Impressions of Chatuchak Market (Jatujak) in Bangkok

[Felipe]

Here are some pictures of my recent visit to the Chatuchak Market in Bangkok. This market is really amazing, but not so great for buying fruit trees IMO: You can sure find some interesting stuff, but the variety is not so big and the accuracy about cultivars (if any) is not high. Ofter sellers do not have a clue what exactly they are selling.

Enjoy the pictures

Plumerias


Bananas


Grafted santol


Grafted santol


Mango trees


Grafted durian


Grafted durian




This fruit stands are in a market next to JJ, called 'Or Tor Kor'. It is a pretty nice place for fruit lovers, but be warned that it is the must expensive market I have seen in Thailand (confirmed by locals).

[bangkok]

Welcome to the club Felipe! Now you are an official member.

You were very early i guess because it's not busy at all on the pics.

And that ortorkor sure is expensive, on top of that they won't even show the price so they can cheat you easy. Now they only have tags in chinese language but not with the price of course.

But there are many more great markets in Bangkok, and outside the skytrain-area they are cheaper.

[fruitlovers]

All signs in Chatuchak are ofcourse in Thai. Very few people speak any english. So without a translator you will be pretty clueless, even if the sales person knows what they are talking about.
The other big problem with Chatuchak is it is incredibly crowded and parking can be a nightmare.
The Or Tor market is only for the very affluent Thais that want fruit that looks perfect. Actually their selection is very limited. You're better off going to any other fruit market.

[RICBITAR]

Felipe

very beautiful, thanks to post the pictures

[EvilFruit]

So this is where Bangkok Hangout.. uhmmm not bad.  

Thanks for pictures Felipe. I hope you had a great time there.

[Mike T]

There is a good variety of fruit,vegies and  seeds but there is a high probabilty of  mislabelling and ripoffs.Like Or tor kor there are not the rare species and varieties as much as it first appears.I agree with Oscar about markets in other places,even supermarkets having more surprises.Markets in regional cities and big local markets have more treasures I think.

[bangkok]

Felipe did you taste the chomphu rose-apples? Were they sweet?

What i don't understand is how the or-tor-kor can have mangosteens for 10 out of 12 months. They even have a label with "organic" on them.

Outside the ortorkor are fruitstands who have fruit from South Thailand or other provinces. Sometimes they have chempedak or velvet tamarind or durian from Utteradit. They always try to cheat me there so i boycot them.

On the chatuchak market are also rare fruits to find but you have to search. Sometimes the vendors sit behind tarps or in strange corners.

Also the treesellers have new variety's of fruit that they brought for show, they want to sell the tree's. If you offer them enough money you can buy them. Also if you pay you can park anywhere. I park on the middle of the market (motorbike) but on the ortorkor is a huge parking with security.

Those big ndm-gold mango's are called "honey mango" just like in singapore. They want to sell those to singaporeans or hongkong chinese. Those are unblemished, i guess they have been packed in paper while growing.They are sold all year around though.

One day they sold daeng suria jackfruit on ortorkor, since then i have never seen those again. I bought it but it was disappointing.

I think the ortorkor is not a real fruitmarket. There is also fish and vegy and food, i wished they had more rare fruit from Indonesia or Malaysia or any other neighbour. Also i don't like it that they don't show the price, i 'm done with that.

Right next to the marketbuilding is a vegy supermarket from the royal project. There everything is priced, organic, cheap, airconditioned and no cheating at all. I love that shop but it's far too small and busy.

On chatuchak you can find almost anything about tree's. The best tree's or fruit is sold out very early. Almost nobody speaks english there, lately there are loads of foreigners from Asia and Africa but the vendors can't help them haha. They even don't come to the idea to let another westerner write english labels or make pictures to sell them tree's.

Some vendors are there for more then 10 years. I think they sell the real variety's. There are also vendors who only come sometimes from their province.

I know many more markets like this, they are all over bangkok. Sometimes they even have never seen westerners i guess, i become the big attraction if i speak thai to them. Not that my thai is good but i can ask things and know how to make fun with the vendors.

Did you eat any new fruit in Thailand felipe? the papaya holland maybe? Or mango/mayongchid/jackfruit/durian.  I ate chanee durian again today but this time it isn't nice. It's like eating pure butter. Last week it was not so soft and really good.  Durian season has started again.

[Felipe]

It was not my first time in BKK, but my first time in JJ Market. The fruit was expensive, good looking, but often mediocre quality. From my experience, you will find in BKK the best and cheapest fruit in small fruit stands, not in big markets.

