Tag Archives: shopping

The “NEW” Train Night Market: Ratchada

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Also known as New Rod Fai Train Night Market Ratchada, Train Market, Rot Fai Ratchada, New Rot Fai (and various combinations of those words). Why is this important to know? Well, there is another Rot Fai Train Market (on Srinakarin Street near Seacon Square) that is still in operation. My post about that is HERE and the directions on how to get there is HERE.

What’s the difference other than location? The Ratchada one has more bars (some two storey ones too) making it a bit more lively and the Srinakarin one has more vintage stuff. Both have a really good selection of food and the usual clothing / accessories shops. Ratchada’s premises is also way more crowded due to the tour groups, which are mainly Chinese from what I’ve seen/heard, the two times I’ve been there. Having said that, the main crowded area is only the entrance where the market’s signage is because that’s where the meeting point for the tour groups are, as well as the selfie point for all the other visitors. Once you get past that crowd in that area, it’s not so bad inside. You won’t have the run of the place nor will you herded around. It may get a bit squeezy in the shopping rows if some people wearing backpacks stop to shop.

While not as big as Chatuchak it’s still pretty big. Actually both Rot Fai Train Night Markets are big and spacious. A lot less narrow than Chatuchak (especially the inner covered areas). I like the layout of Rot Fai Ratchada the best, nice and straight rows of shops, making it pretty hard to get lost in there, even for me (I got turned around at both Chatuchak and Rot Fai Srinakarin), haha.

Although I wanted to have dinner at Bangcroc (first choice) to try the croc meat dishes or the seafood (2nd choice), I lost the vote 2-1 on both venues/dishes. We had ribs instead which was pretty good, tourist prices but not that exorbitant. We didn’t dine in the bar zone because my youngest wasn’t old enough, lol. Speaking of drinks, according to my kids there’s some interesting bubble tea flavors goin on at this night market.

The one thing my daughters liked most at this Rot Fai Train Night Market was the local artisans peddling their goods. For example, hand made, animal shaped, clay earrings that look like they’re biting your earlobe when you wear them. We hadn’t seen these anywhere else and found them quite “cute”. I can’t remember what the deal was and how much I eventually had to fork out (hard for me to resist cool looking local art especially when my kids ask for it), that’s how I ended up with orcas and sharks (my kids picked them for me to fulfill the deal), I was looking at something else already. Anyways, I bought a couple of sleeveless T-shirts from an artist (I like to support local talent whenever I can) and got an auto discount (I didn’t have to ask, when this happens I won’t bargain even though my Thai friends tell me I should). I even had a pleasant chat with the chap about Thai art and the local art scene!

Other shops we found were a couple of vintage shops and a toy shop (unboxed figurines) but I prefer the variety, quantity and quality of such items at Rot Fai Srinakarin.

I think both are pretty much the same (earring stall and embroidered sleeveless shop aside) on the new things. Rot Fai Train Night Market Srinakarin has a lot more vintage items whereas Rot Fai Ratchada has more bars that are actually in a separate section with age limit entry signs, making it more lively with the blaring music and the touting waitress’. Oh, if you’re looking for pets, the Srinakarin premises has more pet shops. That’s pretty much it, if you’re pressed for time and had to pick only one, I hope this posts helps you to decide. If you have time to visit both, why not? I think it’s worth it.

Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

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How to get to Rot Fai Night Train Market Ratchada

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Don’t confuse this Rot Fai Train Night Market with the other Rot Fai Train Night Market. This one is in the Ratchada area and just off of Ratchadaphisek Road close to the Thailand Cultural Center. This one is also known as the new Rot Fai Train Night Market. The other Rot Fai Train Night Market is on Srinakarin Street and behind Seacon Square (a shopping mall, my post about that HERE). Directions to Rot Fai Srinakarin is detailed in my post HERE.

To get to Ratchada Train Market by BTS train, you will need to get to the MRT Station named Thailand Cultural Center (Blue line). If you’re on the Sukhumvit BTS line (light green) you will need to change trains at Mo Chit station or Asok station depending on where you are on the Sukhumvit Line. If you’re on the Dark green line (Silom line) you will need to change trains at Silom Station.

After you get off the train at Thailand Cultural Center, find exit 3 and head that way. If you see a bunch of Chinese people standing in groups, most likely blocking the way, you’re heading in the right direction, haha. When you exit the station go left if you’re facing the street. Most likely you won’t have a chance to go anywhere else but with the flow of people. It’s ok, y’all are going to the same place.

On the off chance there isn’t a crowd when you exit the station, walk towards the Esplanade shopping mall in the same direction that the cars are going. Just before the Esplanade Mall is a road you’ll have to cross to get to the mall. Don’t cross it, instead turn left and follow the winding road. Don’t worry, it’s pretty short. DO worry if you have smaller kids because further up the road (near the entrance to Rot Fai Train Night Market) the sidewalk runs parallel to a big canal and there’s no guard rail between the sidewalk and the ditch. So please watch your kids especially when there are a bunch of tour groups jamming up the sidewalk. It’s only a short distance but better safe than sorry, right? The canal is in between the hedges and the pink building in the photo below.

