The perfumed air gives notice of the visual feast to follow.
With its kaleidoscopic array of vibrant blooms, the Pak Klong Talat, is the largest wholesale fresh flower market in Bangkok.

It’s proximity to the temple of the reclining Buddha, and easy access from a river pier, makes it an ideal stop to be combined with a city itinerary. But I suspect very few tourists actually visit!

Midnight or dawn is touted to be the ideal time to catch the buzz of activity surrounding the unloading of fresh arrivals and the ritual of early transactions.


But we find the relative quiet of late afternoon very enjoyable, as the market readies for the evening retail custom with simple arrangements and temple offerings.

And as dusk approaches, we watch the warm light filtering through the overhead canopies, saturate the psychedelic contents of the plastic bins beneath.
divine, which I was there
Beautiful shots!
I never knew about this place when we visited Bangkok. I would have loved to go! We even visited the temple of the Reclining Buddha!
What a feast of colours.
Madhu, what a feast of color! It is a beautiful series.
Thank you Naomi 🙂
Going through all posts in reverse chronological order… As much as I like the colourful mosaics of Antonio Gaudi, I like the natural mosaic better! 🙂
nice & crisp
Beautiful colors and flowers!
The blooms are so vibrant they even look painted… Must have been incredibly fragrant too. 🙂
Gorgeous colours. Love your photos.
My goodness what absolutely wonderful flowers.
So beautiful and colourful! 🙂
I love this post!
How absolutely spectacular, Madhu! I was busy trying to identify things, but not a hope- they don’t exist in my world.
Amazing clarity in the header. I’d better come with you to photography classes- they’re definitely working!
Spiffy header too! Margie
Such an explosion of color Madhu! Love this post and your photos. Margie
Beautiful flowers – they make me look forward to spring!
Wow Madhu – so beautiful! I needed this post – it is grey and cold outside my window 🙂
Amazing colors – the wonderful aroma almost jumps out of these brilliant photos of yours… 🙂
It must have smelled amazing! I love color 🙂
This is crazy colorful, Madhu, and such an uplifting visual feast. 🙂 Though I live in Southeast Asia, some of the flowers here are unfamiliar to me. Your post just inspired me to pay a visit to our local flower market this weekend and check out their offerings.
I haven’t had time to comment on many posts these days, and now I’m playing catch-up! I love your floral display and wonder if the scent was as beautiful as the flowers.
Elisa
What a wonderful post to enjoy after coming in from the gray and cold and snow!
The colors lift my heart, and I can almost enjoy the scented air itself. Thanks, Madhu.
I love these colours, Madhu. beautiful.
Madhu, your pictures are elegant and stunning. The colors are beautiful.
What an amazing kaleidoscope of colors! I believe we have decided upon a Southeast Asia vacation for next winter. I will be scouring your blog Madhu for ideas. 🙂
Awesome colours.
What a REFRESHING post for a gloomy day in England! I’ve never seen the insides of a betel nut (nor tasted one). Bleh. 😛
Loved the colours. Awesome clicks!
http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.in/2013/02/welcome-to-benares.html
THIS is an orgy of brilliance! What colors… what magnificence… like walking thru a Gauguin dream! Fly away… to another place, more colors….
Reminds me of our Malleshwaram market. This ones bigger and better probably! Beautiful clicks!
These colors are so vibrant. I think it’s impossible not to feel that there’s something special about this place.
Gorgeous, gorgeous colors! Great photos!
Such vibrant colors – just beautiful
Thanks for the beautiful colors on a cold and gray day!
So glorious! Too bad that people should miss this if they are in the area. The amulet market would be intriguing.
Madhu, this market is so colorful and vibrant! I would want to buy everything there! Great post and beautiful photos!
The colours in your images really gave me warmth! Here in Sweden we have (again/still) very greyish, monochrome and cold weather, and I’m sick about it….
Longing for the sun and spring to come, your beautiful images was perfect, thank you!! 🙂
Beautiful photos 🙂
Madhu, we’ve been to Bangkok numerous times, and have yet to make it to this fantastic market. Such a lovely, gentle contrast from Bangkok’s more bustling, gritty corners.
Gorgeous photos Madhu! I especially love the one of the man slicing betel nuts – you have a knack for capturing these kinds of details. 🙂 Sadly I’ve never made it past the airport at Suvarnabhumi… something I’ll have to rectify in the near future!
awesome and so clourful pictures ,they really look like blossoms of seasons.
Heavenly post! Love your photos! The colors are out of this world. I’m going to Bangkok in March for a quick overnight. Is this market daily or weekly? Would love to check it out. K.
Love the intense colors and the photos, Madhu.
Wow!that’s a riot!
Beautiful post Madhu , Thanks for sharing my friend 🙂
Perfect post for this month. 😉 I like the big pink flowers on the third picture. Looks like just folded napkin to me. hehe 😀
So vibrant and colorful! I love flowers and always try to visit flower markets when we travel. Thank you for sharing.
Lena
So many places to see. Thanks for this tour, Madhu.
Wow, Madhu, what a delight – all that brilliant colour, the scent must have been breathtaking!
Beautiful photographs.
how can one not have a good day when immersed in lovely flowers?!! thanks for allowing us to bask in the colors as well!
Wow, do the green buds at the top open to become the flowers in the lotus arrangements?
A rather belated response, but yes Gilly 🙂
The header image is FAB! I can see from one of the other photos the man who has done the – it’s figs???? Wonderful colors – brilliant shots.I love markets … have done two, one about Pike Public Market in Seattle – http://wp.me/p293Pw-3uB And one about Granville Island, Vancouver – http://wp.me/p293Pw-34s
Wonderful. Scented colors, I can smell and taste it now. What a beautiful, colorful post.
Wow!! Those flowers are truely breathtaking…I really love the little purple ones witht he green centers, they are fantastic, as well as all of the others. I’ve never even seen some of those, thank you for sharing! I hope I have the opportunity to visit and see some of those for myself, someday :]
Such beautiful colors…..
A lovely souvenir.. :-)claudine
Your beautiful post reminds me the flower festival in Bangkok that I heard about many years ago.
a positive carnival of colour, incredibly rich, thank you madhu … nothing sombre there at all!
you have a very keen eye and i love your photography
Reblogged this on Nandan Tripathi.
Thank you Nandan.
I bet it smells even nicer there than the rest of Bangkok!
Yes it does 🙂
But frankly I didn’t think Bangkok was bad at all. Or perhaps that was just an Indian perspective!
Psychedelic contents is a perfect description. The colors are so intense that it is hard to believe they are real. Flower and spice markets are full of eye candy and a trip for me isn’t complete without visiting one.
Those saturated colours were truly amazing! And I agree with you about the appeal of markets, even more so in S E Asia 🙂
What beautiful flowers!
Aren’t they? We hadn’t seen so many in one place before 🙂
Wow! what a feast of colours. What are the huge pink and white flowers?
The ones in the main post are lotuses. The bunches in the gallery are button chrysanthemums if I am not mistaken.
Bliss! And you’re right … this tourist at least had never heard of this glorious, vibrant market – thank you for taking me 🙂
Glad you liked it 🙂 It was a riotous rainbow of colour! There is an amulet market nearby, that i would have loved to explore, but we ran out of time.
That’s good to know – both c an be on the “to find” list for my next Bangkok stopover!
Now that’s a colorful beginning!!! [Chinese new year today!]
I love your psychedelic post!!!!!
Thanks Marina, It was meant as a mood lifter after my earlier rant 🙂
..and it did just that!
🙂
🙂