It’s easy to be skeptical about markets. So often they promise unique local trinkets and vintage delights, but are just a barrage of bad knock-off Ray Bans and brown leather bangles. Rod Fai (www.bangkok.com/magazine/rot-fai-market-ratchada.htm) is a different beast, offering up a sprawl of antiquities, fashion, food, vintage motorbikes and more.
Things to do in Bangkok
Stock up at Rod Fai Market
Get a blind massage
Blind masseurs are themselves not unique in Bangkok, but they are often the victims of mistreatment and low wages. At Perception (tel: +66 82 222 5936; www.perceptionblindmassage.com) the focus is on those giving the massages being treated as ethically as those getting them, so you can get your relax on with a clear conscience.
Walk with the dead at Sirijaj Medical Museum
You’ll know instinctively if you’re the sort of person who’s interested in seeing mummified human beings, or Siamese twin babies preserved in formaldehyde in the name of science. The Sirijaj Medical Museum (tel: +66 2419 2618-9; www.si.mahidol.ac.th), hidden away on a back street, is home to some of the freakiest medical artifacts on the planet. Enjoy. Perhaps.
Cycle Bangkok’s green lung
Bangkok isn’t renowned for its clean air and cyclist-friendly streets, but just across the Chao Phraya river is Sri Nakhon Khuan Park, known as the city’s ‘green lung’. Bike around, check out the wildlife, eat at the floating market (weekends only) and generally take some time out. The company With Locals arrange tours (www.withlocals.com/locations/thailand).
Watch some Muay Thai in a mall
A shopping mall might not be the most obvious place to watch two men go head to head in the brutal martial art of Muay Thai, but every Wednesday at MBK shopping centre (www.facebook.com/mbkfn) local and international fighters do their thing. Expect a fully immersive affair, with ring girls, announcers, live drum bands and maybe even a few betting schools.
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