Chatchuchak Market and LV

I just read through the prospectus for my insurance policy again. It turns out that I am supposed to get S$186,000 (instead of $140,000) when I am 46. Ok, that make it slightly more tolerable. Not much better, but just a little. I can stay 15.5 years in Laos now. Hmmph. Worthless.

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I transited in Bangkok over the weekend and took the opportunity to meet a couple of friends who live in Bangkok up and of course to shop. Since it is over the weekend, I took a train to On Nut station to visit Chatchuchak market. The minute I got off the train, I knew it was a bad & crowded day at the market judging by the army of vehicles parked adjacent to the station.

By the way, some might be confused at the way the vehicles are parked. E.g. how can those vehicles in the inner sanctum get out? Well, in Thailand and in Laos, you park without engaging your handbrake. There will be someone who will push the other cars out of the way to give you enough room to leave. It is like playing jigsaw puzzle with cars. Sounds stupid but highly efficient. Look at how many cars they managed to cramp neatly into that piece of land. If this is in Singapore, Singaporean drivers will be bitching non-stop about having to park so close to each other, how can filthy parking attendants lay their hands and push my mercedes out of the way and why not have a high-tech solution befitting of Singapore? Pretentious doofus. Sometimes the simple and best solution is just to get someone to push your car around.

I have been to Chatchuchak market a dozen times but this was the first time I went there with a camera. Chatchuchak is basically a gigantic piece of land in which rows of shops are set up in warrens with spaces in between for the travellers to get a breather or some refreshments. You will need it as Chatchuchak often gets unbearably hot at noon due to the thousands of shoppers and the lack of air-conditioning. Within each hot warren, it is elbows to asses as shoppers moved at sweat-inducing snail pace. The stench of sweat and unwashed bodies of some Thais and ang-moh backpackers is incredible. Coupled with the intense noon heat which is magnified by the close confined space and body heat of a thousand shoppers, it is enough to knock a Royal Thai Elephant out cold. You went in chirping happily and walked out a dried out husk feeling old and impotent. Oh, and I haven't talk about the public toilets.

The Thais tried to organise all shops into sections like clothings, arts, bags, flowers, household items, pets, books and miscellaneous. But it is a difficult task to do. Chatchuchak is famous for selling all sort of shit from LV bags to fighting cocks. One day is not sufficient to cover everything. I am sure there are plenty of people who blogged about their Chatchuchak experiences and took better pictures than me - so I won't elaborate. But I can't resist putting the following pics up.

Ahh yes, LV. Could you spot all the crazy LV Suhali, Murakami and monogram bags? You can buy one at 350 baht (which is about S$15) if you bargain hard. Sure beats paying S$4000, heh? There are also some designs which look suspiciously non classical LV.

(Women in deep discussions over which bag looks less fake?)

I honestly can't tell an authentic bag from a fake one. Lamb skin and cow leather all looked the same as vinyl plastic to me. Who the hell cares or even looks at the stitching? The fake LV shops in Chatchuchak market is an immense hit with the ladies.

I support fake LV. Swarming the global market with fake LVs is one effective way to reduce actual demand for real LV stuff. There is nothing more demoralising to a woman than to have people questioning her whether the Suhali Lockit which she spend S$4000 on is a fake. Rightly or wrongly, whenever I see a Thai or Lao woman with carrying a LV murakami bag, my first impression is that it must be fake. I know, I know. There are many Thais and Lao who are 1000x times richer than I am and could well afford a LV bag. Who am I to judge? I am a bad person for making such assumptions. But hey, sometimes I also look at a Singaporean or western woman carrying a LV bag and I make the same conclusion too. You take a look at the woman in her shabby clothes and think to yourself "Naaah, no way she can afford a genuine S$4000 monogram bag from LV. She couldn't even afford a decent blouse or haircut". My bad.