The Road to ... Maehongson

A Lisu Child Waits For Her Mother to Complete ATM Transaction In  Soppong

Today I was going to write a blog about the shaving of young boys heads prior to the start of this year's Poi Sang Long Festival in Maehongson.  However a news item this morning persuaded me to write instead a blog about the road, well actually roads, to Maehongson.

Early this morning, a bus from Udonthani, our home town, to Chiang Mai, the jumping off point to Maehongson, ran off the road and over a cliff killing five passengers and injuring 51 others.  It took over two hours for rescuers to commence extracting the people from the wreckage.  In addition to the coincidence of us returning home by way of Chiang Mai , the accident occurred on the route that we drove four years ago to Chiang Mai on our way to Maehongson.

Sadly and unfortunately, tragic bus accidents here in Thailand are all too common.  We used to travel to Bangkok by night bus but after seeing the wreckage of several buses over the past 6 years and reading of many fatal accidents we no longer travel by bus.

Besides the normal risks of badly lighted roads, kamikaze motor-bicyclists  poor lane demarcation  and  vehicles going 30 KPH (20 mph) and vehicles going 110 KPH (66 mph) all sharing the same two lane 90 KPH Max road, travel by bus has additional risks of driver fatigue, improper or non-existent maintenance, speeding, and amphetamine abuse by drivers.

There are many stories about reckless bus drivers.  My favorite is about the bus where the driver would not slow down despite the pleas and screams of the passengers.  He did slow down and drive more safely when one of the passengers, an off duty policeman, walked up to the driver and put a pistol to his head.  Having ridden on many buses and being aware of some other stories about police here, I believe the story.  Perhaps this anecdotal evidence could be used in the USA to resist gun control efforts and encourage "carry and conceal" permits - you never know when you will encounter a berserk bus driver!

For this years trip we decided to go south from our home rather than going west like we did the previous trip and that the buses do.  Our directions to Maehongson were Highway 2, Highway 12, Highway 11, Highway 107 and Highway 1095.  Taking the bus route saves about one hour but adds about 3 more highways and the roads travel through many more villages and shares the narrow roads with more buses.

Both routes take you through national parks where there are warning signs "Watch Out for the Elephant" and graphics indicating elephant crossings.  These warnings are for wild elephants.  We did not see any elephants or any evidence that elephants had used the road recently.  I was definitely not disappointed.  I do not want to encounter a wild elephant along a remote road either in or out of our vehicle.

North of Chiang Mai, you leave Highway 107 and take Highway 1095 to Maehongson. Highway 1095.   Unfortunately we had to drive the roughly 130 km to Pai in the dark and worse yet in the haze created by many fires burning in the forests through which the road twists and turns.  The road is not lighted and in many places there is neither a center line demarcation or demarcation of the road's edges.  Several times, I made right hand turns not confident that the wheels on the far side of the truck were going to remain on the road and not go off into the abyss.  After 15 hours of driving we finally arrived at our hotel in Pai, much to our relief.

Soppong - Lisu women wait for transportation to their village

The next morning with good light and a great night's sleep, we set off on Highway 1095 for Maehongson.  After about two hours, we stopped at the market of Soppong also known as Pangmapha.  The morning market in Soppong is extremely interesting.   Hill tribe peoples of the surrounding area come to sell and buy necessities, foodstuff, and other items need to maintain their lifestyles in the hills.  Lahu, Lishu, Karen, and Shan people commingle along the sides of Highway 1095 each group distinguished by their distinctive clothing and hairstyles. 

Lisu Women Selling Their Goods In Soppong

A Lahu (Masur) Vendor

After taking photographs and purchasing some fruit for the remainder of our journey, we left Soppong behind.  Two hours and many many curves, we finally arrived in Maehongson.

Young Lisu Woman At Family Table in Restaurant

Local Markets

On New Years Day morning, on our way out to Tahsang Village, we stopped at the local market in Kumphawapi.  We needed some offerings and food for our visit to a special Monk near the village where my Mother-in-Law was born. 

