Every first weekend of the month the city of Rayong comes together for one of the coolest night markets I’ve been to in Thailand.

The market takes place on Yomjinda road, home to some of the city of Rayong’s oldest buildings and an area with a lot of character.

You get the sense of this right away when you turn onto the cleanly paved stone road, which forbade use of any type of vehicles during the market.

The market is part art show, part antiques fair, and you guessed it— EATING FEST!

There’s so much food. And just like the people of Rayong, the types of food available is made up cuisine from all different regions of Thailand.

The kapi (ข้าวคลุกกะปิ) man!

Rice cooked with Thai shrimp paste and all the fixins’ ข้าวน้ำพริกกะปิ

There’s finger food!

Everyone loves miang kham (เมี่ยงคำ) aka jungle tacos, right?

Also, there’s something special about Rayong’s padthai (ผัดไทยระยอง).

The sauce they use is a tad sweeter and to me a bit more flavorful. Although if you planned to enjoy it from this vendor, you had to wait in line!

Old school donuts and a rainbow of curries!

Part of the reason the market has so much character is because the event is well organized with some important regulations to keep things fun.

The Thai shrimp paste fried rice with a multitude of toppings in a lotus leaf (ข้าวคลุกน้ำพริกกะปิห่อใบบัว)

The Thai shrimp paste fried rice with a multitude of toppings in a lotus leaf (ข้าวคลุกน้ำพริกกะปิห่อใบบัว)

The regulations include keeping all vehicles out of the market area and a blanket ban on styrofoam products.

Those rules don’t keep things from being fun and I was still able to pull off quite the durian heist!

Although, trying to get away by riding the shoulders of a six foot Japanese dude didn’t exactly help me escape inconspicuously.

If you’re the creative type you’ll fit right in.

There are galleries along the path, street artists, and occasional creative activities you can join in on.

Unfortunately for this kid, no matter how old he gets, he’ll never be able to live down this hair cut.

On top of all the art there’s also traditional Thai shadow puppets and 70’s voice over movies with people live dubbing (HAY-LARIOUS to see two people do all the voices— even more so if you understand the Thai).

You’ll also notice that often both the people attending and the vendors are encouraged to don traditional Thai garb like this woman making kow kriap wow (ข้าวเกรียบว่าว).

Singing, dancing, and especially hoarding is encouraged.

There are entire houses who open up with antiquities dating back twenty or thirty years.

Along with vintage cars, motorcycles, and street food carts.

In additional to the street vendors there are a bunch of restaurants along Yomjinda walking street where you can eat.

The most famous restaurant is Baan Kru Moo (ครูบ้านหมู) where you can try a spicy local Rayong style curry.

Also along the Yomjinda walking street is also Gelato 44 Degrees which we shared last week!

Ice cream kisses and bye from Rayong!

Monthly Rayong Night Market on Yomjinda Walking Street

Just remember one of the reasons the market is special is because it only happens once a month and it’s always the first weekend of the month. The market takes places from approximately 4pm to 9pm on the first Friday and Saturday.

Thanks for reading. If you get a chance to join this cool night market you want regret it!

P.S. – They do have their own Facebook page called Yomjinda Road Rayong (ถนนคนเดินยมจินดา ระยอง) with more photos, but the majority of the info is in Thai.