Of course we had to return to Bangkok to take our flight home; however, we returned early to experience the Chatachak Weekend Market. It was well worth it!
We woke up early, enjoyed coffee in our room and wrote the blog, but because the internet is not entirely realiable, we were not able to post it. We had breakfast at the hotel, which was only marginally good and then set out for the day. We walked the short distance to Victory Monument and took the Skytrain to Mo Chit station. It was extremely busy and if you go, I would suggest getting off the BTS on the wrong side of the street, walk the half block and cross the pedestrian stairs. This would easily save 15 minutes of frustration; not that the crowds at the market can be avoided this easily.
The market is huge, reportedly the largest market in Thailand. Not only is it big, it's really cheap and there is little to no bargining unless you buy more than one unit of any item. Were secured most of the remaining items we were looking for, plus a couple more.
The market consists of thousdands of small stalls with mostly items you would want, versus things you would actually need. Art, souvineers, hats and cloths are in large supple with some things being extremely rare. Tim tried talking me into letting him buy a human or monkey skull (sorry, forgot to snap a picture). Not positive the human skull was real, but also not sure either would be allowed through customs... Some of the art was increadible! From paintings to weilded sculpture, they had it all.
The market wasn't super busy when we arrived at 10am, but by 1pm the crowds were insane. After 5 hours in the gerneal area (there are a bunch of smaller markets and malls around), we were tired and getting board of seeing same same. We ducked into one of the malls and I enjoyed a small, but cheap, Dairy Queen Blizzard; Mocha Almond fudge (29 baht, $1). I would say the small is the perfect size as it was the first Blizzard I've had that I wasn't sick by the end.
We took the train back to our hotel, relaxed a bit and even took a swim in the rooftop pool. It felt nice, but actually a bit cold. We enjoyed a beer on the rooftop patio and admired the (smoggie) view. It was quite relaxing, but both of us are starting to think about the end and going back to work. :-( Oh bother!
We decided to try our luck at MBK Shopping centre again, but after the weekend market found the prices redicoulsy expensive. Some things, including a pewter beer stein we were trying to buy, was easily double the price. In hind sight, we probably should have bought it at the market; albiet for about $80 we probably don't need it in our collection. We were able to buy a couple clothing items that we have not seen elsewhere, plus a couple things for our niece.
After walking most of the day and doing a lot of stairs, we were beat. I had forgot that a day in Bangkok meant easily walking 10 flights of staris and a 5-10 kilomtres. Definitely going to need a massage tomorrow!
