they simply left!  On our last trip Joe took his handheld GPS and made waypoints at stalls that I might want to return to sometime.  I have been making so many trips to Chatuchak due to visitors in town and because I am helping my best friend Katrina find her wedding favors for her wedding in January in North Carolina.  So I bought her a small collection of items and mailed them to her as samples and got the business card from the stalls.  She has made a decision and now it is time to go back with my Thai instructor who will make sure I get the Thai price!  Most westerners get the American price which is sometimes twice as much.  

While there we had banana roti with chocolate sauce - this is our favorite dessert here - well next to mango and sticky rice that is!  We took a little video of them making our banana roti. Enjoy!

Me and my friend Christina's head while looking at red organza favor baggies!

This is pretty neat - these characters are all made out of tools and scrap metal.  Pretty amazing - they had a really neat spider man with a web, star wars characters, wall-E, transformers etc.  

Here are the soaps that I think Katrina has decided on for wedding favors!

Christina (in red hat) and I checking out the soaps.  

This is one of my favorite places - the Benjarong stall.  I did a factory tour with the American Women's Club in August and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE all their stuff.  

This was another stall that had fancy soaps and gift sets.  Check out the he/she - we are quite positive that this is what they call a kathoey:  a male to female transgender person in Thailand. 

Here is the video we took of them preparing our banana roti - yummmm!!!!