What a surprise I found a market in Phuket! 😂 Well, I didn’t have to look far, for my guesthouse is on the very road the market takes place on. Opening time is 4pm and I can tell you, it very quickly turns into a chock-a-block- affair shortly there after. Come see what the Phuket Old Town Sunday Night Street market is all about.
Location
Smack dab in the centre of Old Town, on Thalang Road and a few streets on either side. Traffic is diverted from the core and the streets become a pedestrian only area.
Foods
Of course, there are a lot of foods available at this market and every other one I have had the pleasure to visit in Thailand. All the fun TikTok foods are there, live jumping shrimp salad, grilled jellyfish, insects large & small and of course sweet sugary tanghulu!
Surprised I was to see how much meat was available! This is the first time I have seen tables of whole roasted pigs being carved up before my eyes. And big juicy hunks of steak! Oh man, that looked so delicious. I cannot remember the last time I had a steak! Too expensive for me though at 100 baht or $3.75 per 100g. Gosh I’ve become a cheap ass in my travels. 🤣
Other goodies that caught my eye were dumplings, anything and everything seafood, especially if it was on a stick. Donuts, big puffy ‘soft crepes’ filled to the brim with cream, Japanese pizza, fruit, mango sticky rice, the list goes on.
Shopping
These streets are the hub of tourist shopping, so all are lined any time of day with souvenirs, boutique stores selling clothing and goods and lots of Thai fabric and products. What the market brings, is the addition of more unique items perhaps.
Besides the typical things like elephant pants, scarves and T-shirts, there were leather goods that can be personalized, hand embellished footwear and a few vendors selling used clothing. There are multiple people drawing caricatures, and places to do crafts like panting and pottery.
If you find yourself in Old Town Phuket on a Sunday, I would encourage you to visit this evening market. It is a delight for the senses, a great place to have dinner and you might just find a trinket or three that you can’t live without. Officially opens at 4pm and goes until 11pm. By 5pm I could hardly walk, it was that crowded!
