Managing Night Market Anxiety: My Story in Koh Samui

Happy 2026 everyone! Hope you’re all doing well. I certainly am. This is my first article this New Year, and it’s about one thing that I was super duper nervous and overwhelmed about during my recent trip in December to Koh Samui in Thailand. Can you work out what it is from the image? I’m sure you can!

On one of the days, I was extremely anxious about going to the Lamai Night Market in Koh Samui, even though I was initially excited to go there initially that day. I was excited to go to eat some food and buy some clothes until… you guessed it… there was only spaghetti available at the pasta shop there. I only ate a few dumplings which was not enough. And after looking and looking at every single food market at the Lamai Night Market, I finally found some popcorn chicken I genuinely enjoyed. Night markets, night markets, night markets. You know how so overwhelming they can get if you’re unprepared and don’t know what to expect. Bright lights, crowded streets, noisy people, that’s everything it takes for a night market like Lamai to become overwhelming the first time you visit one.

There were some things that made me happy. I bought some clothes, specifically a dress and a skirt, that look absolutely gorgeous on me. Eating the popcorn chicken was also quite a fun experience. While eating it, I took a few deep breaths to relieve my anxiety. I also talked about my feelings with my parents. Those coping strategies helped me feel less anxious about going to Fisherman’s Village a few days after that. I ate delicious food at a proper restaurant and bought another beautiful and good-looking dress.

To be honest, experiencing both anxiety and excitement when visiting night markets is totally normal. It’s the coping strategies that you use that matter most. My deep breathing and talking about my feelings with my parents helped loads. Coping healthily won’t just help you cope with the anxiety in the moment; you’ll potentially also feel less anxious about the next night market visit. Also, you should look at photos of the market so you know what to expect. That genuinely helped me overcome all that anxiety.