Khlong Toei Market – Bangkok, Thailand

Khlong Toei market is Bangkok’s largest wet market. The place is huge, mostly open air, under umbrellas and tarps or under large open air roofed areas. It’s maze like and you can easily loose your bearings. There’s all sorts of fresh produce as well as a poultry, pork, seafood, some reptiles, and beef, most freshly butchered or some still alive and butchered while you wait. The market is open 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. It’s most busy during early morning, well before 7AM, when many street vendors and local restaurants purchase what they need for the coming day. I visited the market a few times, arriving between 4:30 to 5:00AM, and it was buzzing with activity. A great memory from one visit was a python emerging from a drain and making its way to a live chicken cage for a meal. It was quite the scene, watching people scatter and then a couple of guys catching the seven foot or more long python and setting it free in the canal behind the market.