Flooding Moving Closer to the City Center

Sunday , November  6, 2011

Hearing about the Chuktachak market (try saying that ten times), it was finally the weekend and I was ready to go. I had been volunteering every day and had limited time to sight see.  With all the flooding, the market had been closed the past couple weeks, but this weekend I read that it was open.  I get off the subway and here is what I see:

This looks like flooding to me and does not look like the market would be open.   But it turns out that some shops were open in the market.  People were then going through the water barefoot to get to the market.  This did not appeal to me as you can catch diseases in the water.  I ran into a couple ladies from Perth, Australia and they advised me to stay out of the water if I have an open wound, which I was unsure if 1000 mosquito bites counted as an open wound ha!  The ladies (assuming they were a couple) had traveled through Bangkok over 10 times and were heading to Chaing Rai next.  The one lady gave me some traditional Thai insectide-it has been working wonders thanks to her.  I followed them to head back to the subway when I ran into my friend, Jon, and his visitor from France.  They had decided that they were going to take the risk and head through the waters.  I decided to stop being a germaphobic and just do it.  Jumping quickly through the mirky waters, we made it to the other side, which was filled with what felt like 100s of empty markets with 20 percent being open.   We washed our legs and feet off in a fountain and walked through alleys and alleys to find more and more empty stores.  My buddies decided to leave as I decided to wonder and talk with locals and vendors(one of my favorite things to do). I ran into this guy singing some Thai music hits

 

I was trying on hats, sunglasses, dresses, and shorts and ended up buying a couple dresses for $3-$4 each.  In America, I spend anywhere from $50 to $200 for one dress, but obviously it is label, design, trend, and quality you are paying for in US.  I ended up not packing any dresses to bring because I planned on buying 2-3.  For those of you who know anything about me, I live in dresses so for me to not wear them at all is quite a challenge! 

The most beautiful little alley way of Art!!

After this market, I explored a bunch of other markets in the city and ended up not buying anymore. Thumbs up to me as I have been very disciplined with spending! I stumbled upon more temples and real neighborhoods with real people

The Victory monument market was crazy packed with perfumes, clothing and more clothing, collectible items, and everything you could imagine. 

I enjoyed this Reggae concert at the Siam Paragon(11 floor shopping mall) Bangkok is big on the shopping malls and I definitely am not, but enjoyed this outdoor performance with the fountains going off every few minutes.