Bangkok, Thailand: We decided to go in search of fabrics while in Bangkok and everyone pointed us towards Chinatown and Little India. The markets were filled with shark fins, tuk-tuks, good deals and of course, the requisite oddities.
Bangkok, Thailand: When visiting a new place, there’s always one market that everyone lauds ‘Go there, it’s awesome’ but rarely is it really that awesome. That is not the case with the Jatujak Market. This place is as cool as the Brooklyn Flea, but about 1000x bigger. We thought we’d spend a few hours visiting yesterday, but we loved it so much we came back today for even more. The JJ Market weighs in as the largest market in all of Thailand, covering 35 acres, with 15,000 stalls and 200,000 visitors each weekend day. On one hand, it felt strangely familiar as we meandered through the stalls lined with trucker caps, dodged retro tuk-tuks outfitted with artisan ice creams and rubbed shoulders with BKK hipsters sipping iced coffee. What was completely new, however, were squirrels on leashes, adolescent trannies, carts of fried insects, the mango lady who hocked her goods with both a question and a statement (Mango? Mango!) and our favorite – dried squid on hangers. Yum!!
Tagged: BKK, Brooklyn Flea, dried squid, hipsters, JJ Market, mango
Bangkok, Thailand: As our time in Asia comes to a close, we decided to spend our last week in Bangkok. Our exhausting first day touched on the contrasts this city is known for: vibrant street life, religion & reform. We met up with Melissa’s NY-based friend Taleah who happens to be in Thailand at the same time. We hopped a water taxi down the Saen Saeb Canal with the locals, getting off where we saw some street tailors & interesting food stalls. Instead of immediately finding Wat Ratchanatdaram and Wat Pho as we’d hoped, we stumbled upon a demonstration site with an Olympic-sized television broadcasting political rhetoric and hundreds of protesters’ camp sites. We made our way through and were on to visit the reclining Buddha, a 130-foot gold marvel who appears blissfully unfazed by Bangkok’s sweltering heat. Afterward, we engaged in a lively cross-language argument with a long tail operator who couldn’t believe that No, we didn’t want an hour-long tour and instead hopped back on a water taxi to wind our way back to where we started. We’re exhausted, but captivated with being back in a city after so long. More to come as we experience the multitude of layers this city is known for.
Tagged: Bangkok, boat, canal, demonstration, long tail, protesters, reclining Buddha, Saen Saeb canal, Taleah, Wat Pho, Wat Ratchanatdaram
Tagged: fish, Jansom Bay, Koh Tao, snorkeling, Thailand, underwater, worms
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