The Krabi Weekend Night Market, also known as Krabi Town “walking street” is not only a perfect opportunity to indulge in local street food in Krabi, Thailand, but also one of the best places to scout for quality souvenirs, and see local culture.
It happens from 6PM-9.30PM only during the weekends (starts on Fridays, and ends on Sundays), and is held by closing certain roads to traffic and setting up stalls for pedestrians, hence the name”walking street”.
Getting to the Krabi Weekend Night Market
Since I was travelling in a crowd of six during my trip in Krabi, I made arrangements with my hotel (Marina Express – Fisherman Aonang) made shuttle arrangements to the Weekend Market, with the driver booked to send and pick us up when we are done.
The journey from Aonang, which is a popular tourist destination, takes about two hours, and the ride was basically smooth. I don’t remember how much I paid for the shuttle service, but I was also aware that there’s an hourly local bus to the market site. With six people and an infant, a bus was simply out of the question, so the shuttle service was the only option.
Hitting the Night Market
The journey from Aonang, which is a popular tourist destination, takes about two hours, and by the time we reached, the place was packed with tourist and locals, with a Thai girl doing a traditional dance right at the entrance.
A few meters further, there were countless art displays and unique hand made souvenirs on sale by local Thais, which were not only very colourful, but really impressive. The quality and creativity on display at these ‘booths’ made me realize that there’s a lot of potential in art among Thai’s in Krabi.
I also spotted a few stall selling quality Krabi tees at good rates, and that’s when my wife decided she wanted to buy some souvenirs for her nephews and nieces.
I went on further to see a group of kids playing traditional Thai music, but soon my attention was driven towards the back end of the weekend market which had stalls serving street food.
A street food heaven!
I’d admit that I’m not that adventurous when it comes to street food because I always worry about they hygiene of such servings. It was different here in the night market as the food stalls were largely very clean, and food were properly wrapped.
There was so many types of food to choose from, and it was a but difficult communicating since the hawkers had limited English capabilities.
Despite that, I managed to grab a few types of street food, but I can’t remember what it was called because I was busy ‘selling my eyes’ to what else was found in the market. I also couldn’t read the labels as most were in Thai, but did notice that there were proper tables and chairs prepared by the hawkers, if you decide to sit for your meal. I ate my meal while walking.
Not far from where I bought my food, there was some people singing on stage, as the locals sat down on the prepared tables, feasting to the food they bought from the nearby stalls. Interestingly, the whole place looked clean, despite the crowd.
Labeled destinations
As I was walking, I noticed this funny looking sign, and it was a pleasant surprise when I realized that the sign was actually a direction of what you can find at the market.
To be honest, I’ve never seen a market like this, which is so organized, to the extend, they actually divide the whole street into sections serving a certain thing. In Kuching, I’ve not seen such labeling with everything practically jumbled up when it comes to the night market. If they did do it back here in Kuching, then I’ve probably missed the sign, OR, there’s no such sign.
One of the best!
Well, I’ve been to my fair share of night markets in Malaysia (my home country), and I think Malaysians in general can learn a thing or two from the Krabi Weekend Night Market because despite being packed, the whole place was really clean and it was sort of like a centre for indie art and craft products.
If you happen to go to Krabi during the weekday, and will not be staying til the weekend market is available, consider going to a smaller scale “walking street” held on a Wednesday afternoon in Klong Haeng village as I was told it was similar to the one I went here, but only differs in size.
MORE ABOUT KRABI
Krabi has been voted the best beach destination by TripAdvisor for three consecutive years (2013-2015), and is considered more ‘family friendly’ if compared to Phuket. The beaches here are equally beautiful, and the place is less crowded.
Island hopping is the number one tourist activity in Krabi, but there’s also rock climbing, adventure parks, white water rafting, diving, golfing and many more.
Getting to Krabi is easy as there’s more than a dozen flights flying in and out to the Krabi International Airport.
Hotels are relatively well priced if you book your rooms online, but I would advice using a price comparison tool like this to ensure you get the best deals.
Last but not least, Krabi is still very much less commercialized now if compared to Phuket, and so if you want to go island hopping, but aren’t too fond of the commercialization in Phuket, Krabi would be a great pick.
