Step back in time at the Klong Toey Market

A visit to the Klong Toey Market today is like a step back in time—40, 50, 60 years ago—when Bangkok was smaller, yet teemed with village-style outdoor markets. Such markets still exist, and they are a one-stop shopper’s paradise.

If it walks, hops, flies, swims or is grown, you can probably find it at Klong Toey Market--from chicken’s feet to fresh green mussels; from scallions to red, yellow, orange or green chilies. Looking for clothes? You won’t find designer knockoffs, but you will find comfortable shorts and useful rubber sandals.

Any number of buses, or a taxi, will take you to the intersection of Rama IV and Naron Roads where you can’t miss the vast market. It stretches south and east for blocks. The first rows of vendors, all under a ramshackle protective conglomerate of umbrellas, canvas and plywood coverings, sell vegetables and fruit. Available are more types of rice and garlic than you can count, green bananas and crimson rambutangs, with their soft spines that make them look more like sea anemones than fruit.

A third row is a dry goods and hardware section. Electric fans, pots and pans, polyester shorts and shirts prevail. Nothing exciting here, but venturing further into the labyrinth of stalls will take you to the fish market.

Seemingly hundreds of vendors display a true aquarium of sea creatures—all destined for dinner plates that evening. Teethy barracuda, sole, and a dozen other species are laid out on beds of ice. On some tables with raised sides, live fish still writhe. Now, that’s fresh! When we were there, one never-say-die catfish had even escaped onto the pavement and was trying to wiggle away to safety. Rose-coloured squid, foot-long eels, a basket of thick green live frogs are all offered to the discerning buyer.

As one would expect, prices are exceptional. Twenty baht buys a kilogram of green mussels. This delicacy goes for $6.95 US a dozen at fancy restaurants in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

While it is exotic, Klong Toey Market may not be for the squeamish. Fish lie gutted in their own blood. A vendor balancing a pig’s head in one hand and its entrails in the other may brush past an unsuspecting visitor. It is best to wear hiking boots or good walking shoes on a market foray. Blood, bones, lettuce leaves and the occasional chicken kidney are scattered about the alleyways. Klong Toey, after all, is not the Emporium.  

Walking among the food vendors between Rama IV  and the fetid klong is a vivid experience. I passed baskets crawling with live black, evil-looking scorpions, mounds of grubs and the biggest cockroaches I have ever seen. Nearby, two large nets were filled with fat frogs, whose life expectancy was limited. Beside them, a man was nonchalantly skinning the amphibians and roasting them over skewers. All in a day's work.

For the adventurous, the market should not be missed. And the best part of it during one two-hour visit was I didn’t see another Farang.

KLONG TOEY MARKET

Intersection of Rama IV and Naron Roads

Open daily, but best in the morning

Buses include: 22, 46, 109, 115, 116

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        Last updated: April 18, 2006.