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Bangkok's weekend market is a mecca for shoppers the world over and unlike other markets you'll find elsewhere, this is one where both locals and tourists alike go to. Whilst you can easily find knock offs of branded goods, you will also be able to find loads of local handicrafts as well as clothing, furniture and home products amongst pets and plants. Right alongside your Red Bull , Diesel UV and Singha/Chang Beer tees, you'll also find copies/alterations of Threadless and even Oddica tees. Just so you know, your average Thai tee shirt pirate surfs the hot shit too. Chatuchak is a microcosm of Thai life and a place worth visiting even if you're not gonna buy anything.

Even when it comes to denim, there are a ton of Diesel's, Big E's, LVCs, Denimes, Evisus, Lees, Wranglers and even Seven and True Religion. The authenticity of some of the products may be debated but there's little denying that some of the "washes" you see are so kick ass, they trump the store bought distressed jeans by a long shot. (Apparently, the word is the washes are the result of getting local labourers to wear the jeans in for you so you don't have to.) Sometimes you wonder why Levi's even bothers to come out with the crap they do nowadays. They should just keep releasing the old stuff. The material at Chatuchak is actually quite good as well. Whilst you can still find the really crappy fakes, you're far more likely to stumble into a pile of raw selvedge instead.

Still, if you think Chatuchak is only about high quality piracy, then you're wrong. It's a tough ask, but if you actually put in the sweat and effort, you're very likely to find an absolute gem in there whether you're hunting for real vintage denim, original designs of clothing and jewelry or silk and silver. I'd recommend 2 weekends if you want to be thorough. Its that big.

I went expecting a crowd but met a swarm. Every alley was choked with people, buying or selling, eating and talking. Its so messy and noisy, it can bowl you over the first time you pass through just one section. Whilst the layout is roughly seperated into various types of goods, you're more likely to simply get dazed on your first pass and waltz into the pet zone, which can be a rather boggling experience. Imagine a sweltering heat due to the weather and poor ventilation combined with the smells of pet poo, incense and street food, dogs barking, your girlfriend cooing over the puppies, some announcement looking for a pair of Hong Kong tourists and the intense colors of almost every conceivable merchandise.

It's probably a good idea to time yourself and take breaks whenever you traipse into some rest area or mini cafe/hawker. The layout tends to be relatively accurate and these girls give out free maps of the market you can use. The tendency is still for people to wander around the maze and ultimately end up in the pet zone, hence every review of Chatuchak having a picture of some pets.

If you prefer something less hectic and more touristy, try Suan Lom. You can still find some really interesting stuff there, but there's also a lot more touristy things as well. Still, the smaller size means you can do it all in a night or two.

This is the less crowded bit of Chatuchak. My girlfriend summoned up the willpower to her arms above the throng to shoot this.

Some lady making fried quails eggs among other bits of street food.

More fried stuff.

Ice popsicle vendor cart. Loads of these all over the place.

That's what a street looks like inside one of the sections.

These aren't real cakes they're candles! I also have no idea why a drawing of a nude woman is in the background.

These vicious objects sit quietly on a table at a noodle stall.

Fishball Kuay Teow/Noodles.

Somehow I didn't realise I got mentioned on Gridskipper when I blogged about my trip to Bangkok circa December 2005. That little surprise came as I researched for my recently concluded second trip there and bumped into a strangely familiar photo. Last time out, I didn't really know where to eat so I went and did my homework this time, and managed to sneak in some nice places into my intinerary, largely thanks to Bangkok Recorder.

Having thoroughly enjoyed my previous trip, I stayed once again at the Reflections Hotel. This time round, we stayed in two rooms with totally different flavors, 410 and 205. The former has white washed walls adorned with large illustrations whilst the latter, a tribute to Botero of sorts in a pastiche of religious iconography, with a Buddha lamp and Christ pillows. For me, Reflections just perfectly sums up what modern day Bangkok is all about. Its this big burst of deep and saturated color that is at once cute, funny and unabashedly cool. There's plenty of appropiation in terms of design but its applied in a way that is totally Thai.

