Chatuchak Market - Only 10,000 Shopping Stalls

The Chatuchak Market in Bangkok is probably the biggest outdoor market in the world. In fact it is so big, that there is no way that an exact count of the number of outlets exists. Merchants move in one week and out the next, a food wagon shows up out of the blue and is gone by mid day. I have seen estimates from 8,000 to 12,000 stalls. It really doesn’t matter, you just need to know that it covers 35 acres and is filled with everything imaginable.

The 27 different sections within the market sell:

  • Clothing & Accessories 

• Handicrafts

• Ceramics 

• Furniture and Home Decorations

• Food and Beverages

• Plants and Gardening tools

• Art and Gallery

• Pets and Pet Accessories

• Books

• Antiques and Collectibles

• Miscellaneous and Used Clothing

We spent only a couple of hours there today and barely covered a tiny fraction of the market. The constant aroma of cooking meats, stews, fish and other unidentifiable smells were constantly interrupting your progress. Coconut ice cream, Thai popsicles, chocolate/nut covered bananas, gigantic fried prawns and dozens of coffee and Thai tea outlets made sure that you would never starve.

The market actually holds little interest for me. Firstly, the immense size is overwhelming and practically discourages me from the moment I enter the grounds. Too large, too spread out, too frantic, too aromatic, too hot, too hot and even too hot. A couple of hours trying to just orient ourselves and the wimpy men retreated via the Bangkok Skytrain to our apartment at the end of the line, a half hour away. The dauntless women, who were not as easily discouraged as the men, continued the fight for another couple of hours. They swear to return to explore the other 10,987 shops that they did not enter today, at a later date.

In some ways it is comparable to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul but on an even larger scale. The Grand Bazaar was home to ONLY 4400 shops so will have to take at least second place in the grand scheme of mega shopping markets. Actually, my favourite market is the Crossroads Farmer’s Market in Calgary with about 100 shops, something that I can manage. Not to mention that a lunch of kielbasa and pirogies is readily available.