Hua Dong Market

Hua Dong Market runs along the Sung Men stretch of Highway 101, about 7 km south of central Phrae toward Den Chai — and despite the name, it isn’t a food or produce market. It’s a roadside strip of workshops and yards selling teak furniture, Phrae’s signature trade, open daily from 09:00 to 20:00.

The stock is almost entirely wood: living-room sets, dining tables and chairs, beds, cabinets, doors and window frames, rocking chairs, shelving, picture frames, and carved decorative pieces, alongside some rattan furniture. Workshops here generally take custom orders — bring a photo or measurements of the space you’re furnishing and vendors will quote a price for a made-to-size piece. Phrae has been a centre of the regional teak trade since the logging concessions of the early 1900s, and Hua Dong is one of the places that legacy still shows up as a working business rather than a museum piece.

Insider Tip: Bring a tape measure or a photo of the room you’re furnishing — most vendors here work from a customer’s dimensions rather than off a fixed catalogue, and quoting your space up front speeds up the conversation.

Watch out: If you came for fresh produce, khao soi, or a browsing food market, this isn’t it — Hua Dong is a furniture and woodwork strip, and most pieces are too large to carry away without arranging delivery. For a Northern Thai food market, look in central Phrae town instead.

Getting there is easiest by car or motorbike, since the workshops are spread along a stretch of highway rather than clustered in one covered hall. If teak history interests you beyond shopping, the Teak Museum and the century-old teak mansion at Baan Wongburi in Phrae town cover the craft’s history and architecture in more depth.