Anyways, when you reach the sign in the photo at the top of the post, you’ve arrived. Turn left and weave your way through the tour groups (towards the buildings) and you’ll be at the start of the Rot Fai Ratchada Train Night Market. I’ve been there once at 6:30 pm on a weekday and the way was not crowded at all. Info on the market will be upcoming, stay tuned. . .

Have fun! Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other (usually travel) bloopers, blunders and shenanigans but also photography related news/reviews and the occasional contest entry. I might even post a rant or two when I just can’t help myself, haha.

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Talad Rod Fai Night Market behind Seacon Square, a haven for vintage stuff

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Other names for this “Train Night Market” are Old Rot Fai, and Srinakarin Road Night Market and pretty much any combination of those words (and small spelling changes like Talat or Rot).  Why does this matter? Well because the “New” Rot Fai Train Market is located at Ratchadal. I’ll post about the Ratchada one shortly but I have to say, I like this one a lot better!

Once we got to the market, I understood why my daughter wanted me to check this place out. It’s full of vintage / used stuff. I found it absolutely amazing because I love looking at old/history stuff and I collect certain things (currently I’m looking for a Scottie Pippen Dream Team jersey and a Richard Brodeur ‘V’ Jersey, at affordable prices lol). Anyways, I was quite impressed as I found quite a lot of pro sports jerseys (NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB). There are big shops with a lot of really old things in them. Walking through some of them made me feel like a “picker,” you know from the TV show, “American Pickers,” haha.

Vintage vehicles are cool too. These are spread out all over the place, I’m not even sure I saw them all as, I got turned around (ie lost) a few times. Although not too crowded, it was lively and comfortable to walk around, shop and eat.

Aside from the antiques, the other unique thing I found in this night market are the pet stalls. These aren’t the SPCA baby animals on display asking for donations booths, but stalls actually selling kittens, puppies, bunnies and even hedgehogs!

There were two things that I saw in this night market that I’ve never seen (live and up close) anywhere else in the world, a scooter with training wheels.This little guy zipped by so quickly, I only got off 2 shots, this is the better of the two. I was too tired to get up and go get a better shot.

Anyways the second amazing first for me at Rot Fai Train Night Market was this . . .

WTF is that?! I couldn’t get a good picture because it was scampering around trying to avoid the kid that was trying to pet it. Then when it could find a spot to hide, the owner just dragged it back out, sometimes using his foot to move it. I felt kinda bad for it and moved closer to try to get a picture of it (because I still had no idea what it was at that point but it looked cool). As soon as I squatted down it ran over to me and stood up trying to climb up, I think? Or maybe it was asking me to pick it up, I don’t know. I put my hand down and it grabbed my hand with its’ two little paws and just stood there looking around. It was so cute! So I petted it for a while. Its’ fur was kind of rough except the belly, that was really soft. Then the kid came back and this rodent looking creature positioned itself so that my hand was between it and the kid, lol. Anyways, I stood up to leave and had to ask the owner what it was that I was petting and he said “prairie dog.” I walked away thinking how the !%@$@# did he get a prairie dog? I was greeted by my scowling kid and wife both trying to squirt hand sanitizer on my hands and legs. Apparently they didn’t think the prairie dog looked that healthy because it had some bald spots, most noticeably on its’ hind quarters. Other than that I thought it look healthy, felt bad for its’ situation though but what can you do? The owner is openly “walking” it through a busy night market, so it must be ok, right? I thought prairie dogs were indigenous to the Canadian Prairies so it’s not like I could swipe the thing and let it go in Bangkok, right?

Anyways, if you’re into vintage stuff you’ll want to come check out this night market, there’s lots of the usual things to see and eat but if you’re hunting for vintage stuff you’ll spend at least a whole night looking through racks and racks of stuff! Here’s some pics:

I think it’s best if you find something you like, not to show too much interest when asking for the price, as some of the shop keepers were very heavy handed in naming their price. A lot of the things we were interested in did not have a price tag and some shop keepers would not budge on their price. For example, my daughter wanted this wind breaker type jacket with a crocodile logo on it (I don’t know what brand it was but she did apparently) The shop keeper wanted $2000 BHT for it, I reluctantly offered $1200 (my daughter really, really liked the jacket…sigh) and the shop keep just said, “no.” My wife inquired about some other articles of clothing and still no budging on the prices. So we left. An aisle or two later my kid found a another jacket, as did I, and the price on the sign was $300 BHT, the lady dropped the price to $200 BHT when she saw we had a few items in our hands. We didn’t even have to ask which made my kid happy and instantly forget about that other jacket, lol.

