The Suan Lum Night Bazaar

One of Thailand Musings readers was kind enough to take me up on my offer to publish your stories, so today we have a guest writer.

Richard Elliot gives us his take on the Suan Lum Night Market in Bangkok. I love this post because Suan Lum is just 2 blocks from Golf’s old apartment in Bangkok so as you can imagine we spent quite a few nights there. Thank you Richard!

Richard comes to us from jolly old England and his blog is a personal style blog with his own musings as well as travel and food related postings. Give his blog a visit and let him know you got there from Thailand Musings

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Many people visit Bangkok hoping to find fantastic shopping, great food and nightlife. The Suan Lum Night Bazaar has it all in once place! The Lumphini Night Market (as it is sometimes known) was the first place I visited on my inaugural trip to Thailand and therefore has always had a special appeal for me.

The night market is open every day and is easy to get to, located less than two minutes walk from the Lumphini MRT / Underground station. If you prefer to get a metered taxi, it is on Rama IV road and every taxi driver will know how to get there.

I have always found the market very friendly and approachable for a (first time) tourist. It has an excellent range of shops, but is smaller and more manageable than its more famous bigger brother Chatachuk Market. It also has the advantage of being open every day unlike Chatachuk market, which is only open at weekends. Despite being tourist friendly, there are lots of locals at the market and prices aren’t too expensive either.

As with every Thai market there is almost everything you can imagine for sale. My favorite items are the excellent range of silk scarves and clothing, handmade crafts (including a great card shop), t-shirts, bags and CDs. An excellent place to buy presents for friends and family back home as well stores for your onward trip through Thailand. If you get sore feet with all the shopping there are a number of massage stalls throughout the market.

There is a large food court at the market which has an excellent range of street food favorites, mine being the Som Tum papaya salad. Most evenings you will find a live band playing on the large stage within the food court. On the other side of the market there are a number of beer gardens and restaurants, serving German Wheat beer and showing Premiership Football (soccer) matches for home sick European travelers.

If you have more time to spend in the area and arrive early, try relaxing in Lumphini Park which is described as Bangkok’s green lung. In the evening Vertigo at the Banyan Tree Hotel is an amazing roof top restaurant / bar, a short walk or tuk-tuk ride away on the South Sathorn Road. The food is expensive and Western European in style, but it is well worth a cocktail at the bar to soak up the atmosphere and views of the Bangkok skyline. The Lumphini Thai Kick Boxing Stadium is also close by if you wish to take in a match.

Being so close to the main business district of Bangkok, the market seems to be under constant threat of closure with developers seeking to build on the site. Thankfully it is still open, visit before it is too late!

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