Yes, you can go to some famous markets to begin with; the night market in Patpong (just if you want to pay more for your item as the place is super touristic) or the 24 hours Pratunam market. Or be spoilt for choices at the Chatuchack weekend market; here with 9000 (some say 15000) booths you can be sure to:- Find whatever you're looking for;
- Spend way more time (if not money) than planned there, also because you will:
- Get lost (map or no map it'll make no difference).
But in case you don't have much time to spend in those markets no need to worry. Every street of Bangkok is a market in a way (anyway).
Being impossible to mention everything on sale in these stalls I'll just try to mention some categories:
Food: of course, the king of street stalls;
Clothing: from underwear to tailor made suits;
Medical: I've seen some fake teeth for sale that looked kind of second hand (or second mouth); I also got offended by a seller who offered me some Viagra! Jaysus, I'm not that old thank you!
Accessories: not only sales but repairs as well of watches, shoes, etc.;
Weapons: butterfly knives, throwing stars, modern crossbows, rifle scopes;
Fakes: from fake Nike and Puma items for sporty people to fake Gucci, D&G and Rolex for the posh ones;
Entertainment: pirates DVDs, games, consoles, i-Pod “lookalikes”;
Sex: from prostitution, to porn DVDs, to “happy ending” massages (read a hilarious story about them here);
Animals: puppies, birds in cages as big as a Rubik's cube, elephants brought in the very heart of the metropolis so people can buy some sugarcanes to feed them.
The last two categories are quite controversial of course. While I feel there's no need to comment on prostitution, the elephants element is a less obvious one. Now I'm no expert in animal rights, but I guess the very centre of Bangkok is not the most ideal environment for a baby elephant (they tend to bring baby ones as they're smaller and cuter). So it might look cute, but if you're in Bangkok NEVER EVER FEED THE ELEPHANTS or you'll be supporting the cruel market behind it.
And speaking of street markets how can we not mention the main activity that relentlessly activity taking place in these streets every minute:
The Art of Bargaining
Yes, as a expected you're a tourist so the first price they'll shoot to you is highly inflated. We all knew that. The surprise can be how much inflated that price can be. Up to 300% if you really look like a tourist (I'm sure my sweating habit contributed as a first impression to at least an extra 50% on the initial price). Some sellers are quite stubborn, so rather than just giving the item to you for a decent price they can prefer to wait for the next gullible tourist.
So it's really up to your skills.
I learnt a lot from a guy i met and hung around for a couple of days.
Originally from Naples (the place that made an art out of bargaining) he lives mainly in Indonesia doing a bit of this and a bit of that. Met him first time in fact on an internal Indonesian flight before bump casually into him in BKK.
Well, this guy will bargain for a good 40 minutes, bring the price down to a quarter of the initial offer; shop owners meanwhile look upset, angry, offended or even as sad as about to cry, depending on the bargaining stile. The great thing about this guy, apart from how much he was able to cut on the price, was that after bringing down the price to a ridiculous amount (read: I'm not a gullible tourist) he would then give a big tip, ending up paying the price offered 15 mins ago (read: I understand your situation, we're friends now, better price next time huh?).
A lot to learn there, but hey, I'm practicing...
