It seems like most people park at JJ Mall which is at the top of the map. It has a big parking garage, and as long as you get there early, there's plenty of parking.
Chatuchak is huge and is loosely organized by what's being sold. Luckily, the group I was with all agreed that we wanted to go to the ceramics section.
My goal was to find Benjarong ceramics, a beautiful Thai enamel style. We found several stores, and it was as beautiful as I had thought it would be.
There are lots of different colors and patterns to choose from. They are also made in different qualities of ceramic from every day to fine bone china. I decided I'll shop around some more before I make my big investment, but as I was walking around, I saw this beautiful piece sitting on shelf, and since it was only $10, I decided it had to come home with me.
After several hours of walking around and looking at pretty things, we all decided we were hungry. Of course, on the way out of the labyrinth, there was a shop that several people wanted to look at. I was really thirsty, and there was a guy with a cart selling "bubble tea" so I decided to try the coconut flavor. The coconut bubble tea is neither carbonated nor caffeinated, which made me want to figure out why it was called bubble tea. Once I got home, I did some research.
The first ingredient is tapioca pearls. Which are made from gelled and dyed tapioca.
They are also called boba. When I told Young I had bubble tea, she said, "Oh, boba tea!" This leads me to the conclusion that bubble tea is the western butchering of boba tea, and it helps explain why there are no bubbles in it.
The second ingredient is the smooothie part, which I guess was originally just iced tea, but then branched off to other flavors like coconut. Finally, you can top it all off with some gummy bits. I was so thirsty, I drank it without taking a picture, but here's the finished look:
The coconut part was yummy, but I'm kind of on the fence about random tapioca gummy balls in my drink.
After my bubble tea experiment, we finally made it to lunch. Most of the easy dining at Chatuchak is the standard Thai set up of the "kitchen" being a table with some hot plates and pots, and the "restaurant" being tables and stools set up under an awning. The food is usually really good though, so that's what we did for lunch.
For dessert, I had green mango. You can see a slice of it on the edge of my plate. It's similar to an apple in texture and flavor, and, like an apple, you can get VERY sour ones, so it's good to be cautious when buying it.
I had fun shopping at Chatuchak and will definitely go back, but my favorite part of the day was the culinary experimentation :-)
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