Ban Mai Riverside Market

Ban Mai Riverside Market runs along a row of century-old wooden shophouses on the Bang Pakong River, in Chachoengsao’s Na Mueang subdistrict. It’s a real, still-functioning market rather than a restored film set, and that shows in its hours: weekdays see only a handful of shops open, while Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays bring the market properly to life from around 08:00 to 17:00. If you can only visit on a weekday, expect a quiet, half-shuttered street rather than the market you’ve seen in photos.

The draw is the buildings as much as what’s sold in them. Wooden shopfronts run along both sides of a narrow covered walkway that opens onto the river, largely unchanged in layout from the trading community that grew up here more than a hundred years ago. Pae Oey, a coffee shop now well past its 100th year, still makes oliang (Thai iced black coffee) and cha nom the traditional way, and locals rate it alongside the newer but still old-style Hia Khun coffee stall a few doors down. Food stalls sell kuaitiao noodle soup, pad Thai, and hoi thot (fried mussel omelette) through the morning, while a scatter of vendors sell retro Thai sweets, baked snacks, and nam daeng soda — the pink cordial drink that shows up at old-style Thai markets across the country.

This isn’t a floating market — vendors work from fixed wooden stalls, not boats — but the riverside setting still gives it a different feel from Chachoengsao’s inland shopping streets. The wooden facades and narrow lanes also make it a popular stop for black-and-white or retro-style photography, something the market has leaned into as much as the food.

Insider Tip: Arrive before 10:00 on a Saturday or Sunday if you want photos without a crowd in every frame — by midday the walkway between stalls gets genuinely tight.

Watch out: Don’t build a weekday trip around this market. Most shopfronts, including Pae Oey, keep weekend-only or weekend-heavy hours, and a Tuesday visit will mostly show you closed shutters.

Cash is the practical way to pay — small denominations move faster at food stalls than large notes. The market is a short drive or songthaew ride from Chachoengsao town centre.

Ban Mai Riverside Market pairs well with Kuan Im Loi Nam, a riverside shrine about 1 km away, or Bang Khla Floating Market if you want to see an actual boat-based market on the same river system.