Suan Lum Night Market

Everyone kept asking me if I'd gone to the night market. So tonight six of us set out from our hotel to take taxis to the Suan Lum Night Market. All six of us could not fit in one cab, so with two sets of destination information written in Thai, and confirming we had the Thai version of the hotel's address we all walked to the main street Ramkanhaeng to hail 2 taxis. We agreed on the specific entrance where we would meet and then departed. Ruth, her sister Annette, and I were in the first taxi.

It is an understatement that the traffic jams in Bangkok go on for hours and hours. We were not entirely surprised therefore, when we were stuck in traffic for about 30 minutes. We assumed our fellow travelers in the second taxi experienced the same fate so waited for them at the designated meeting spot. Thirty minutes later they had not shown up. The executive decision was made to go ahead and explore the market. Suan Lum Night Bazaar is open until midnight every night offering food, entertainment, and literally hundreds of independent stores selling everything - curios, household items, pashmina scarves, clothing, shoes, artwork, handbags and luggage. We had dinner after investigating the prices of several items of interest (planning for the second visit) and then returned to the hotel.

You can imagine our surprise when we saw 2 of our 3 fellow travellers sitting in the hotel's "tea room." They had paid the taxi driver an extra 50 bahts (less than $2.00 US) to use the highway (we didn't even think of that option) so arrived at Suan Lum within 20 minutes. Thinking we had exercised the same option, they gave up on finding us after about 20 minutes, did their explorations and returned to the hotel! Oh well, I guess we all got to see Suan Lum Night Bazaar, just not together!

A quick switch of topics here - the protests in Bangkok are reported to be under control. See www.bangkokpost.com - in english.