 

At the local markets, just about anything can be purchased - clothing, hardware, prepared foods, flowers, plants, DVDs, CDs, meat, seafood, turtles, eels, snakes, frogs - basically if it is alive or was once alive, it is for sale. Local people and people from outlying villages shop at these local markets.

In all villages there are small, very small, markets where villagers can buy certain necessities such as cooking oil, sauces, soap, shampoo, canned mackerel, soda, beer, whiskey, snack foods and sometimes eggs and a few vegetables. These markets supplement villager's shopping trips to the local markets.

Local markets are located throughout towns and cities in Isaan. In rural areas, there are markets set up alongside the road where people gather to sell and buy. Some of the markets are temporary setups on specified evenings of the week (night markets).

Duang Buying Some Live Eels to Bring to Monk

Local markets are a combination of indoor permanent facilities and temporary outside facilities. The indoor facilities are large dark open sided buildings or a series of connected buildings with corrugated sheet metal roofs. Inside there are rows and rows of fixed raised tables where the vendors set out their goods to sell. Outside facilities consist of a low raised wood rough platforms typically covered with plastic tablecloths upon which the merchandise is displayed along with a small spring scale to weigh the goods.

A large umbrella protects the goods and vendor from the elements. Sometimes there is a small plastic chair or aluminum lawn chair for the vendor but quite often they sit atop the platform along with the goods.  

We were shopping at the local market because the food is cheaper than at the big international stores, and most importantly the selection for the types of foods that the Lao Loum people eat is much greater there.

Fresh Food Being Cooked Over a Charcoal Fire

Shopping in the local market is not just the matter of going in, grabbing what you need, paying for it and getting out. These local markets in Isaan also are centers of gossip and social interaction. People end up meeting their friends and relatives at the market so they stop and talk. The vendors also join in and ask questions about family matters. The simple task of selecting vegetables to buy also requires an involved conversation - to ensure the best quality, best price and most likely most importantly of all be perceived as a "kuhn jai dai" - a good person, someone with a good heart.

Part of the Fresh Fish and Seafood Section of the Market

Dried Fish For Sale

Pig's Heads At A Station of One of the Pork Vendors

Scattered throughout the interior of the indoor portion of the Kumphawapi market there are large charcoal grills where fish and meat are cooked. Large metal ducts take the smoke and fumes up and out through the sheet metal roof. Cooked products are lined along the counter for sale. In other areas people use propane gas burners to cook sweets. The sweets are typically corn or rice with coconut as well as sugar added. I particularly enjoy the corn kernel- shredded coconut waffles fresh out of the waffle iron.

Fresh Fruit, Mangosteens, 25 Baht a Kilogram ($0.38 a pound)

Another Fruit Vendor, Everyday Is "Wear What You Want Day" At The Talat Sao

Inside the market the aisles are very narrow as well as crowded. We had arrived around 7:30 A.M. so it was the height of the morning market rush.  In addition to buying items for the day and days ahead, many people were buying their breakfast. You need to be careful walking because the concrete floors are not level, have abrupt changes in elevation, and are in various states of disrepair. Lighting levels are low inside the market with illumination provided by a small number of exposed fluorescent tubes and bare light bulbs. Interestingly, many of the bare light bulbs are now the eco-friendly fluorescent type. An occasional cat or street dog will also wander by to further complicate navigating through the market.

A Stall Selling Dry Goods and Some Goods that are Wet in Bottles

Some of the vendors, typically those who are selling canned goods have updated their booths with small TVs or stereos. This provides some entertainment and distraction for their children or grandchildren who accompany the vendors.

Typical Thai Desserts Being Made For Sale

Soup's On!

Between the sights, sounds, and smells, a stop at the local market is always entertaining as well as interesting.  There is also no telling what you may learn about just anyone, too.  I have written several times before that there are no secrets in Isaan.  The local market specializes in ensuring that and for free!

