Bang Luang Old Market

Aom found an article on the Manager website about Bang Luang, and with neither of us too keen on heading into the city for jazz we decided on a plan B and headed west out to Bang Luang.  Navigation was for once plain sailing

Lunch

We were both absolutely starving by the time we got to Bang Luang food was the first thing on the menu.  I stopped myself shaking by guzzling a coke, downing some wonton soup and then creating carnage on a pad thai.  Yum yum!

f2.8 2010-10-03 13:39:39

Aom waiting for food

The Market Street

Museum

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:10:04

A boat and some old typewriters

Early in the street is a small museum, a mixture of farming implements and old broken electrical gear.  Three young schoolgirls took great delight in showing us around, though they were too shy to speak English to me.  I think my favourite item was a horn from an old coffee boat, it looked like a bicycle track pump and made a noise when the handle was pulled up.

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:05:35

Museum in Bang Luang market. The guides are quite

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:10:35

Old style lottery tickets

Stalls

Many of the stalls were food based, including noodles, sweets and some vegetables.  It was not somewhere I would recommend going for the weekly shopping though, as vegetable choice was limited to a couple of small stalls and I saw no meat for sale.  We were there in the early to mid afternoon, possibly not a peak time.

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:21:28

A middle aged woman making padthai

A number of stalls sold clothes, but not the tacky iPood T-shirts type of shop one sees in MBK.

Rain

We did not have to linger though as rain started to fall very heavily at short notice.  An immediately flurry of activity took place as vendors sought to protect their goods and continue to sell.  However few people were brave enough to venture out into the rain, including us.

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:25:52

A rather wet greengrocers

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:31:51

A woman continues to cook whilst the rain falls

Restaurant by the River

Sheltering from the rain we sipped on a Leo beer (even though we'd asked for Singha).  The river was quiet with only 4 boats passing in the half hour we were there.  A myriad of fish fought the currents below our table, on what seemed the equivalent of a fish treadmill.

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:37:14

View of the river

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:25:08

The eatery by the river, or rather on it

A band played a mixture of Thai and Chinese music, trying to drown out the rain by turning up the speakers every louder.  Aom seemed to now the songs though :)  I entertained myself photographing the fish and occasional passer by.

f2.8 2010-10-03 14:37:42

We stopped for a beer to shelter from the rain

Not in a position to comment on the food though, as we only had beer :)

f2.8 2010-10-03 15:24:51

Aom by a sign for Bang Luang market

Heading Back

We walked down a second street parallel to the original, but it seemed much less lively, and I am not sure it was actually part of the market.  The most notable thing I saw was a gentleman who had four Harley Davidson type bikes parked inside his house, surrounding him as he watched TVs.  A different kind of pet I suppose...

The Old Cinema

It was quite surprising to come upon a Bollywood poster, but it was faded, as no doubt the memories of this building that once housed a cinema.

f2.8 2010-10-03 15:33:46

The old cinema.

Pollution

At the carpark our throats were suddenly caught with the stench of pollution that reminded me of the tyre burning smells from May this year in Bangkok.  It was time to leave.