Bangla Night Market

Two markets in one plot, and the others it gets confused with

Covered bazaar

Narrow aisles of copy sneakers, designer-label bags, soccer jerseys, Muay Thai shorts, phone cases and souvenirs. Prices start high and haggling is expected.

Open-air food court

Cooking stalls around shared tables. Pick seafood from the tanks to be grilled, or order pad thai, skewers, mango sticky rice or roti. Each stall is paid separately in cash.

Not this market

Banzaan Fresh Market is behind Jungceylon, about 500 m away. Malin Plaza is at the south end of Patong, and OTOP Market is further down Rat-U-Thit Road. All three are separate places.

Bangla Night Market is at the inland end of Bangla Road, the Rat-U-Thit Road end, right beside Illuzion and about 140 m from Jungceylon. If you walk up from the beach, keep going until the bars run out and the grills start. It's two markets in one plot. One half is a covered bazaar of copy sneakers, designer-label bags, soccer jerseys, phone cases and souvenirs. The other half is an open-air food court ringed by cooking stalls and shared tables.

The food court is why most people come, and it's built for eating fast before a night on Bangla. There's pad thai, satay and grilled squid skewers, mango sticky rice, roti, and scorpions on a stick for the dare. Seafood is the centerpiece. You pick a fish, prawns or lobster from the tanks, the stall cooks it, and you carry the plate to a table yourself. Each stall is paid separately, in cash.

I'd treat the seafood like any tourist-strip purchase. Ask the price per kilo, watch it go on the scale, and agree the total out loud before it's cooked. The complaints in the reviews are almost all about a number that changed between ordering and paying. In the bazaar, prices open high and are meant to come down, so haggle and be ready to walk away. Don't confuse this with Banzaan Fresh Market behind Jungceylon or Malin Plaza at the south end of Patong. Those are separate markets with their own hours.