Duang Headed Out of the Talat Sao in Kumphawapi

 

Fresh Plaa-Muck

 

 

New Years Day is celebrated in Thailand as well as Chinese New Year, Thai New Year (Songkran) and various Hill Tribe new year celebrations.

All the New Year celebrations are times for families and friends to come together for eating, drinking, singing and dancing.  These occasions are also times when special merit making, as opposed to merriment making, can be earned through offerings as well as special religious rituals.

Just as there are special foods associated with specific holidays such as Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, New Years Jan 1 is a time for many people in Thailand to eat plaa muck, which you most likely know better as squid or calamari.

On our way out to Tahsang Village on 1 Jan to gather up the clan to go see a special Monk, we stopped at the market in Kumphawapi to pick up some items for the trip as well as offerings to the Monks.  We had gotten up early at 5:00 AM so we arrived at the market around 7:00 A.M.

It appears that the recent opening of the Tesco-Lotus Superstore just down the road from the traditional Kumphawapi market has not adversely affected the talat sao (morning market).  The market well well stocked and it was just as crowded as when I first encountered it 6 years ago.  I find that reassuring because just as I believe in local solutions for local problems and conditions, I believe that the more a community can be self-sufficient the better served its members will be.  Keeping the profits of groceries in the community is more beneficial and more market responsive to the local community's needs than shipping it off to large urban centers or worst of all - offshore multinational corporations.

After we had finished our shopping, which will be subject of a separate blog, we returned to our truck parked across the street in the large vacant lot next to the banana seller's stall.  I heard an announcement from a truck's P.A. system and asked Duang what it was all about.  She told me that the man was selling "plaa muck" (squid).  I looked and saw about three cars from our truck, a man in the back of a pick up truck filled with several plastic coolers.  I wandered over to check it out.

Fresh Live Squid For Sale - 400 Miles from the Gulf of Thailand

The vendor had opened one of the plastic ice chests and with a wood stick was stirring up the water in it.  The water exploded with black liquid and the frenzied movements of white withering squid appendages - the cooler was filled with live squid.  Live squid - beautifully formed, firm and with bright yellows eyes - 400 miles, 8 hours from the Gulf of Thailand!

Duang caught up with me and as I took photographs, she translated my questions and the vendor's replies.  The man and his wife had gone to the docks and purchased the squid right off of the boats that night.  After loading up their plastic containers, they drove 8 hours through the night to Kumphawapi.  Although New Years in January is an official one day holiday, many people take 5 days for their celebrating.  The squid vendor will remain in the area and return to his home in Bangkok after five days.

Stirring the Squid

The man had installed a series of battery powered aerators and pumps to keep the squid alive.  Similar arrangements are also used in the market to keep the fish, eels, and prawns fresh and more importantly alive.  It doesn't get any fresher than being alive.  There is no concern about purchasing bad seafood when it is still wiggling when you leave the market.

The man tended the squid while his wife handled the customers.  There was a simple spring scale on the back of the tailgate and the money was kept in a pouch secured around her waist. Customers selected their squid from several that had been removed from a large cooler and displayed in a plastic tray.  The vendor's wife weighed the selected squid on the scale, placed them in plastic bag and collected the money from the customer.

I was very impressed for many reasons.  The first reason was the realization that although I was 400 miles from the ocean I was able to buy fresher squid than most of my friends who live near the water back in Connecticut.  I could buy it not because of any technological advancement that Thailand has over the USA but because of an individual's initiative to meet a market's needs.

The market system of Southeast Asia, for me, represents a paradox.  Although the markets do not have much in terms of commercial refrigeration and advanced packaging, I believe that the food is actually fresher for the consumer.  Without widely used refrigeration and packaging, the food has to be fresher.  Any spoilage would be obvious to the consumer who can handle the items, inspect the items, and smell the items before purchasing.

