This market is located near Ya Mo statue (Thao Suranaree monument), in the center of the city, just beside the 7-eleven. It’s under a beautiful old hotel in wood, one of the rare example of old buildings in this area.

At night, very late, it’s a popular restaurants for people after the bars close. On day time, 7 days a week, it’s an amulet and religious items markets.

Amulets are religious things made in order to protect you from trouble. They are very popular among Thai people, especially in the South. If you have them in a necklace, it should be an odd number, like 3, 5, 7 for better luck.

Believing that it brings luck, health, fortune…

Thai people believe that these objects can make them richer, or make them find a good partner, avoid a car accident, etc. This is why you often see them in cars…

Some other religious items are also sold, like statues, in wood, bronze, clay, etc. Their price can be very cheap to very expensive, depending on material, if it’s an original or not, the quality of the work, the age of the item, etc. They will often say: ‘This one is from Ayutthaya….’ as this was the capital of Thailand in the past and objects from Ayutthaya are praised with Thais. Some people can imitate and copy objects that looks old…but they are brand new. You have to pay attention to each details if you want to buy an object of a certain value.

Some artists are working in the market. More expensive objects will be kept in secure places. Some buddhas can worth a lot of money…just like any piece of art in the world. However, here, they also have a religious connotation.

If you buy a buddha and put it in your house, it should be at a high level. Buddha should always be higher then you. It’s a belief and a tradition.

Differents Kind of Objects at the Amulets Market in Korat

You might also find jade objects. Again be careful, jade can be very cheap or very expensive. Avoid buying if you don’t know how it worths. Jade price is connected with the color of the jade, is purity (if it has cracks or other colors in it), if it’s bright or mat, and much more.

This market is quite large but these pictures were taken on a Sunday afternoon, 2 weeks ago. Sunday is the quiet day. You can see a lot of activity in the week days. We suggest you to visit in on week day (Monday to Friday) between 10 am to 4pm.

You will see some stands also on the street. They also sell amulets in a section of saveone market.

Links:

• Wikipedia on Amulets
• Amulets market in Bangkok

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Useful Legal Resources for Expats in Thailand

• Usufruct Agreement in Thailand
• Divorce in Thailand: Complete Guide
• Social Security in Thailand for Expats
• Same-Sex Marriage in Thailand

Written by Sebastien H. Brousseau in 2022. (Aftermath will be another article!)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastianbrousseau/

Monkey bar is probably the most popular expats place in Korat. It’s located in front of the old “Sri Pattana Hotel” (now closed) on Suranaree road. Stuart (English) and Wayne (American) will welcome you with good music and excellent food.

Monkey Bar is one of the only place with a pool table in the city. They have improved drastically the food which is consistent, good value and excellent. You can have Indian curries, pizza, burgers, but also Thai food, English breakfast and they do a special roast (English style) on Sunday. They have live music, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.

I personally like their fish and chips (also the one at Fat Boy Tavern) their Ka Prow Pizza and my Canadian background love their chicken parmesan. It reminds me what I ate younger in Montreal.

So if you want to speak English, meet other expats, play pool, have a nice western meal, watch sports on TV, or have a live bank on weekends, the Monkey Bar is for you. Another popular expats place is the River Sports Bar but that one is in Joho, maybe 10km from the city.

The Monkey Bar is located where “Check Inn” was before. Under a place with snooker table. You will find it here: https://goo.gl/maps/MaMy4CjWsPAi3WUh7

Don’t drink and drive. Use the services of Pee Moo, a tuk tuk driver that is always parked at the Monkey Bar.

About This Place

Fat Boy Tavern – Western and Thai Pizza Bar. Located at 1688/19 Mitraphap Road, Fat Boy Tavern has established itself as Korat premium pizza destination with authentic Italian-style thin-crust pizzas. Popular spot for locals and expatriates in the region.

Have questions about living or working in Thailand? Contact Sebastien Brousseau – French-speaking lawyer based in Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima).

