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Thailand
2006 Markets and Shopping |
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 Bangkok has several gigantic shopping malls, centered around a district known as Siam Square. This is also where the two lines of the Sky Train come together. Passengers can get off of the Sky Train and head right into the malls. You have at least four (that I know of) to choose from at this one location. |
 This is the Siam Paragon, the newest and glitziest of Bangkok's super-malls. The Sky Train line is to the right and the mall's main entrance is to the left. There is a movie theater on the sixth floor of the mall. In addition to the normal tickets, which cost about 4 dollars, you can pay 18 dollars for a deluxe ticket. I didn't do this, but supposedly you get a really comfortable chair and drink service during the movie! |
 Inside the Siam Paragon there are fancy restaurants and the normal Thai-style food stands. As you can see, a thoroughly modern style can be found here in addition to the more traditional Thai style. |
 This is the more traditional style, with narrow lanes and a lot of stuff out on the street and not just inside the shops. It can make it hard for lots of people to get through all at the same time, but it certainly brings you up close and personal with the things being sold. |
 You can buy fresh fruit and vegetables outside or go inside for 7-Eleven. Notice the yellow shirts, which are worn in support of the Thai king. |
 A food stall in Chinatown. |
 Seafood is popular in Bangkok, as it is in any place that's close to the ocean. There is shrimp here and maybe even squid there on the left. |
 The Chatuchak Weekend Market in north Bangkok. It has got to be one of the largest markets in the world. (According to Wikipedia, it is the largest.) There are hundreds of shops here, some permanent and some just set up for the day. This is one of the large lanes, but there are many more narrow ones as well. You can get anything here, including live animals. |
 The place is so big they have a ride service to take you from one section to another. |
 This is in the pet section. Those are fish inside the plastic bags. I don't know what they do with the ones they don't sell. I guess they open up the bags and put them in some kind of more permanent container. |
 You can also buy these little things; they looked to me like miniature squirrels. I didn't really get any pictures that captured the size of this place, so if you are interested, here is a website with a lot more pictures. |
 A lot of Thai towns have a daytime market and a nighttime market. This is the daytime market in the evening. Anything that can be left here it seems just gets covered up and left for tomorrow. I don't know if the sellers all have another stand in the night market or if they go home for the day. |
 This is a big indoor market in Chiang Mai. Just like with the fish, I don't know what they do with the food they don't sell. Maybe there are giant freezers in the back somewhere. |
 The Chiang Mai night bazaar. The temporary stalls are on one side of the sidewalk and the permanent stores are on the other. They put a tarp over the sidewalk and you have an instant mall. The action starts around six o'clock and goes on until nine or ten, I think. I didn't stay out late enough to know for sure. |
 I bought a silk wall hanging at this store. It was actually made in Laos, which borders Thailand to the northwest about a hundred miles away. Silk is a big product for the tourists in Thailand, and presumably for the Thais as well. You can get pillow covers and scarves as well as giant pieces of fabric. |
 This is a view of the Chiang Mai night bazaar. You can see how all the stalls are turned away from the street and in toward the stores. All the shoppers are underneath the coverings on the sidewalk. |
 This is another outdoor market, in Ayuthaya. On the left are flower garlands which people buy to give away at the Buddhist temples. Giving flowers and other offerings counts as "making merit" and will help you be reborn into a better life. |
 Chinatown. This is as densely packed as any area I've seen. There was actually a pederstrian traffic jam here for a minute or two. Nobody could move and we just had to stand still. I think the cause was somebody trying to get a cart through on the path. There's barely room for the cart let alone two directions of human traffic. |
 I think this is an actual Chinese store in Chinatown. The colors are distincively Chinese and not Thai. It looks like you can get a disco ball here. |