Klong Thom Market in Chinatown, Bangkok

Bangkok's Chinatown is one of the largest and longest-established Chinese communities in the world, where ancient tradition runs deep and it is a thriving hub at almost anytime of the day or night. Commerce is close to the heart of Chinatown and there are shops and zones dedicated to almost anything as well as a string of thriving niche markets. One of those is Klong Thom market, which bustles everyday until around teatime. Klong Thom is known as the electronics market as its primary focus is around electrical goods although it branches well away from any tight focus with many stalls selling everything from an array of new and used car parts to children's toys and ornaments. Its a permanent market located in a large covered building made up of narrow aisle after narrow aisle crammed with goods, although, as with any Thai market, there is a lot of repetition in its ranks. The market is found near the northern tip of Chinatown and it spreads out over a district that encompasses Luang Rd, Charuen Krung Rd, Worajak Road and Suapa Road. Above the ground floor market level is a food court and car park. I actually stumble on Klong Thom while looking for another place but its an interesting stroll or squeeze up and down the many parallel aisles. Everything electrical is on sale here, from the smallest push switch to industrial circuit breakers, LCD signs, household plugs and extensions, TV/VCR remotes, an array of cables and wires, satellite dishes, DVD players, disco equipment, all manner of tools, electric and manual, small childrens toys up to electric carts and scooters, paint guns and brushes, water purifiers, cooking utensils and magnets to name a few of its wares. Car accessories are a feature of the market too, both new and secondhand, there are stalls dedicated to every imaginable badge for the bodywork, decals, key rings, in-car hi-fi systems and screens, as well as new and used parts such as door handles, wiper motors and blades, radiator fans, mirrors, seals, starter motors, alternators and lighting units. Outside the permanent hall the adjoining roads are tightly filled up with even more stalls that continue the theme electronic goods theme while on the periphery of all this commerce a plethora of temporary stalls spring up on the side roads and pavements at the weekend, known as the Flashlight Market, mostly selling secondhand goods which private vendors bring down, often they have been repaired by chinatowns many secondhand shops, some are just laid out haphazardly on blankets. On the edges of the market the goods become even more diverse, stalls sell generators, construction materials, air conditioning units and compressors with the inevitable mix of food stalls on the outer edges. One blanket on the roadside the day I was there was offering and array of musical instruments: saxophone, flute and violin, with an elderly, tanned and wrinkled gentleman softly playing tunes on an equally elderly-looking accordion.