I was secondly impressed with the ability of a person here in Thailand with some initiative to create a business.  I can only begin to imagine the permits and licenses required if I were to decide to create a similar business back in the USA such as driving up to Maine and filling up ice chests with lobsters to then keep alive and drive to New York City (roughly 400 miles) to sell in some parking lot. For a start I know that there would be business license(s), commercial plates required for the truck, health permit(s), tax permits, and God knows what regulations to be followed for transporting live seafood.

Here is Thailand as well as countries such as Vietnam, Laos, China it is very simple for a person to set up a family business.  It is all left up to the individual's imagination and initiative. As the Nike slogan says ... They "Just do it".

In the USA if you were to hire a teenager every week to care for your children while you and your spouse went out for an evening or two, you, to properly follow the law, would have to consider the babysitter to be your employee.  As an employee, you would have to have a taxpayer number, make Social Security contributions (old age, and health) on behalf of your employee, withhold the employee's required Social Security contributions, withhold Federal taxes from your employee's wages, withhold state taxes from your employee's wages, contribute to unemployment insurance for the employee, report all kinds of information to both the State and Federal Government. You would also be responsible for maintaining all kinds of records.  Oh - you are also responsible to first determine that your babysitter has the legal right to work in the USA.  Now is that any way to run a country or to encourage people to start businesses or even to hire any one who has not established themselves as a business?

The Battle Has Been Lost, Hopefully The War Will Continue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The battle has been lost but I hope that the war will continue.  What?  Is this another bitter article regarding American elections.  No!  Is this about whatever may or may have happened in Libya? Nope, not that either!  What about something to do with what may happen in Iran?  No, not today.

Today's blog is actually a follow up and update to a blog that I wrote at the end of November 2009,

http://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2009/11/big-box-battle-struggle-against.html

"Big Box Battle - The Struggle Against The Multinationals" documented the battle to prevent the British multinational grocer, Tesco-Lotus, from building a big box store in Kumphawapi.  Local people, suspected Chinese merchants, had posted a sign in Kumphawapi stating along the lines that if you helped Tesco-Lotus to locate in Kumphawapi you would die.  Perhaps not necessarily a direct death threat but in a land of many spirits, karma, and things that go bump in the night something to take seriously.

Well now three years later, Lotus-Tesco will shortly be opening their Kumphawapi "Super-Store"  This pains me on a personal level.  Since the exit of the French multinational grocer, Carrefour, I have been doing most of my grocery shopping at Lotus-Tesco in Udonthani.  I have many fond memories of when I first became associated with Kumphawapi of shopping at the local market with Duang. Some of those memories and experiences were written about in August 2009:

http://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2009/08/local-shopping-shopping-for-locals.html

Duang and I continue to use the Kumphawapi market as well as the local small shops to purchase food, beverages, and household items for the family out in Tahsang Village.  Every shopping trip to the markets and shops has been a pleasant experience and sometimes even an adventure. My blogs are not so much about my personal experiences but rather the documentation of some unique aspects of a special culture - a special culture like so many other cultures that under attack today by the forces of globalization and one world governance.

Outdoors Portion of Kumphawapi Market

On Father's Day here two days ago, we shopped at the market in Kumphawapi.  It was more than a shopping experience it was also a social experience.  Many of the vendors recognized Duang and had to share some kind words or gossip with her.  I was content to wander around taking photographs in an attempt to capture the atmosphere of a way of life here in Thailand.  Soon I had attracted the attention of some men who good naturedly pointed out things that I should photograph.

Fresh Bananas For Sale - $0.15 USD A Pound

Besides the social and communal aspects that the local markets provide, they also provide a greater variety and higher degree of quality of produce, fish, and meats.  The sellers at the local markets are independent vendors.  They pay rent for the space that they occupy at the market.  The market provides space and electricity.  The individual vendors provide the fixtures and equipment.

