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The J.J. Market in Bangkok
The market which is only open at weekends contains upwards of 15,000 stalls and covers a total area of around 35 acres, or approximately 30 football pitches!!.The market is also so popular with both locals and tourists that an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people visit JJ Market every day it's open!.
The JJ Market is located just off Kamphaeng Phet Road in the Phahonyothin area and was named after the nearby Chatuchak Park.The quickest way to get to the market is by taking the BTS Sky Train and stopping at Mo Chit Station. The market is approximately a five minute walk away from the station. The market is "officially" open from Friday to Sunday, 7am to 6pm BUT, most stall-holders only open on Saturdays & Sundays. The stalls that do open on Fridays, tend to offer "wholesale prices" that you won’t typically get on weekend days!.For avid gardeners,there is also a plant market that is open every Wednesday and Thursday.
The main reason that the market is just so popular is that practically ANYTHING you could EVER need can be found and bought here!.Whether it be household items, garden accessories, fake designer clothing, jewelry,fake watches,Thai Handicrafts ,religious artifacts, collectibles, foods, and even live animals!, it's all available at JJ Market in dizzying volumes!!....it's almost too much to take in.
Foreign visitors also love it because they can haggle & bargain for the price of items they want to pay.There is no doubt about it you can get great value for their money at the market, compared to when they go shopping at a normal souvenir shop and get charged tourist prices!.
However despite all the good things about it, the JJ Market received some bad publicity recently when it became the focus of controversy for conservationists and the World Wildlife Fund, as the market is so large that it has become a "hotspot" for the illegal trade of wild and endangered species of animals.
The market even received coverage on CNN’s “Planet in Peril” series,BUT, despite all the publicity, the Thai government is finding it almost to clamp down on the problem, as the "lookout systems" that the illegal traders use means that whenever a "police raid" takes place, all the illegal traders have already gone, along with their "illegal bounties!".
Return from JJ Market to Bangkok
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