Beautiful Saturday morning. We took a bus from Siam Square One and headed towards Chinatown where vibrant and colourful streets awaited us. Visiting Chinatown Bangkok has always been a huge highlight of my every trip here because there are so much to see and so much to eat. If you’ve missed out my earlier post on How to get to Chinatown Bangkok (Yaowarat) by bus?, click on the link and have a read.
If going to Chinatown by bus isn’t something you like to try or do, you can always take the taxi or the MRT to Hua Lamphong Station and walk to Yaowarat Road from there.
Map image credit: http://wikitravel.org/
Yaowarat Road is the main street of Chinatown Bangkok. Here, you can expect to find gold shops, Chinese medicine halls, Chinese restaurants & eateries, bird’s nest, shark’s fins, dried goods & more.
A typical scene of Chinatown – signs and signages on building facades.
Soi Yaowarat 11
The busy aisles and alleys between Yaowarat Road and the Chao Phraya River are also brimming with street stalls and/or shops that sell almost everything and anything. You definitely need at least half a day to thoroughly explore the whole neighbourhood.
Also, I suggest that you come to Chinatown at least twice if possible as you’ll be able to enjoy two kinds of experiences – in the day (for the wholesale market & breakfast) as well as at night (for the night market & street food stalls lining up along the road).
Shops selling dried goods are aplenty but I can’t say it’s actually more economical to buy dried goods from here because the prices are almost equivalent to Singapore’s after currency conversion. Plus Chinatown has always been a touristy place too. I did see a number of people buying big bags of fish maw which the folks used to do as well when they came to Bangkok years ago. For me, I’m contented with what I can get from Albert Centre Wholesale Market back home in Singapore so nothing really caught my fancy here.
Even dried squids come in different varieties and prices. These are perfect for making Chinese style soups. ??
In the day, you can also find various street foods in Chinatown. These mobile carts and stalls are planted almost everywhere so when you need something to fuel yourself up while shopping, stop for a bite and then continue to shop. Perfect. ?
Sweet treats and snacks
Bath towels
Grilled bananas
Grilled banana is a very common street food in Bangkok. It looks so simple and really nothing special but I really like it because the grilling makes the banana taste so much sweeter. It’s like eating a sweet treat that’s also very healthy. Good fibre too especially if you’re the type of traveller who gets constipation easily when overseas. ?
Toys and games
Soft toys
I was really impressed by the vast assortment of plushies at Chinatown. The best thing was that the prices were very reasonable because they were going at wholesale rates (buy more to save more) and the quality of the toys was better than I expected.
I’m not a soft toy fan but when I left Chinatown, I kinda regretted not getting the rubber ducky soft toy because it just looked so cute. And I actually kinda missed it because it would be quite nice to hug the big one while I’m chillaxing in my armchair with my tablet. Next time, haha.
If you plan to start a soft toy retail business, you have to come check out these shops. Spoilt for choices, really.
Mobile phone cases
OMG. So adorable looking!
Party supplies and fancy stationery
Plastic wares
Another highlight of Chinatown is the Sampeng Lane Market that’s located along Soi Wanit 1. This market opens from 8.00am to 6.00pm. It’s what I call a chapalang market where you can get all kinds of different stuffs. Fashion wear, home decor, household goods, fabrics, electronics, souvenirs and more.
This was one of my favourite shops. Pretty metal products for home decor and/or practical use. I told myself not to buy bulky items that would take up space in my luggage but I couldn’t resist buying tissue boxes, containers and even big trays, lol. Minimum purchase 3 pieces or they won’t deal with you.
Seriously, we walked for hours until we didn’t really keep track of which street or road we were on. We just went where the shops and people were and literally got into a maze, lol. But it was really fun and we left with a fruitful loot as well.
We made our way to Charoen Krung Road to take a bus back to Siam. For more information on the return bus route, check out my previous post (have shared the link at the top of this article).
Safe travels, peeps!