Patpong Night Market

Silom is one of the city's most important financial districts, with glistening skyscrapers that house the head offices of local banks, multinational corporations and financial institutions. The area surrounding Silom Road it is also an interesting spot for shopping, far away from the glitz of Siam Square, however, there are several malls, as the large Silom Complex, and a few Thai traditional markets including the well-known Patpong Night Market. Located in Soi Patpong 1, just off Silom Road, in the hearth of famous red-light Patpong neighbourhood it is probably the Bangkok's most popular night market among foreigner shoppers, the first and easiest shopping spot for many visitors just arriving to Bangkok. Patpong is all time busy and chaotic, with a lots of foreign tourists that come here attracted by the several Go-Go bars, strip clubs and live sexy shows; consequently when you walk among the market stalls don’t be surprised to see so many girls in sexy clothes that try to attract your attention, after a while this can be annoying, but is nevertheless part of the charm of Patong Night Market. The market comes alive after dark, most vendors set up stalls and shops around 6pm in the evening and close between 10pm and 01am. Patpong is famous for its fake brands on sale, above all fake T-shirts, fake Rolex watches, fake Lacoste shirts, as well as are very popular the imitations of Louis Vuitton and Prada handbags. In many stalls are offered illegal DVDs of the latest Hollywood blockbusters or DVD sets of your favourite sitcom and illegal music compilations. It is now known to almost everyone that prices at Patpong are exaggerated, so whatever you buy here you have to haggle. Usually sellers initially ask to you the double or even the triple of actual value for the items in sales. Although this is well known, there's more than one good reason for do so. First they hope to have in front an inexperienced or silly traveller, and in any case starting from a higher price they have more leeway in bargaining. The visit to the market is also a good opportunity to eat. In Soi Patpong 1 and 2 there are plenty of stalls selling Thai street food, as well as Thai and Italian restaurants, while in the nearby Soi Thaniya there are most Japanese restaurants, some of them offering very good food. In the area there are also many international fast food franchise outlets, such as McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks and Burger King.
Getting there: Patpong Night Market is located in Soi Patpong 1, just off Silom Road, in the hearth of Silom neighbourhood. The market is easily reachable by SkyTrain and Metro from every area of central Bangkok, thanks to the dedicated stops. The nearest SkyTrain station is Sala Daeng BTS Station, while the closest subway stations are Si Lom and Sam Yan MRT Stations. All stations are a few walk distance from the market.Read More