Reflections Room 410. Yea those are my legs right there.

There's a few pretty drawings on the walls and there's a sorta sliding door system that doesn't really work but who cares.

That's the exterior of the Reflections Restaurant. Jellyfish lights remind me of Steve Irwin, who was also seen in an ad for Australian made goods in Siam Paragon. RIP Steve.

And that's the Buddha lamp I was talking about. Notice the flower motifs? They use that everywhere.

According to my girlfriend, this is old news. The Hotel Puerta America is a fancy schmancy designer hotel in Madrid, Spain. Instead of hiring just one guy, take Marc Newson for instance, they hire 19 in total. The inimitable Newson has his place designening one entire floor worth of rooms but its his work for the hotel bar that shines. There's 12 floors worth of rooms in total and its one designer/firm per floor. So you got a good mix of Jean Nouvel (who also did the facade), Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Ron Arad and Javier Marischal among others. There's even someone to do the parking and landscaping plus they commisoned a sculptor for a special piece. The Puerta America is run by the Silken group, which typically only had hotels in Spain. They are now opening new ones in Brussels and London, with Norman Foster doing the latter entirely. I already know where I'm staying when I'm in Madrid.

Designer hotels are popping up all over the world. Choice is the name of the game at the moment and undressing and redressing old hotels to futurefit them in a variety of interiors seems to be the latest buzz right now. I blogged before about a sorta budgety type one in Bangkok I went to, Reflections, which has each room done up by local artists, kooky and homely. Very very Thai.

Here in Singapore, The Majestic hotel opened recently to some fanfare till it was featured in the papers and every other rag here.

Often, these designer hotels don't really sort out space issues, which I'd suppose would be the priority in a hotel room; but rather just the aesthetic decorations in most cases. That's not to say that I hate this stuff. I just find its a good example of how design trends are explained by a propulsion of technology and affluence. You wouldn't have funky designer hotels that appeal to the young and trendy if they didn't have the money in the first place. Places like this thrive on the hype generated by magazine/newspaper/blog features.

Check out HOTEL FOX from Denmark. FRAME mag says that the hotel was a result of car company wolkswagen opening up this place in Copenhagen to different artists, designers and the like. The room above is room 107, Good Spirits by Rinzen. Gotta love those splatters on the bed huh. The Oz based wizards also did up another 3 rooms in the hotel. Other featured bignames are... Geneviève Gauckler, WK Interact and tokidoki among people from from as far afield as Brazil and Venzuela, to Germany, the UK, US, Scandinavia and Japan.

I was looking for a place to stay in Bangkok and other than suggestions from friends/family to stay either at Khao San Road or in the city centre, I found Reflections Hotel off Gridskipper. I have to say I was excited at the prospect of staying at this place which seemed really fun.

We ended up staying 3 nights in 3 different rooms. The place itself is a maniacal hodpodge of design styles. You've the very minimalist rooms or the very decorated rooms or the "art" rooms. The colors were crazy. Pinks, blues, yellows, purples, greens, reds, oranges all flying off the walls, the hotel van, the pool, the funiture. Many items in the rooms are on sale. From the printed laundry tote bags to the bedroom slippers, alarm clocks, books, cds... Loads more paraphenelia is also stuffed into shelves. You had pencil cases, jewellery boxes, flower printed hand carry luggage bags...

The lobby had graffiti prints on the walls and this mannequin wearing a "娃娃头“, (a kind of doll head you see during Chinese dragon dances) loads of retro clocks and furniture. Their keychains had little soft toys attached and everything seemed to be thought out and intended. Their DVD collection runs like an arthouse-mad collector's. The magazines lying around are Interni and Wallpaper*. You could actually do well to visit this place just to shop.

Its was like some condensed home-style design haven. Sure it didn't have the luxury that other designer hotels like the Metropolitan but it had really helpful and friendly staff. Not to mention a good massage service and an amazing spicy-sour Thai-style steamed fish from room service.


Reflections


The hotel van


Room Key


The pool


Room 409