Flower Market

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Sawat-dee kaa.

I am currently visiting my folks in Thailand and once again immersing myself in a culture that I still have so much to learn from yet I have already grown to love.

Last week I headed downtown to Bangkok with the goal of visiting the Flower Market or the Pak Khlong Talaat and purchasing lots of flowers to prettify our home.

The best way to commute around Bangkok is through their skytrain, the BTS. From Sala Daeng we rode the BTS to Saphan Thaksin station (which costs around 30 baht). Once there, we took the river ferry which travels through Chao Phraya, which is a major river in Thailand. The stop to the flower market is stop #6 or The Memorial Bridge. Using the river ferry as a transpo is really cheap. You can either opt for a one way ticket or an all day pass. An all day pass would probably cost from around a 100 to 150 baht. Our one way ticket costs, if I'm not mistaken, around 30 baht each.





Once we disembarked we asked around where the market is. Now this was the tricky part since we can only speak very little Thai and thus had to communicate through broken English and a lot of hand signals. After walking for a good thirty minutes or so and coming across a major road that did not look like it was heading to the flower market, we decided to ask others. They pointed us back to the direction we were coming from! We were very near the port where we disembarked when we finally decided to give up the walking and hailed a cab to take us there. Turns out the lady pointed us to the wrong direction and we should have turned left, not right.

The fare was very cheap which showed how close we were. Since at present I cannot help you out with the directions on foot so if you plan to embark on this adventure without a guide make sure you have a local who can help you out (and make sure you understand each other), have a handy map or do as we did, hail a cab. Haha.

One more tourist-goal: Figure out that route and get there on foot.

Once there you will be met with an entire street line with stalls full of flowers, other plants, fruits and some street food. It was a feast for the senses. The flowers were fresh, colorful and CHEAP. There were roses of every color (I particularly like the orange roses), lilies that were yet to bloom, different kinds of orchids, carnations, carnations spain (it took me awhile to figure out that they were saying spain), daisies, sunflowers and some other kinds that I can no longer keep track of. And then there was this weird kind that were like small pineapples propped on top of a stem.






Does anyone know what this is called?

The bundles can go for as low as 20 baht to pricier ones costing 200 baht plus depending on the kind of flower. We tried haggling but most of the vendors didn't allow it. But my mom was never good at haggling. Haha.



If you are looking for pre-arranged bouquets then there are also shops there which do flower arrangements. Seems like a pretty good place to get flowers for a wedding or some other party.


Sample bouquets that are arranged by some of the shops/stalls at the flower market.

Ended up buying few bundles of roses, orchids, carnations spain and the weird pineapple one. It's been here for around a week and still looks good to me.


Me with my purchases

Next time you're in Bangkok, head down to the flower market and even to Chinatown which, according to my mom, is near the place. I suggest you go the flower market early like around 9 to 10 am so that the flowers will be fresh, the sun isn't too hot yet and there are still less people going around. Enjoy!

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