Pattaya has a night market. Every weekend in Theppasit road, a motley collection of stalls is set up, from which assorted tat is peddled. It’s a shambolic shrine to the mediocre and I always feel slightly depressed after visiting; although some of the food stalls are OK. She who must be obeyed enjoys her rummage through the mundane, but rarely comes home with anything more than additions to her already massive plastic hair-clip collection.
And then there is Myanmar. Cross the border at the Golden Triangle and you are immediately surrounded by men with baskets full of
cigarettes. “Cigarettes”, they cry, rather unnecessarily. I explain I don’t smoke. The cigarette cartons are lifted to reveal pills. “Viagra, Cialis!” I explain I don’t need them (at least, not at that moment). The pills are pushed aside to reveal disks. “Porn! Porn!” Clearly this is poor marketing. They should start with the porn. If they can sell that, then the follow-on need for a Viagra is more evident; and the traditional way to end a good shag is a cigarette. Porn. Viagra. Cigarette. It’s supply chain marketing perfection.
Never mind, judging by the rest of the market, the cigarettes and viagra will be fakes, and the porn disks will be a movie of someone called Debbie actually visiting Dallas and visiting her grandmother. With a border with China close by, the Myanmar market is a awash with copy goods. The iPhono (sic) looked quite realistic, until you tried to use it. I could have had a copy of almost any watch, apart from my Casio G-Shock which is too cheap to bother copying. And she who must be obeyed spent 250 baht (after some heavy bargaining), for four little handbags that were not made by Gucci but you could be fooled if you stood some distance away and closed at least one eye.
This monk was purchasing holy smokes:
Deep in one of the tiny alleyways, I ran into this. There is no escape.
And then there is the Chiang Mai Sunday Night Market. Roads are closed and stalls set up along the footpath. As this was happening right outside our hotel, it was impossible to avoid; but in fact it was a pleasure to walk around (although after three hours I felt we had done enough). What you won’t find in Pattaya or Myanmar is much evidence of people actually making things with their hands and putting them on sale. For want of a better word I will call it “crafts”, and there are many crafts to be found in Chiang Mai.
This is the hat seller:
A prayer before selling:
Do you have this in yellow?
More bags:
Buy stuff, then buy a box to put the stuff in:
Small stuffed toys in frames. Why?
Bracelets, or neck rings for very small Karen people:
Glass pets:
Let there be lights:
And there were lights:
The bird man:
Spinning the top:
Music and dance, of varying quality, was provided by aspiring artists with a donation tin close by:
The Chiang Mai Sunday Market scores very low on the tat-ometer, and high on charm. Don’t think I can face Theppasit again for a long, long time.
Comments 🔗
2010-01-25| Billy saysYou might think of renaming Theppassit to Cessapit
Who were your visitors? … was it the Smiths again? … did you have to buy all Colin’s beers? … has he put on any more weight? … we demand to know …
2010-01-25| Qon sayschiang mai is cool as long as you stick to the mountains and natural stuff. everything is dumbed down with peddling just like any other city in thailand.
2010-01-25| Spike saysBilly, Yes. No. Yes. And he is appallingly slow at doing anything.
Qon, I disagree. I found it to have a charm that is certainly missing in Pattaya. And the peddling is fine; we rented bikes for 60 baht a day and went all over the city.
2010-01-25| Lloyd says“Small stuffed toys in frames. Why?"
Have you ever heard the phrase “if you need to ask”, same same but different!
2010-01-25| Spike saysFortunately I didn’t need to ask because it was one of the few things that she who must be obeyed didn’t buy. Unlike the buffalo shaped hat….
2010-01-25| Billy saysIt is not an age thing, he was always appallingly slow at everything - but perfection in what was actually produced …. quite the opposite to me therefore … probably why I liked him :-)