Pasar Karat, also known as Bazar Karat or Bazar JB, is a sizeable night market that spans a few streets in the vicinity of Jalan Segget. As I love the buzzing, vibrant atmosphere of night markets, I shorlisted this one as it seemed quite a popular recommendation based on online reviews. After the not-so-filling evening canapes at DoubleTree By Hilton Hotel, our lodging for the night, my husband and I made our way here to check it out and maybe grab a bite or two.
Information on the market’s opening hours was a bit sketchy and inconsistent online but it seems to generally be between 6pm to 2am daily except on Mondays when they’re closed. When we arrived around 7.30pm on a Saturday night, quite a number of stalls were only just starting to set up. Majority, if not all, of the stalls were up and running by around 8.30pm so that would be a more ideal time to come.
Stretching across multiple streets, it took us around an hour to do a brief walkthrough of the market. If you’re planning to do some proper shopping and eating, you might want to buffer more time to spend here. Most of the stalls were selling clothes, bags, sneakers, toys and household items, with a mix of food and drink stalls in between. Given that it is open-air with limited shelter from the surrounding buildings, I suggest bringing an umbrella in case the weather takes a turn for the worse.
There were a number of stalls selling a colourful variety of drinks scooped out of large containers but we ultimately went for the bottled Thai milk tea (MYR4) from a smaller stall at the end of the street. It was way too sweet though so my husband got sick of it quite quickly.
As we were browsing the stalls, one that was selling trinkets and accessories caught my husband’s eye. He ended up getting a wooden-beaded bracelet (MYR5) for himself.
I managed to snag a comfortable pair of grey loose-fit pants for an extremely pocket-friendly price of MYR20. The stall owner was pretty helpful in pointing out the options I could choose from for this cut I was looking for.
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. This was a huge market with seemingly endless rows of stalls selling items at very affordable prices. I liked that it was well-lit, making it easy to browse and shop. The bustling vibes that I enjoy at such places also starting amping up later in the evening. However, if I were to compare it to many of the other markets we’ve been to in Bangkok, which have greater product variety, more appeal and novelty, this would’ve been closer to a 3-star rating. In addition, we didn’t buy anything to eat as the food hygiene standards weren’t particularly reassuring. Most stalls displayed their food without any covers or screens, some even had flies swarming around and landing on them. Having said that, it’s really more of a personal preference depending your level of comfort when it comes to eating street food. All in all, it’s a decent option if you’re looking for a laid-back way to spend the evening.
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Dania Experiences 