ONE MORNING IN CHATUCHAK MARKET

I hate travelling when I do not have enough money with me. It affects my mood and my snapshots. The free tickets and free hotel room should not be wasted though and I have not been to Bangkok since the 80s. Thus, immediatley after making sure that Persatuan Veteran RTM's AGM went smoothly, I flew to Bangkok.

The ladies wanted to visit Chatuchak Market on Sunday and I tagged along. Chatuchak Weekend Market or JJ as it is known to the locals is a recent tourism product. It is huge - 35 acres and more than 15,000 stalls and shops selling myriads of things. There is even a stall selling teh tarik (with the tea puller wearing songkok). Note the Thai spelling of teh tarik.
There are plenty of buskers. I saw (and heard) an old man with a violin, a very young boy on the Thai wooden xylophone and a very small girl crooning Thai numbers on a small toy microphone.
This busker in front of the freshly squeezed orange juice stall plays the guitar and sings. He has a harmonica attached to his face. I heard his guitar and his voice. I also heard a saxophone but I could not find the saxophone anywhere. No box of synthesizer, no minus one player. Where did the saxophone come from?
I found the answer a few steps away. Across the road was this young boy in a school uniform blowing the very same song that the guy with the guitar was belting out. Talk about synergy and good business sense.
The ladies got fed up of seeing me sitting down on every vacant stool available (One stall even offered me a reclining chair). After lunch at the MBK Food Court,they asked Wann, our kind Thai friend to send me back to the hotel via the Skytrain. The ladies went back to Chatuchark on their own in the afternoon.

Labels: Chatuchark Market, Thai buskers