Pak Khlong Talat (Flower Market)

This guide to Pak Khlong Talat in Bangkok traces the market's odd double life: a pungent fish market under King Rama the Fifth in the late 1800s that city officials eventually pushed out, quietly replaced by flower and produce vendors by the 1950s who never left. It follows the trucks that still roll in from Nakhon Pathom and Samut Sakhon before midnight, loaded with jasmine and marigolds for the phuang malai garlands sold to monks and temple-goers each morning. Best visited before dawn, when the riverbank stalls are still stacking colour.