Millions of mortars

Off on a morning trip to Ang Sila with neighbour Nik; our target being the factories that produce mortars and pestles.

It is a fact of life in Asia that any successful business is immediately copied by everyone else in the vicinity; such that you find entire streets selling exactly the same thing. I always feel sorry for the poor sod who set up the first stall selling, say, washing machine spares; only to find that his little money spinner diluted over time as every shop around him starts selling the same pulleys, motors and whatever else goes into making a washing machine.

And so it is in Ang Sila. Many years ago, at the dawn of time, someone decided to make and sell mortars and pestles. They sold well, too well, because in no time at all the whole damn town was selling them.

Welcome to Ang Sila. Want to buy a mortar and pestle? You’re in luck. Want to buy a Mars bar? What do you think this is, a city?

Although the place has a reputation for crafting these marvellous artifacts, we completely failed to find anyone making them. Maybe they are all made in China nowadays and shipped in to tempt the unwitting mortar and pestle purchasers who throng to Ang Sila from all over Thailand (although not on Tuesdays according to our onsite market research). But we did find endless shops selling the same goods.

Not content to offer every variation of mortar and pestle, the vendors have branched into other must have household items, such as this:

Quite ridiculous, who looks like that? Oh….

Quite an amazing little kid, whose rendition of a smile….

…..gradually morphed into an excellent impression of someone having a monster shit.

Or maybe it was more than an impression, I know nothing about the plumbing of children.

Our chance encounter with this photogenic crapper more than made up for an absence of factories to photograph. And, as further compensation, we also paid a visit to the local Chinese temple which provided an hour of excellent photo opportunities. But that’s another post.

Photos: Panasonic GX1 with Olympus 75mm lens

Comments 🔗

2012-10-30 | Spanky says

The kid is great. On your accurate photo tests how close is the focusing distance on the 75? I have been dodging hurricanes and shooting on the Canon so I haven’t played much with the 75.

2012-10-30 | biggrtiggr says

Which is the mortar and which is the pestle??

2012-10-30 | Grant says

The mortar is the bowl, the pestle is the tool.

2012-10-31 | Grant says

The ‘clumping’, of businesses in LoS can be frustrating, or convenient if you have local knowledge. I know that if I want bricks I borrow the aunt’s pick-up and head for the brick kilns of Bang Pahan or if I want what the Americans quaintly term ’lumber’ I head for the wood yards of Nakhon Luang. East of Nakhon Nayok, on the road towards Sa Kaeo, way out in the wop-wops is a two or three kilometre long clump of shacks selling every possible kind of broom. Don’t bother stopping to try and buy one, they’re wholesale only, minimum 12! My favourite is ‘coffin corner’ at Suphan Buri. I always want to stop and have a browse around but the War Department just goes momentarily deaf, averts her gaze and drives a little faster…

2012-10-31 | Spike says

I spent almost a day researching this, with a rather complex test rig involving stepping gears, a sliding track and laser based measuring mechanisms. Through a series of thirty seven self-checking routines, I was able to determine that the minimum focus distance of this lens is 0.84 metres.

Rumours that I actually typed “olympus 75mm closest focusing distance” into Google five minutes ago are completely untrue.

2012-10-31 | Grant says

…and should, as always, be completely disregarded although young Spanky will probably want to borrow your rig to calculate the dimensions of the perfect Russian, right after he’s used it to calculate the VNE of his Buick…

2012-10-31 | Spanky says

Thank you for your reply. I could have Googled it but I gave you meaning and purpose in your rapidly diminishing life. No need to thank me.

2012-10-31 | Pete says

The “clumping together” of businesses isn’t limited to Thailand. Here in Oman, every other shop (and quite a few of the ones in between in some places) are signposted “Foodstuffs and Luxuries”. They all seem to have a few plastic footballs hanging outside them as well, which to my mind are neither foodstuffs nor luxuries.

I first went to Ang Sila in the late 1980’s, and there were actually people making the granite mortars on the one small street that went through the town. The sound of multiple hammers on stone was quite fascinating.

Did you venture to Khao Sam Muk on your trip to Ang Sila? The monkeys are quite photogenic, if you can stop them stealing your camera gear!

2012-11-01 | Jock says

The “clumping together” of businesses can actually work in your favour if you happen to be on a pub crawl in the Temple Bar area of Dublin, Rose Street in Edinburgh, or any street in DownTown Aberdeen !!

2012-11-01 | Grecian Ern says

… and Pattaya Soi 6?

2012-11-01 | Spanky says

54 to 56 bars according to the last count I was given. Not that I know anything about that.