Pai’s Saturday market
Written by Nolo Hub Pai
Updated by the Nolo team, October 2026
tl;dr
Every Saturday, the street around Bodhi Tree Park fills up with an artisan farmers market: organic veg, fruit and honey, fresh bakes and desserts, plant-based food, handmade clothes and second-hand finds. People wander the stalls, then take their food into the park to eat on the grass, while kids take over the playground and others practise yoga or walk the slacklines.
Also known as: Pai Saturday market · the market at Bodhi Park
The short answer
- When
- Saturdays, all year, from about 9am. Best 10am to noon; stalls wind down around 3pm
- Where
- Along the street around Bodhi Tree Park, right in front of Nolo Hub Pai
- What
- An artisan farmers market of food, bakes, crafts and second-hand stalls
- Paying
- Cash only
- Getting there
- A 10–15 minute walk from Walking Street, or park your scooter by the park
- Toilets
- Public ones behind the prosecutor’s office, or ask at a café
- Rubbish
- Use the stall and café bins when you buy from them
What you’ll find
Think of it as an artisan farmers market. Local farmers bring organic veg, fruit and honey, and the food stalls go on and on: homemade baked goods and desserts, fresh papaya salad, vegan-friendly curries, plant-based bowls, vegan sushi, fresh juices and shakes, kombucha, freshly brewed loose-leaf tea, homemade peanut butter, even slices of lasagna. In between there are handmade and hemp clothes, candles and lotions, work by local painters, and vintage and second-hand stalls. Now and then you’ll find old or locally made musical instruments, and a few souvenirs.
It runs all year, but high season brings the most stalls and the biggest choice.
How it works
The stalls run along the street that loops around Bodhi Tree Park, so you walk it much like Walking Street, then take your food into the park. That’s where the market really comes alive. People eat on the grass, play sports, walk slacklines and practise yoga, there’s often a group singing together, and the children have the playground. It’s quite the melting pot, with the free-spirited, hippie energy that made Pai famous for decades.
Bring a picnic blanket if you have one. People bring instruments too, for jam sessions under the trees. There’s something for kids as well, from sports to the occasional workshop; the Our Pai Family group on Facebook is the place to see what’s on.
Some stalls are set up by 8am, but for the full atmosphere, come between 10am and noon. The stalls start winding down around 3pm, though plenty of people stay on in the park until they’re ready to leave.
The Bodhi trees
The park is named after its Bodhi trees, several big ones that shade the grass. In Buddhism, the Bodhi tree is the one the Buddha sat under when he reached enlightenment, at Bodh Gaya in India.
Getting there
It’s a 10–15 minute walk from Walking Street, the same walk as to our hostel. If you come by scooter, there’s plenty of parking all around the park.
Good to know
It’s cash only, so bring baht. The park is no-smoking. Most stalls, and the cafés around the park, have bins you can use once you’ve bought something from them. For toilets, there are public ones behind the prosecutor’s office. The cafés and businesses around the park have them too, but always ask before you use theirs.
How it started
Photos from more than ten years ago show stalls by the park, but the Saturday market as it is today started in late 2020, during the Covid pandemic. Like the park’s playground, exercise equipment and platforms, which went in around 2019 while we were building Nolo, it was started by people in the community, and the local government made it more official later on.
Saturdays at Nolo
In high season, market mornings at Nolo are slow ones: guests wander over for food from the stalls, then spend the rest of the morning in the park or by our pool, before we head out on a group trip in the afternoon.
See where the trips go on our Activities page.