Cheaper by the dozen: Bo Bae Market

Both this year and last we have wanted to go to Bo Bae Market, but it isn't near anything. No trains stop there, no water taxis, too far to walk. It seems to be a concept market as it takes up what must be a 15x10 block radius with half of the market on each side of the canal. We decide to take a taxi and have our good map with us...just down the road a bit, no turns.

The taxi driver is nodding like he knows exactly where this is. We settle back and it soon becomes clear he doesn't know where it is. We give him our map with English subtitles, but he can't read it. I whip our a Thai map, but it doesn't have very many streets on it so I circle the area where it is. He decides to turn.

Well, I no longer sit silently as the drivers turn off a course I know to be sure and true to my destination. He turns back around. While he may not know exactly where it is that we are going, it is exactly located on the street that we are on and does not require a turn. We settle back each looking for landmarks like the railroad tracks and the canal and easily steer our driver right where we want to be. We get out and enjoy an hour or so of the market.

Bo Bae is the wholesale market and we see folks buying during the day the items they will sell us on Sukhumvit Road that night. Fascinating. We love the prices. We aren't great negotiators, so when they start out at t a price we want to pay, everyone is happy.

We find the elusive King's shirts. These are yellow polos with the King's emblem on the pocket. We are able to find a similar shirt but it has a bunch of other comical icons on the shirt, lessening its interest to us. We buy our 1/2 dozen shirts.

This is the first market I have found in Bangkok that has the larger sizes that I need and I scoot about the place looking for items I like. I find a top and pants set that has an elephant motif. I ask for it in Large and what the price is. He only has the smaller elephant sizes. I find this ironic. He shows me the ugly large size selections he has and at $4 for a setI buy merrily buy three.

We enjoy this market and look for an airconditioned place to cool off and have a cold beverage. There is nothing. Even the map shows this. Nothing is here except the market and an occasional cart seller. We find an outdoor spot with a few seats and lots of shade and Victor goes over to the refrigerator and points to Singha and gives the two-fingeredV as in please may we have two of these icey-cold beers. The fellow hands Victor two beers and gives him the two-fingered V back which we take to mean 20 Baht. The father steps in and gives us the 3 fingers and we take this to mean we just got a quick price increase and pay 30 Baht each for our beers. Still, a tad under a $1 on a hot day. Okay.