Phuket Walking Street

Phuket Walking Street is a night market that takes over the beautiful Thalang Road in Phuket Old Town every Sunday evening. Also known as Lardyai (from the southern Thai dialect version of talaad yai, which means ‘big market’), Phuket Walking Street allows visitors to discover some typical southern Thai culinary specialities as well as local handicraft and gift stalls. This weekly event is definitely family-oriented with the presence of toy stalls as well as musical performances and other entertaining acts.

Phuket Walking Street - one of the highlights of Thalang Road and 14 Best Places to Go Shopping in Phuket (Read all about Phuket Province here)

The main entrance of Phuket Walking Street is on the eastern (Phuket Road) side of Thalang Road, at which a superb wooden Chinese-style gate is installed. The gate boasts a sign with 'Lardyai' written in 3 languages (Thai, Chinese and English) and is a popular photo op. The colourful Sino-Portuguese-style house facades are enhanced by the addition of colour-changing lights, which also make a lovely backdrop.

The 2 main items sold at Phuket Walking Street are food and souvenirs. Barbecued squid, chicken and pork are certainly the favourite dishes if you consider the number of stands selling them. Fruit juices, ice creams and Khanom (Thai traditional sweets) are also very popular.

photo by mojojo.cn (CC BY-SA 2.0) modified

Some young Phuket entrepreneurs have started interesting T-shirt and handicraft businesses here, with shirts featuring stylised Sino-Portuguese architectural elements, knitted dolls, custom-made flip flops (customers pick the sole, top and decorative elements of their choice which are assembled on-site) and fancy jewellery, of which there is a good choice of cool and inexpensive items to browse through.

Location: Thalang Rd, Talad Yai, Muang, Phuket 83000, Thailand

Open: Sundays from 4pm to 10pm

Ben Reeves | Compulsive Traveller

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