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Final visit to the weekend market in Bangkok and a funny bargining storyJul 26, 2005
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Cool furniture for sale at Bangkok Weekend Market
A shopkeeper/artist at Bangkok Weekend Market
Food stall at Bangkok Weekend Market
Bangkok, Thailand
Natalya
Our South East Asia portion of the trip is getting close to its final days. We scheduled this stop in Bangkok mainly to visit the weekend market and also to go for one final Thai massage at Wat Po, one of the largest buddhist temples and the best Thai massage schools in Bangkok.
The weekend market in Bangkok is absolutely huge, it is by far larger than any other market in Asia that we've visited. It is the size of approximately 3 football fields and is just packed with vendors with millions of items. Basically anything you can buy anywhere in Thailand you can buy at this market. We spent a long time browzing and picked up a few neat things and then headed to Koh San Road.
Koh San Road is probably the most famous shopping street in Thailand, as well as the most famous place for backpackers to stay. Between the weekend market and Koh San Road shopping you can buy anything. Literally, from luggage to necklaces to clothes to CDs to medicine to furniture. (Dave- there was even a whole area of the Bangkok Market devoted to fighting cocks! But unfortunatley no we won't be bringing one home...) Koh San Road is actually quite small and it is just one short street closed for traffic at all times with a pile of vendors. Bargaining here was easy compared to other places. We picked up a couple of CDs and more pillowcases.
I had a funny bargining experience on Koh San Road. Earlier that day we bought a lacquered paper umbrella at Wat Po and were going to buy a second one, but the lady was gone by the time we decided that it would be nice to have two instead of one. So, later that day I was quite determined to get one on Koh San Road. I found the store that carried these umbrellas right away, but the starting price was way too high. I bargained and the lady in the store would not move any lower than twice the price I bought the first umbrella for. I walked away and came back 20 minutes later to have another run at it. She was very stubborn and would not move on her price. I walked away again and came back later again. I was very determined to get that umbrella and was not leaving without it, but also was not paying a Baht more than I paid for the first one. Finally it came to 20 Baht (70 cents) difference between the price she wanted and the price I wanted to pay. So I sat in the store and started reading a book and told her that I was not leaving her store until she agreed to sell me that umbrella for my price. After 5 minutes of me thinking "what the hell am I doing bargaining over 70 cents" and her trying to get rid of me she finally agreed and I stormed out of there with a smile from ear to ear and an umbrella in my hand. It was a matter of principle.
