Chang Klan & the Night Bazaar

Things to know

• Nothing here happens before 17:00. The bazaar sets up around five and runs to about eleven; by day Chang Klan Road is shuttered stalls and motorbike traffic, and the neighbourhood looks like nothing at all.
• Nothing has a price on it and vendors quote high expecting to be bargained down. Northern sellers are markedly less pushy than in Bangkok or Phuket — a smile and a counter-offer works better than a hard line.
• Be honest with yourself about the merchandise. Most of the clothing, bags and trinkets on the pavement are wholesale goods sold in every tourist market in Thailand. The things actually worth the walk are the food courts, the side alleys with antiques and odd decor, and the streets one block east.
• This is not where locals shop. Warorot Market, fifteen minutes north on the same river side, is the working market — leave the grocery shopping and the real Lanna snacks for there.
• Loi Kroh Road is the beer-bar and go-go strip and you will probably walk down part of it. It is small and not aggressive, but the touting is constant and drink prices near the touts are inflated. If that is not your evening, cut across on Sridonchai or Tha Phae instead.
• Cash for the market, cards in the bars and hotels. ATMs cluster at the Chang Klan/Loi Kroh junction and inside the malls.
• It rains hard here from June to October. Kalare and Anusarn are roofed, which makes this the wet-evening alternative to the Old City walking streets.
• On Sunday evening most of the city goes to the Sunday Walking Street inside the walls and the bazaar is noticeably thinner. That is either a reason to skip it or a reason to come.
• The cocktail bars on Charoen Prathet are small and get full. Bar.San and Noir take walk-ins early; after nine on a weekend, message ahead.
• The halal lane keeps its own calendar — Khao Soi Islam is closed on Fridays for prayers, and Friday is when the street fair outside the mosque runs instead.