Thong Sala Walking Street (Saturday Market)

Every Saturday evening, Thong Sala's Chinese Street — the road with the post office on it, just to the right as you come out from the main pier — shuts down to traffic and turns into the busiest food market on the island. It starts around 5pm and runs into the evening.

This is the one weekly event that seems to pull in everyone at once: locals doing their weekly shopping, long-term expats treating it as their regular Saturday dinner, and tourists who stumbled onto it by accident and end up staying for hours. Stalls cover the full range of Thai street food — grilled skewers, pad thai, curries, fresh fruit, plus a fair amount of clothes and souvenir stalls mixed in between the food.

Tips for going

• Go hungry and graze — the whole point is trying several stalls rather than one big meal
• Arrive around 5:30–6pm before it gets fully packed, or later in the evening once the initial rush thins out
• Cash only at most stalls — bring small notes