If they sell bad product, they will quickly be out of business.  Since most items are not packaged, it is easy to determine if a product is not at its freshest. The vendors are not capitalized so they must ensure that their customers are satisfied and perhaps just as important trust them. The market vendors are also more sensitive and responsive to the needs of their customers.  They have no corporate mangers to please, no corporate policies or procedures to follow or to hide behind.  All profits also remain within the local economy - locals helping locals.  Local solutions for local problems and situations.

Vegetables For Sale At Kumphawapi Market

Vendors often sell products from their local farms or products that they have gathered from local waters or nearby land.  Many local people have started to grow mushrooms as a cottage industry.  The fruits of their labors, both in variety and quantity, was readily apparent at the market.  There were also many tables of fresh vegetables; unpackaged vegetables that you could closely inspect, and smell before making your choice.

Fresh Fish Being Prepared For Sale

You Can't Find Fish Any Fresher Than These

One of the vendors that attracted my attention during our last visit to the market was the pumahlai vendor.  Pumahlai are fresh floral arrangements that are given as offerings to Buddha in the Wats, hung from rear view mirrors inside of motor vehicles, and given to people as gifts as well as demonstrations of respect.  In urban areas you can buy pumahlai at the intersections of major roads and at the markets.  They typically cost from 20 to 80 baht ($0.60 USD to $2.60) depending upon size and type of flowers used.  They are available year long and are one of the affordable luxuries that add to the quality of life here in Thailand.

Mother and Son Making Pumahlai For Sale

Since we visited the market on a holiday, there was no school in session.  The pumahlai vendor had her school aged son helping her to make and sell the floral arrangements.  here in Thailand and in Isaan in particular children help contribute to the family's economic welfare.  In extreme cases, such as was the case with Duang, children have to leave school after four years to work in the fields.  In other cases the children help to sell handicrafts along the highway when school is not in session.  Children are not sheltered for a long time from the responsibilities and accountability of adulthood or at least the awareness of contributing to the family's welfare.

You can buy products other than meat, fish, vegetables, and flowers at the Kumphawapi Market.  There is a section where you can buy fresh baked goods - one of my favorites being fresh waffles with corn and shredded coconut in them - great for breakfast and good for any other time.  In the covered portion of the market, there are stalls that sell dry goods and canned goods.  Other stalls sell the ingredients necessary for betelnut chewing - large sacks of the stuff!  Some stalls sell clothing, while others sell toys.

A Clothing Vendor At The Market

The market also has bathrooms, bathrooms where you need to pay a small fee to use them.  I always want to be honest and truthful in what I write in this blog so I have to  admit that I much much more prefer the bathrooms at the multinational big box stores than at the local markets.  I actually prefer the sugar cane fields to the bathrooms at the local markets.  This just reinforces the adage that no one is perfect no place is perfect either.  The market does provide a janitorial service to keep the area somewhat under control.

Sweeping Up At the Market

Our visit to the market was accented with the sounds of cleavers chopping fish or meat, various radios and CD players blaring ethnic music, the rasping sounds of fish being scaled, the din of good natured banter between vendors and customers, as well as the scratching sound of the market janitor sweeping up with her long stiff broom.  The music was so infectous that the man who was pointing out things for me started to dance.  I joined him in dancing Isaan style much to the amusement of everyone.  The vendors told Duang to bring me back some day - some day soon!

Janitor Wishing Me A Happy Father's Day

Adjacent to the market are several small shops that specialize in selling dry goods.  These are small family run operations typically by ethnic Chinese.  These shops will transport your purchases across the main road to the parking lot - just part of their customer services.

A Small Dry Goods Shop

 

Lotus Tesco has won their battle to built their "super-store" in Kumphawapi but I hope that people of the area continue to support their local solution for shopping.  I hope that they work to preserve their culture and traditions in opposition to the pressures of multinational corporations for mono culturalism.  Perhaps s I write this blog one Thai or hopefully more than one Thai is saying something along the lines uttered by Bluto from the film "Animal House" ... "What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is!"