@Bangkok: I did eat several chompoo (Syzygium samarangense), some of them very sweet and tasty! Unfortunatelly I did not find find plants to buy. I did not try anything new. IMO Bangkok/Thailand is not a good place for getting a big variety of exotic fruit, agriculture is rather mainstream. Don't be surprised that you can get some fruit, like mangosteen, all year round. If there is no fruit around, they import it (mangosteen often from Indonnesia - southern hemisphere).

@Oscar: No lingistic problem, I have me translator

@Mike: It depends, sometimes in markets in big cities are great, for example in Pnom Penh. I think it's rather a question of how much is a place 'developed'. In 'rich and developed' places you rather have a mainstream product: smaller variety of products, nice, homogene looking, mediocre taste, etc...

Here some more pictures:

[fruitlovers]

Felipe, if you drive 1 to 1.5 hours from Bangkok to Rayong you can get much better fruits, lot cheaper price, and real nurseries instead of giant Chatuchak flea market. It's true though that Thai nurseries have very little cultivar selection. For example, with durian it is very difficult to find anything other than Monthong or Chanee to buy.

[bangkok]

Felipe, if you drive 1 to 1.5 hours from Bangkok to Rayong you can get much better fruits, lot cheaper price, and real nurseries instead of giant Chatuchak flea market. It's true though that Thai nurseries have very little cultivar selection. For example, with durian it is very difficult to find anything other than Monthong or Chanee to buy.

You can say what you want about the or-tor-kor market but the fruit is the best of Thailand, everything is A-quality and the biggest size. It is expensive but they really have mango/durian/mangosteen all the time and all is very good quality, you won't find it better.

Here is a list of some fruit festivals around may-june.
http://www.sawadee.com/thailand/festivals/festival5.html

Not all the chomphu are syzygium samarangense, the chomphu phet si rung has big pits but is also very sweet. You could easy buy the plants on chatuchak, there are official shops as well, one sells chomphu tree's from some famous farm/organisation. They also speak english and have pictures of the fruit hanging on their tree's. That shop doesn't come every week though, they visit agriculture fairs all over the country.

We still have sweet chomphu's now but season is almost over i guess, they got me hooked on them and i have 8 tree's now  But those green ones on your pic i only saw/ate once. The tree's are expensive of that one so i still hope to find it cheap somewhere else.
I still haven't seen the giant chomphu's though, they are so new that the fruit is not on the market yet, at least not in Bangkok. Maybe they go to Hongkong or so. Those new ones weigh 250-500 gram a piece is what the vendors claim and are also sweet.
But growing chomphu is not that easy, my tree's have lice and aphids and caterpillars all the time.

There are also nice malay apples to be found but they are rare. I ate a nice variety called "hawaii" on chatuchak and bought the tree.

If you are still in thailand then you have to taste as much as you can. If a fruitvendor is very busy then you should go there. Mango in supermarkets is not as nice as on local markets. Try the namdocmai green if you see them, for me they are the best ones.

[bsbullie]

Nam Doc Mai Green Nam Doc Mai Green Nam Doc Mai Green. ..first, you need to stop babbling and find out which one th a t is (unless its a seedling, they are all numbered and have some associted "name").  Second,  you need to get out motr...

[bangkok]

Look at those linchi's, so big 

[bsbullie]

Look at those linchi's, so big 

I would really love to get me some of them linchis (of course not sure why everything in Thailand is plural)...wonder if a linchi tree would grow and fruit in Florida.

Hey bangcock, can you get me a tree?

[murahilin]

Great photos Felipe. Get to try any new fruit on your trip?

Bangkok, I think you have an admirer. He seems to reply to every single one of your posts. You should probably let him know you're married.

[fisherking73]

Its a love hate type of thing lol

[bsbullie]

Great photos Felipe. Get to try any new fruit on your trip?

Bangkok, I think you have an admirer. He seems to reply to every single one of your posts. You should probably let him know you're married.

That never stopped you with George...

[gunnar429]

 

[murahilin]

Great photos Felipe. Get to try any new fruit on your trip?

Bangkok, I think you have an admirer. He seems to reply to every single one of your posts. You should probably let him know you're married.

That never stopped you with George...

I've tried to let George down easily but he just can't resist and he keeps on coming back for more.

[Felipe]

Great photos Felipe. Get to try any new fruit on your trip?

No man, nothing new, I eat a lot of average tasting mangos, bananas, durian, maprang, pinapple, etc. The only 'new' thing was some very nice chompoo cultivars (S. samarangense, S. aqueum). Unfortunatelly I did not find some plants or budwood.

@Oscar: I was in Rayong, but unfortunatelly my GF did not like the idea of looking for some nurseries... women..