Chinatown is the Place for Bangkok's Best Food and Cheapest Shopping

Bangkok's Chinatown is one of the most interesting and oldest places in the city. At its centre is Yaowarat Road, which runs about a mile and a half and was built in the reign of King Rama V, one of the Thais most popular kings. Other small sois (lanes) and alleys run off it and are packed full of small Chinese shops, restaurants, houses and temples. The Chinese like cheap prices and bargaining, so you can't beat Chinatown for both. Chinatown is colorful, exotic and packed full of people and things.

Everything is found here and for an even cheaper price than in other areas of Bangkok. Household goods, Chinese toys, antiques, handmade paper, chopsticks, traditional crafts, second-hand goods, food, clothing, paper houses for Chinese funerals, jewelry and more - all are available in Chinatown.

There are also many gold shops, a favorite with Chinese and Thais alike. Gold in Thailand is 99.9% gold so is much purer than you will find in Western countries. It is sold by weight and each weight unit is called a baht, the same name as the Thai currency. You can find simply gorgeous jewelry in the Chinatown gold shops and at a much cheaper price than your home country as the charge for the workmanship is quite low.

The Thieves Market or Nakhon Kasem is also in Chinatown. Here you can buy Chinese and Thai antiques although, at quite expensive prices, it's no longer a place to get a bargain. Better to window shop here and look for similar items elsewhere.

If you love Chinese food, this is the place to eat. Dim sum, bird's nest soup, excellent seafood, fish, shark's fin soup, and some of the best Chinese soups I've ever eaten are here. You can also buy all the ingredients to cook the dishes yourself, literally for pennies in many instances. My favorite purchases are the dried squid and absolutely enormous mushrooms. I recommend eating at any of the small Chinese shop houses you'll find here or at the stalls street side. In these places you will the most authentic Chinese food.