Vintage Night Market at the old Railyards

Last night we ventured out to Talad Rot Fai which is a vintage night market at the old Bangkok railyards not far from Chatachuk. It runs only on weekends from dusk til late. We caught a taxi out there for maybe 15 minutes and arrived at a huge space as big as a couple of football fields setup with heaps of vintage and second hand stalls. Apparently this is where all the cool young Thai go to show off their latest fashion, vintage cars and of course vespas. Some of the old trains have been setup as bars and a lot of the young enterprising Thai also have popup style bars operating out of kombi vans and the like. As is the way in Bangkok, where there are lots of people gathering the street food vendors soon follow. Needless to say, we were in our element! We wandered around checking out the vintage fashion and collectibles and also a lot of young independent designers until we quickly became hungry. We decided on a busy noodle soup vendor and hussled ourselves a few seats. Through some gesturing and pointing I ordered us two bowls of a delicious noodle soup with chicken. Lots of seasonings are provided so I loaded mine up with dried chilli, fish sauce, sugar and sweet basil. The broth was amazing and I was soon lathered in sweat as I slurped to the last drop. Another great simple meal that I will definitely try to recreate when we get home. Charlie enjoyed some noodles and chicken as always and we found her some spring rolls and a few other fried goodies. The market was a very well organised affair with electric cables snaking around two huge concrete areas so the vendors could hook up their lights and music. The young Thai are certainly a very trendy lot and were having a great time hanging out and drinking beer or browsing for fashion or accessories for their vintage scooters and cars (and fixies!) It really is impossible to describe the place properly, it was not like anything we have experienced before and we kept looking at each other laughing in amazement. Tina bought herself a few nice tops and of course we couldn't help but get Charlie a vintage toy but the purchase highlight was a pair of near new brown campers that I found for $30. I think the stroller has been pushed to second place as the buy of the holiday so far! We have seen a few markets this time and last time in Bangkok but this one was a real highlight. After a few hours wandering around we grabbed a cab back to the hotel but if not for Charlie we could have stayed for hours.