With its rows and rows of stalls selling everything from furniture to clothes, plants, antiques, books, carvings and dried goods, as well as the many little restaurants, this place makes for a great outing whether you want to shop or not. The area is huge and labyrinthine, but that's half the fun. The shopping is great, but bargaining is the name of the game: go in at about a quarter of their stated price. Most stalls start packing up at around 6pm; some stay open much later. Best on Saturday and Sunday, though open Friday evening too.

Patpong Road has been closed every night for more than a decade and in that time a thriving night market has taken hold down the middle of hostess-bar central. Nowadays, with the night stalls spilling out onto Silom Road too, it attracts perhaps as many people as the bars. Clothes, fake watches, carvings, pirated DVDs of the latest movies, and many other items are for sale. As at Chatuchak, it's always good to bargain here.