Oh, I found a two story shop selling anime figures too, prices were relatively the same as in the Mega Plaza (my post about Mega Plaza, HERE).

Anyways, lotsa cool stuff with a wide spectrum of prices at Rot Fai Night Train Market, so look around before committing to something a bit too pricey. Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other (usually travel) bloopers, blunders and shenanigans but also photography related news/reviews and the occasional contest entry. I might even post a rant or two when I just can’t help myself, haha.

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Getting to Talad Rod Fai Night Market in Bangkok, Thailand

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Around the corner from Seacon Square is a night market named Rod Fai night market. The best way to get here as of this writing is via taxi. We took a Grab taxi to Seacon Square earlier in the afternoon to do some shopping/exploring. If you’re interested HERE‘s the post.

To get to Rod Fai night market from Seacon Square, exit out the main entrance and turn left. If you’re not walking parallel to the (as of this post) under construction BTS tracks and with the flow of traffic, you’re in the wrong place for these directions. Keep walking until you reach an intersection at which you will turn left again (don’t cross the street though). It’s only about 100m away and at 6pm you’ll see street vendors setting up shop on the sidewalk.

After turning left keep walking and keep to the sidewalk, you’ll find yourself walking through a tunnel sort of thing with bars and some shops. This is not the start of the night market it’s like a warm up or opening act. Further down, it’ll open up a bit and you’ll see a bunch of stalls/shops. After walking maybe 200m through shop houses and crossing a street or two. When you cross the street where there’s a pointy roofed structure (picture below), that is pretty much the start of the market.

If you’re into antique’s and vintage things (sports jerseys especially) I found the biggest selection of all the night markets I’ve gone to in Bangkok. There’s all of the usual night market shops there too. If you’ve got kids and stroller for them, I think a day trip to Seacon Square mall and then to Talad Rod Fai Night Market (post upcoming) is a worthwhile day trip!

Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other (usually travel) bloopers, blunders and shenanigans but also photography related news/reviews and the occasional contest entry. I might even post a rant or two when I just can’t help myself, haha.

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Seacon Square’s kiddie amusement park, take one for the team and bring your kiddo’s here!

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This was an unexpected day. My youngest insisted that she and ‘mother’ take me to a train night market even after I told them that I had been to one already (will post about the two train markets shortly). You know, it’s very rare that my teenager wants to hang out all day with me, so of course I jumped at this fortuitous chance!

We hopped into a Grab taxi and off we went (from On Nut BTS station, it cost roughly $200 BHT). Around 30 minutes later we arrived at a mall called Seacon Square. I was told we were going to shop here because the night market doesn’t open so early (it was mid afternoon). Great, NOT! Anyways, we walked around and did a bit of shopping since the Christmas sales were on. This mall is huge and we ended up in an amusement park. Yes, it’s inside the mall. Whilst nowhere nearly as big as the Mall of America or West Edmonton mall nor as entertaining for adults, Seacon’s amusement park is geared for the younger kids.

There’s tons of stuff to do here, for kids. Lot’s of kiddie rides, a ball pit, a sand pit, a sled pit (fake ice sledding), a fully padded jungle gym, a train ride that weaves it’s way in and around the “park.” Oh yeah, there aren’t any drop down gates at the crossings so mind your little ones, don’t let them get run over by the train. No carnival games but there were the claw machines and smaller kiddie arcade games. For teenagers, there were only a handful of arcade games, a shooter ride, a mini vking type ride and a bumper boat ride. Yes, bumper boats. I couldn’t, for the life of me, get my teenager to go with me though. As you can see in the images below, the place is kinda deserted albeit it was a Friday afternoon, maybe the local kids are still in school?

I wish shopping trips were as fun as this one. Before I knew it, it was time to make our way to the night market. Although I was unsuccessful in getting my kid to ride/play anything, we did manage buy some dinosaurs to take home to paint. We could have painted them there but not enough time plus the little stools would have killed my back. The only thing I could get her to do with me is catch goldfish but I think she only agreed because she knew we couldn’t take the fish home and so I wouldn’t actually do it. Here’s some more pictures:

As you can see from the photos, there’s lots to do, I’m sure your little ones can find something fun to do here for hours. Just make sure you stock up on tokens from the token machines as they are pretty well spaced apart and hard to find. Oh almost forgot, there’s a small food court with finger food type morsels but no candy apples or mini sugar donuts.

This post has more images than I usually post in hopes to give as much “heads up” to parents with younger kids looking for another place for that oh so important family time. Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details.

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other (usually travel) bloopers, blunders and shenanigans but also photography related news/reviews and the occasional contest entry. I might even post a rant or two when I just can’t help myself, haha.

PS. If you want to check out my other ‘works’, you can find them here:

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