Where Flowers Come From - At Least In Bangkok




Colorful Orchids For Sale From A Retailer - Roughly $1.00 a large bunch

Our trip to Bangkok at the end of last month, gave us an opportunity to see and do some different things.  One of the things that we had not done before was to go to the Bangkok Flower Market, Pak Khlong Talat, - at night.

Marigolds For Sale At Pak Khlong Talat Entrance

I had seen some of the periphery of flower market on a visit to Bangkok's Chinatown back in 2006 however it was in the late morning when the flowers had been distributed to retailers and set up at the various stalls.  According to my research the best time to visit the flower market is at night after 10:00 P.M..  The market is open 24 hours a day but it is especially busy at night when new flowers arrive into the city and the wholesalers are occupied receiving shipments and distributing them to retailers.


Pak Khlong Talat Flower Market, Bangkok

Flowers play a very important role in the day to day life of Thai people.  In the larger towns and cities at major road intersections you will find vendors, or more correctly vendors will find you, selling floral garlands that are hung as offerings from rear view mirrors of vehicles in the hopes of having good luck for one's journey. The garlands are created by the vendors from jasmine blossoms, orchids, roses and marigolds and are beautiful.


Bunches of Flowers For Sale, Bangkok

Our home in Udonthani is very close to the intersection of Thai Highway #2 the road from the Lao border to eventually Bangkok.  Every morning the same group of vendors of "Phuang Malai" can be found at the intersection. I have lived here in Udonthani for three years now and have seen enough accidents and near misses that I support Duang in her belief of hanging a Phuang Malai from our truck rear view mirror - anything that possibly could protect us on these roads is worth doing!  It has gotten to the point where we know one of the vendors.  He gets a kick out of me speaking either Thai or Lao to him just as much as I enjoy his attempts to speak English.  Each Phuang Malai costs 20 Baht ($0.60 USD) and in addition to the bit of beauty that it adds to the truck, it quickly adds wonderful fragrances of jasmine or other flowers to the truck.  I can't complain about it - beauty, scent, and protection - all for $0.60 USD - besides it keeps my wife happy.  It has gotten to the point now that our favorite vendor will occasionally give us two Phuang Malai for the price of one - another example of the civility and kindness of the people here in Isaan.

Besides the garland vendors along the roadways, there are several stalls selling Phuang Malai as well as other floral arrangements along with loose flowers at Wats located in towns and cities.  Their products are sold to worshippers to use as offerings during merit making rituals.  In large metropolitan areas such as Bangkok, I suspect there are vendors at every Wat; making up a huge demand for flowers.

Just as in the West flowers and floral arrangements are used in Buddhist funeral rituals.  The floral arrangements used at funerals are made by florists in the towns and cities.  The floral stock comes from flower stalls at the local markets in the larger towns or nearby cities.

I have been amazed during my travels along the back roads of Isaan to see the Lao Loum people's affection for flowers.  In small poor rural farming villages, most of the homes will have flowers growing in front of the homes.  Typically the flowers are growing out of "pots" created out of painted recycled tires.  Yes this is Isaan and the people are very adept at making do with what is available to them.  Interestingly enough many of their adaptions enhance the quality of life to a level that is experienced by only people who are much more monetary richer in other cultures. Some of the homes even have orchids growing from containers attached to trees in their front yard.

The appreciation and utilization of flowers in everyday life creates a great demand for flowers throughout Thailand.  In Bangkok the Pak Khlong Talat is the largest floral market in the city.  Besides the flower market there is also a vegetable market at the "Market at the Mouth of the Canal".  We caught a glimpse at the vegetable market during our night visit but we were tired and focused on returning to our hotel rather then exploring further.  I guess this will be another reason to return to Bangkok someday - visit the vegetable market at night.