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Useful Legal Resources for Expats in Thailand

• Usufruct Agreement in Thailand
• Divorce in Thailand: Complete Guide
• Social Security in Thailand for Expats
• Same-Sex Marriage in Thailand

I went to Phnom Penh in February 2023 expecting not to like it. I stayed for almost a month. By the end, I had not changed my mind about Cambodia in general, but I had changed my mind about Phnom Penh specifically — which is a more interesting result than the one I had planned for.

I had been in Ho Chi Minh City for the previous month. Crossing into Cambodia by land — that strange overland border crossing where the visa stamps take longer than the actual journey — was a study in contrasts. Vietnam is loud and propulsive. Cambodia, on the other side of the same flat country, is quieter, slower, and weighted with a history that takes effort to set aside.

What Phnom Penh Actually Is

Phnom Penh is a French colonial city built on the confluence of three rivers — the Mekong, the Tonle Sap, and the Bassac — that has been through an extraordinary amount in the last century. Bombed during the Vietnam War. Emptied during the Khmer Rouge. Rebuilt slowly, then quickly, then chaotically in the 2010s when foreign investment arrived. Today it is a city of two million people that functions as a real capital — government, embassies, NGOs, a startup scene that is finding its feet — sitting on top of one of the most traumatic recent histories of any city in the world.

The riverside promenade has been redeveloped. The Royal Palace — golden roofs, manicured gardens — is open to visitors and worth a morning. The Russian Market and the Central Market are both functional rather than touristic. The food is good, the prices are low, and the rents in 2023 were ridiculous if you were paid in any hard currency.

The Heaviness

I went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum once. I did not need to go twice. Some of the heaviness of Phnom Penh sits in places like Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields outside the city. Some of it sits in conversations you have with Cambodians of a certain generation, where the silences mean things you eventually understand. Some of it sits in the architecture — the old colonial buildings that survived because they were too useful to destroy.

I had read Loung Ung’s First They Killed My Father years before. Standing in the actual rooms where the events happened changes the abstraction into something else. You leave Tuol Sleng quieter than you arrived. The rest of the day is harder to spend lightly.

The Daily Life That Works

What surprised me about a month in Phnom Penh was how liveable the daily rhythm became. Coffee at one of the dozens of small cafes that have opened in the last few years — proper espresso, made by people who care about it, for $2. Lunch at a Khmer place where rice and a curry and a soup come to $4. Afternoon work at a co-working space or a hotel lobby with reliable wifi. Evenings on Bassac Lane — the strip of small bars in a couple of side streets that has become Phnom Penh’s most genuinely social neighbourhood.

The expat community is interesting. A mix of long-term Cambodia hands who have been here since the late 90s, NGO workers cycling through 2-3 year postings, and a recent wave of remote workers who have figured out that Phnom Penh costs about a third of Bangkok and a fifth of Singapore for a comparable quality of life. The conversations are good. The dinners go late.

What Phnom Penh Is Not

It is not Bangkok. The infrastructure is thinner. The traffic is worse for a city of its size. There is no metro. The pavements are unfinished in places. The power goes out occasionally. If you need a city that performs at the level of Bangkok or Singapore, Phnom Penh will frustrate you.

It is also not Yangon or Vientiane. Those cities still feel like they are catching up to themselves. Phnom Penh has decided what it is and is mostly delivering on it. The decision involved some trade-offs. The chaos is real. The construction is everywhere. The traffic is genuinely bad.

Should You Go?

For a few days as part of a Cambodia trip — yes, the museum and the riverside and the markets and a couple of dinners. For a longer stay, the calculation is different. Phnom Penh rewards patience and is not for everyone. If you are willing to accept a city that has weight and complications, that is not optimised for visitors, and that asks something of you in return — you will find it more interesting than its reputation suggests.

I left after almost a month with more respect for Phnom Penh than I had arrived with. I would go back. Not for a week. Maybe for another month, when the work allows.