This Bangkok's equivalent of London's Covent Garden or Paris's Les Halles. The choice ranges roses to daisies and chrysanthemums and then onto the more exotic such, orchids in every colour, shade and hue imaginable.

Bangkok's neighbouring provinces to the southwest of Nakon Prathom, Samut Sakon and Samut Songkram have a plentiful fresh water supply to nourish thousands of farms; hundreds of which produce millions of flowers every year. It's mainly the flowers from this area that are sold at Pak Klong Talat. Though the best roses in Thailand are grown in the cooler area of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

You will find beautiful and exotic flowers at a very affordable price. When ever I am flying home to London I will go to the market and buy an armful of orchids. As they flowers will get thirsty on the flight I buy a large bag of plastic files, and fill each with water and slot each orchid stem into the file. A cardboard flower box cost a couple of baht. I have two boxes of the most beautiful orchids for less than two hundred baht. Consider each box at the airport duty free shop would cost in excess of US$15.

Once I was looking for something a little special as decorations for a party in the UK and I bought a tall bunch of "Birds of Paradise". I cut the stems down to fit in a box, so I could easily carry them onto the aircraft as hand baggage. I sprayed the flowers heavily with water before packing and laid some moist tissues on the flowers do they didn't get too dry during the flight.

It's well worth the trip for the cost saving on the flowers and the experience of abundance of exotica.