Warorot Market Route

What Warorot Market is

Warorot Market, the area locals call Kad Luang (the big market), is Chiang Mai's commercial heart on the west bank of the Ping River. From the later 19th century Chinese merchants gathered here, and it grew as a Chinatown lined with shops of dried goods, cloth and gold. The market is a multi-story building surrounded by lane stalls — deli and sweets on the ground floor, clothing above. Nearby stands the Chinese Pung Tao Kong Shrine, its incense smoke mixing with the smell of food. Here is the heat of a working city, unlike the old town's tourist quarter.

What to eat at the market

Market food runs on two tracks: deli and stalls. Near the entrance, shops grill coiled sai ua over charcoal and sell it by weight. Tomato-and-pork nam prik ong and the hotter nam prik noom are bagged with fried pork skin, and with sticky rice they make a meal. At the stalls you slurp the red tomato-and-rice-noodle broth of khanom jeen nam ngiao on the spot. The Chinatown fried noodle kua gai survives in old shops. On the sweets shelves sit fried-rice khao taen and dried fruit, good as gifts. Finish at the fruit stalls on the market's edge, bagged longan or mango in hand. Grease and sweetness alternate.

How to walk this route

Warorot Market peaks in the morning. Many delis and stalls stir at dawn, thin out past noon and largely close by evening. From the old city's Tha Phae Gate, walk east along Chang Moi Road about fifteen minutes, or take a red songthaew down toward the river. Inside it is maze-like, so use the ground-floor deli and sweets halls as your axis and spread out to the edge stalls and fruit. Much is sold by weight, so say "just a little" for a small amount. Some sweets shops offer tastings. Almost everything is cash only, and small notes make paying easy. Keeping sweets and dry goods travel well as gifts, so buy them together on the way out.