Flowers Wrapped in Moist Newspaper To Maintain Freshness

Colorful Flowers Available at Pak Khlong Talat

Flowers are delivered to Pak Khlong Talat from the nearby provinces of  Samut Sakon, Nakon Pathom, and Samut Songkran which are located southwest of Bangkok in the delta, and bottom lands of the Chao Phraya River.  Some flowers such as roses (50 long stem retail for less than $2.00 USD) are trucked in from northern areas around Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.  In the late 1960's as part of Thailand's efforts to eradicate opium production by the Hill Tribes, the King of Thailand initiated programs to teach and encourage the people to cultivate flowers and vegetables instead.  We have seen huge fields of marigolds as well as other flowers during our visits to the area.  In February there is a huge flower festival in Chiang


Edge of the Market - Taxis being filled with flowers, hand trucks, carts



A Tuk Tuk Being Loaded Up With Flowers

Unlike our adventure to arrive at the Royal Barge National Museum, our taxi driver had no problem getting us to the flower market.  He stopped outside of the market area due to the streets being clogged with just about every kind of conveyance either delivering or shipping flowers.

Orchids At A Stall

Most of the flowers arrive at the market in pickup trucks of the local growers.  Like their neighbors, the Vietnamese for motorbikes, the Thais have made an art out of loading pickup trucks.  It is very impressive how much produce, flowers, firewood, eggs, pigs, or people that a Thai can transport in their pickup truck.  It adds a whole new meaning to the term "working truck" for someone who had lived in California for many years.  Some of flowers arrive by small boats on the Chao Phraya River direct from the farms down river near the Gulf of Thailand.


A Porter Prepares to Transport A Load of Flowers to a Local Shop

The trucks are parked along the streets in the market area and offloaded by men and some women using large woven bamboo baskets and either carts or hand trucks.  The market area is made up of a few narrow streets but mostly narrow alleys where it would not be possible to drive a pickup truck even when they were not encroached upon by stalls, food stands, pedestrians, and offloaded merchandise.  Part of the market is in old warehouses - open sided tin roofed structures carved up into small stall and booths as well as old Chinese traditional shop houses; shop at ground level with living quarters above with ornate exterior decoration.  The streets and alleys are lit from a combination of dim street lights, light spilling out of established shops, and strings of temporary lighting. It can be quite confusing and perhaps for some people intimidating but that is what makes it so interesting for other people.


Family Members Making "Phonem Baii Sii" at the Flower Market


The market was a beehive of activity, besides the movement of flowers, some people were busy making products out of the fresh flowers for sale in the morning.  As was typical for the market, the businesses making floral arrangements, garlands, and Pahn Sii Khwan were family run small businesses.  Often you could observe three generations working closely together for the family's benefit.


Porter Delivers Fresh Flowers to a Retailer

With this being Thailand, there was no worry as to anyone going hungry or thirsty at the market.  There were several shops that sold cold drinks either in the can, bottle, or in a plastic bag filled with ice.  Beer was also readily available.  The same shops also sold prepared snack foods.  There were several "sidewalk restaurants", a few plastic chairs, a couple of folding tables, a portable charcoal fire, a pot of soup, and a hose hooked up to a nearby spigot for washing dishes.  A man was grilling fish along with meat on a BBQ made from one-half of a steel barrel and doing a thriving business.  A few of the more established side walk restaurants even had a small television playing Thai shows along the lines of "Hee Haw" or "The Gong Show".  I watched several porters relaxing at one of the "restaurants" - drinking beer and watching TV while their hand trucks and baskets lay close by in the street.  They noticed me taking some pictures and started to pose.  I went over and told them that I liked taking pictures of people working but that they were not working.  We all had a good laugh.  That is how it was at the flower market - people relaxed, enjoying themselves and others while working to make their city a little more special. If you have to work, I guess that it is a good way to be.

A Porter Delivers Another Load of Flowers

A Female Porter With Two Handtrucks of Flowers and Lotus Leaves

Eventually Duang and I decided to return to our hotel.  We had no where near explored the entire flower market along Chak Phet Road and its side streets and alleys but we were tired.  We needed to get some sleep for the next day we had places to visit and things to do - once again.

Small Arrangements For Sale - CHEAP