After spending a day out on the easy Bang Saen Beach, a visit to Chon Buri province, a pit stop for tasty delicacies is quite an excellent idea.
Less than a mile from the relaxing beach, this small section of Sukhumvit Road is always busy with cars moving. Parking space is quite rare here, but people keep coming anyway. It is Nong Mon Market, the old charming Shopping venue in town.
You will be amazed by a wide array of merchandises offered here. Most of them are processed seafood such as sun-dried squids, dried shrimps, dried razor clam, shrimp Paste, and fish sauce. Take a stroll, and you will be lured by the mouthwatering smell of freshly cooked dishes such as deep-fried fish, Hor Mok (Thai curry fish custard, fish cake), and Hoi Jo Pu (deep fried crab meat roll). Tons of Thai-style snacks ranging from sweet banana crisps, sweet taro crisps, sweetened fruit preserves to other typical desserts will pick you up promptly, for sure.
The signature desserts offered at Nong Mon is Kanom Chak (grilled sweet sticky rice flour in nipa palm leaves) and Khao Lam (sweet custardy sticky rice in bamboo trunk). Kanom Chak stalls can be noticed from smoke billowing from stoves while rows of the bamboo trunk are the mark of Khao Lam. If you buy Khao Lam, do not forget to ask the vendors to crack them open with a hammer or a knife for the ease of opening the bamboo and digging the treasure kept inside.
How to get there: Nong Mon Market is situated on Sukhumvit Road (highway 3), 64 miles east of Bangkok. Estimated time traveling from Pattaya to Nong Mon Market: 30minutes