Weekend Markets and Skybars

I was meeting up with some friends a few days after I got to Bangkok. Afterwhich, we were going to head north to Chiang Mai. I spent those next few days exploring more of Bangkok, which meant a lot of randomly getting lost (Google Maps and I get along much better in Canada) and sweating perfusely (By the time I writing this I’m somewhat aclimitized to the heat and humidity).

I was really excited to vist some of the Wats I had read about in preparing for this trip. However, with final preparations for the King’s funeral underway, and many of the streets closed near some of these sites I decided to forgo visiting these places until I passed back thru Bangkok.

Instead, with some of the people I had met at the hostel I went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. According to its website its the world’s largest outdoor market, has 15 000 stalls, and over 200 000 visitors every weekend.

This place has it all, clothing, food, flowers and apparently even a pet section. We tried with no avail to find this pet section and ultimately a few people had to leave to catch their connections to their next destination, and the rest of us gave up in favor of lunch.

I’d definitely recommend this place to find souveniors, or to ween yourself into the art of bartering and Thai street markets. The vendors are friendly and let you look at your own pace.

The Weekend Market at Chatuchak is a seemingly endless labyrinth of vendors and restaurants – definitely a must see!

Following this, and a side trip a seemingly tame Khao San Road, I said my goodbyes and got ready to meet my friends, who by this time had arrived, and were staying nearby.

After watching a few of a hotel lobby’s Thai Elvis greatest hits we decided that we would celebrate our arrival in Bangkok by hitting up one of its many skybars. There are so many that there are multiple top 10 lists available online.

We went with Above Eleven because it was a) close and b) some people at the hostel had gone the night before and they liked it.

The view of the Bangkok skyline is impressive, and seemingly never ending, but after admiring the view and drinking our Thai take on a Pisco Sour we retreated to street level and did what any celebratory tourist in Bangkok would do – eat Pad Thai.

For tonight it was Bangkok and tomorrow was well, the night train.