Powershopping at JJ

July 7th, 1:44pm - Chabad, Khao San Road

What an awe-inspiring experience. "The Weekend Market," as its known to locals, or "The J.J. Market", short for Jatujak Market, has to be seen to be believed. I slept 2 or 3 hours on Saturday night so that I could get up early and get there to beat the crowds. When I got there at 10:30am, I planned on staying a couple of hours, seeing the sights, not buying anything, and then heading out. 7 hours and 2000 Baht later I was exhausted, exhilarated, and in desperate need of a foot massage.

There is simply no end to the place. In the 7 hours I was there I probably walked across the same stores or rows about a dozen times. Most of the market is open air, with a roof in places and small gutters running down each of the rows that separate the place into a grid. It has EVERYTHING you could ever want, and lots of things you didn't know you wanted when you walked in. If I was to give advice to anyone going to the market I would ask them to close their eyes and think about what they are looking for. Don't be satisfied until they find it, because the only thing between you and what you want is time and determination.

There are rows and rows of cheap, used clothing, rows of expensive, high-quality knock off clothing (Diesel jeans for $20, North Face Adventure Packs for $30), stacks and stacks of all kinds of novels, magazines, textbooks in lots of different languages. There are home decor items, paintings, electronics, furniture, antiques, jewelry and lots and lots of food. Many stalls at the market are also for the on-site creation or customization of goods. Thais hammer, saw, bang, weave and bend anything you want. They can make or alter jewelry, tailor clothing, paint, fix watches and so on and so on.

My two favorite finds of the day came right in the middle and at the end. Around 1pm I was sweating heavily under the heat, as even the Thais walk around fanning themselves. I walked by one of the occasional glassed-in stalls with air conditioning and saw a table and cooking counter. Inside I sipped hot Honey Raisin and Apple tea in the cool air and chatted for about 45 minutes with a 23-year old Thai girl named Pond. She painted the stall herself and had set everything up with money she saved growing up. She had just graduated from university, spoke English very well, and kept Salsa music playing from her laptop. The entire stall was probably 25 feet by 5 feet, but with home-baked goods, music and her friends coming by to chat it was an oasis of peace and relaxation. We traded email addresses and it has be one of my best memories thus far. Hopefully one day I can retire with a homemade stall and spend my days haggling and drinking tea.

Around 5pm I found a larger, more built up stall that specialized in creating wooden signs. They had dozens of boxes of wooden letters cut out in different styles and in English or Thai. They also had wooden signs of different natures that you could choose and lots of wooden pieces of ornamentation. Anything you wanted could be cut or painted to fit your request, and some quite beautiful signs hung on the walls. For $30 and 45 minutes you could get two decently sized signs made with plenty of letters. While I waited I pulled out my juggling balls and sat outside the stall messing around, which was not out of place with the ice cream carts, food carts and beggars that patrol the aisles. In fact, you rapidly lose any timidness you have walking around JJ. People bump into you, walk by you, jostle you and rarely turn around or notice when you do the same. The aisles can only fit two or three people width-wise, and the few initial times I turned to say sorry when someone bumped me the person was already hurrying away. Thais sleep next to fans in their stalls while watching small tvs, sell things while their children run around buying chipped ice and syrup and generally spend the day eating and selling.

Everything here is haggled over. If you pay the price they quote you you're paying too much. At one point I was standing next to another woman at a tablecloth/scarf/fabric stall, and we were both eyeing placemat and chopstick combinations. The owner said the price was 350 Baht for a set, 250 wholesale. The woman and I got a 200 Baht price by agreeing to buy one each and combining our purchases. At another stall I was choosing pieces of jewelry and stringing them to make a necklace when a wrinkled old guy walked by and saw my watch. He asked me if he could see it, spent a while looking at it under a jeweler's finger magnifying glass, and then indicated he wanted me to sell it. Some random guy tried to buy my watch! The problem was that the only English he knew was currency numbers and adjectives such as 'used' and 'scratched' that all seemed to show how cheap my watch should go for. He also wasn't able to understand (feigned not understanding) any of the arguments I was making in English. Feeling ill-equipped to compete with him I just held on to the thing rather than get taken for a ride. A funny moment though.

By 6pm I could barely stand and wanted to meet my friend for dinner. People back home can look forward to some cool thailand presents! And of course I got a 45 minute foot, back, and shoulder massage after as a present to myself :).

Tomorrow morning around 8am I head on a bus to the Cambodian border, and then onwards to the Angkor Wat. I've been taking pictures, and will try to load them soon.

Best wishes from Bangkok!

P.S. I didn't know where else to put this, but I tried Ostrich meat with Tim last night. Tasted pretty good, I may start importing it to the states for a chain of Ostrich based restaurants in Chicago.