Pak Khlong Talat is Bangkok’s biggest flower market. It is a riot of colors, the fragrances float through the street and it is a photographer’s delight. I visited the market at night. The shots are taken with XperiaZ3 or Canon550D.
The market is located on the Chak Phet Road and it is a 24 hour market! The stalls are on both the sides of the street. After a while I was so engrossed in flowers and the scents that I completely forgot the traffic.
Lotus grows very commonly across Thailand. I have seen it growing in water pots, in tanks, in water bodies, literally growing like weeds! It is also offered at all Buddhist temples. Almost every hotel will have some lotus arrangement on its premises.
Pak Khlong Talat is both a wholesale and retail market. Even at night the business was brisk. The customers were mostly locals. You could find an odd awestruck tourist like me going crazy with taking pictures, but mostly it were the locals who were buying the flowers for their homes, as gifts or as offerings.
Jasmine, crown flower and marigold scents got mixed in the air and they completely overpowered any traffic fumes that tried to stay put and struggle with the flowers. Marigolds were sold in huge numbers.
There were whole pickup trucks decked in marigold. When I pointed my cell phone at the boy he nodded yes and like a pro looked away from the camera!
As I am quite a big fan of clicking screen full of stuff I absolutely went berserk doing just that. There were these fat bunch of roses piled up in rows. And they came in many colors too.
As this is a wholesale market, the prices were mouthwatering as well. A big bunch of roses was priced at 100 Baht (200 rupees) and the bunch surely had more than 50 flowers! Smaller bunches of different flowers were available for 10 or 20 Baht as well.
As the walking path was narrow, it was quite easy for me to get entangled into others feet, as I was not willing to look away from my camera! But an average person in Thailand is very polite and they tolerated me with a lot of patience! Not a single shop owner ever objected to my picture taking frenzy!
My guide was a little puzzled as to why was I taking so many pictures? I told him I took so many because I was not sure of which one would come out well! When I showed him this picture he also took out his phone and clicked one!
Even after walking through both the sides, I was quite reluctant to go back to the hotel. But then it was already late in the night and I had to drag myself back to the car just after one round. Whenever I head back to Bangkok, I would try to go back to the Pak Khlong Talat flower market again!
I was invited by TAT New Delhi to Visit Thailand and I am indeed thankful for the opportunity to visit Thailand again!
OMG! My first reaction was beautiful and splendid.. and second – how it is to live amid such beauty and glory of blooms……….. May be I will ide of happiness and that’s why God has bestowed it and me in limited measures 🙂 Beautiful post and lovely pics Mridula- as always… No wonder your guide was perplexed 🙂
Thank you Kokila for your lovely comment, it made my day!
Wow, simply awesome. Don’t have words for those pictures 🙂
Thank you Alok.
Whoa! These are lovely! They do know how to sell.
Yes Indrani 😀
Lovely colours!
Thank you Niranjan.
Nice to see the colourful flowers arranged in neat patterns. The images gives an idea about the market place. Looks like you had a great trip.
Thank you, I indeed had great trip.
Beautiful shots. It is indeed a riot of colours.
Thank you Kiran!
Wow, such exotic flowers! Thailand has for so long been on my wishlist! Hope it happens sometime soon.
I am sure it will happen soon!
The colors of Thailand in their full glory….. beautiful pictures..
Thank you Prasad.
A 24-hour flower market? How cool is that?
Such pretty pictures. Mridula. 🙂
Thank you Divya.
So ooo lovely !!! a treat to the eyes !
Thank you Maniparna.
colourful post 🙂
Thank you Mahesh.
Awesome flowers, Great post, Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Mridula, awesome blog…
I would love to know what do u do for living? I mean it must be great to be in a job where you can travel so much..
Regards
Deepika
Amazing writeup and pictures. Do visit and explore northeast and discover the virgin beauty 🙂
Awesome. Pics are very beautiful.