RECORDS SHOPPING IN BANGKOK (part 2)

LET'S GET STARTED

-Take the MRT (underground train) and stop at the last station hua lamphong. get out of the station "EXIT 1".

-It's then a bit tricky, if you have a map of  Bangkok, you can do it  by walk, if not the easiest way is to ask a tuk tuk to drive you to Yaowarat. once you reached thanon Yaowarat (thanon means road), walk a few minutes on the right side.

 

-Basically, when you will see the dragon from the photo, you are arrived! (10mn by walk from the MRT). The records shopping trip starts right in the street in front of the dragon's head "Thanon Phadungdao".

 

-Thanon Phadungdao have a bunch of records shops, you'll mostly see chinese music (popular music from all periods on cd as well as some traditional and chinese budhist records, some chinese opera too on tapes and cds). It can be worth to have a look around but the the main interest here is on the left side. the shop on the photo have some vintage luk thung esan as well as a bunch of molam (100/120b each). The owner actually can speak some english wich can be helpfull.

 

-Once you reach the end of the street, cross it and keep going on the left side. You are now in Thanon Charoen Krung, it's actually the first modernised street in Thailand and the historic record stores street in Bangkok. After a few minutes you will see a small chinese records shop. Sadly it's not as great as it was 1 year ago and all that's left is a selection of chinese cd's and some video cd's (some present some dragons and lion dances with some explosive music as you can find in my older blog).

-BREAK STOP 1: right next to this store is my favourite traditional chinese pastry shop, it's delicious and also one of the cheapest I know (around 7b for a little cake).

-Keep walking and if you want you can get a bit out of the way by turning right at Thanon Suea Pa only 1 record store there (about 10mn of walk) You can skip this one but if you really have time when you'll reach the end of the street and arrive at Thanon Luang, it's on the right. This shop mostly sell second hand 33' records of all kind and some tapes in a lame state (wrong tapes, broken...). It have a different atmosphere and can be crowded a bit sometimes. they have some drinks so you can relax a bit there.