Sam Chuk Hundred Year Market

Sam Chuk grew as a trading post on the Tha Chin river over a century ago, settled largely by Chinese merchants, and its market is a warren of two-storey wooden shophouses in tight lanes running down to the water. By the 1990s the buildings were decaying and the land was under pressure for redevelopment; the traders organised, negotiated with the Treasury Department that owned the land, and restored the market themselves, which won a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award in 2009. What is sold reflects that history: old-style Thai and Chinese sweets, dried and preserved goods, kopi coffee shops, noodle stalls and shops selling toys, tin signs and household items of a kind that have vanished elsewhere. A photography museum and several house museums are in the lanes. It runs mainly at weekends, when it is crowded with Thai day-trippers, and is much quieter and partly shut on weekdays.

Highlights

• The wooden shophouses - tight lanes of two-storey buildings down to the river.
• The trader-led restoration - the conservation the market did itself, UNESCO-recognised.
• The old-style goods - Thai and Chinese sweets, kopi shops and vanished household items.
• The house museums - preserved interiors in the lanes.

When to go

November to February; weekends are when the market is fully open and busy. Weekdays are quiet with a good proportion of shops shut.

Good to know

Much reduced on weekdays. Very crowded at weekends with Thai visitors. It is a market rather than an attraction; the interest is in the buildings and the goods. Little English.

Nearby

Suphan Buri town and Wat Pa Lelai are south; Bang Rachan and Sing Buri are north.