Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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THE STREET VENDORS:
A story worth dying for

by Graeme Monaghan

One of the really nice things about living in this part of the world is the fact that almost everything you want in life will probably be brought to you doorstep sooner or later.

Probably sooner. This is achieved by means of an amazing variety of street vendors selling both goods and services. This type of operating is 100% free marketing, without the interference from government that is found in most countries. In my own country of Australia, to do such a thing would require a whole series of government permits, regulations and licences. Not only that but there would be a whole army of officials searching to see if everything is carried out strictly to the letter of the law. There will be many who disagree with me on this point but as I see it, self-regulation far outweighs authoritarian interference, and if you don�t want to buy their goods, then don�t buy them. Frankly, I choose to buy them.

The vendors that probably surprise visitors the most are the ones who sell food outside, and sometimes inside, popular restaurants. Frequently these are sellers of flattened and barbequed squid that is so popular with Thai people although perhaps not so with Westerners. Even after all this time here, I still find it a little amusing to see food being sold inside a restaurant by a street vendor.

Of course, everybody knows about the flower sellers, barbeque chicken sellers and many other kinds of food sold by the roadside but that is not what I am referring to. I mean that, when living in the suburbs, many folk come past the door selling wares that the average city dweller or visitor does not see. In fact there is a plethora of vendors scouting the suburbs every day looking to drum up business. And a good thing too in my opinion. They arrive in vans, motorbikes, pushbikes, or even on foot, pushing their cart before them in the never-ending search for trade.

For a start, we have regular delivery of bottles water on a weekly basis. All I have to do is leave a crate of empty plastic bottles with twenty-five baht underneath, and I receive twenty bottles of very fine filtered water. If I happen to be at home when the delivery is made, the kind man carries the crate inside for me, no extra charge. Should I wish to purchase a supply of vegetables or fruit, sure enough, sooner or later, someone will pass by with whatever is required. A van comes down our street with some regularity laden with a goodly supply of every kind of fruit and veggies imaginable. Among the more unusual merchants that come by is a man selling plastic awnings for garages or similar covering to keep out either rain or sun. As many do, he advertises his wares by means of a recorded announcement through a mobile speaker system. One of the interesting things about these street vendors is that they all have a different type of, what might be termed, �call sign�. The ice-cream man for instance has been playing about two bars of the same tune for at least the past decade or so, and playing it ad infinitum. Why it doesn�t drive him up the wall is beyond my comprehension as it does me, and I only hear it once a day. Perhaps he hums it as he drifts off to sleep at night or maybe he wears earplugs.

One of the more interesting characters that passes by is the �dye man�. He advertises himself by means of a small hand-held drum-like contraption attached to which are two wooden balls that, when the thing is twisted rapidly, gives off a dat, dat, dat, dat, sound that is quite distinctive. What the �dye man� does, in case you haven�t already guessed, is dye your clothes, or whatever else you may wish dyed, right there on the spot. Getting about on his pushbike, he carries with him a small, well lit, furnace made from a kerosene tin, as the dyeing must be done in boiling water. Henry Ford, once said, �The public can have any coloured car they want as long as it�s black� and our dye man adopts the same philosophy. So, no matter what colour you want, you get black. Unable to resist trying out his artistic talents I gave him a pair of cream coloured jeans I had, as my wife was tired of having to wash them every time they were worn. Sure enough, for just fifty baht, he converted them into a totally different sphere. A black one. I could not help but admire this man who goes about plying his trade seven days a week, working over a hot stove, and doing rather a good job of it too.

Among the other vendors who seize every opportunity to gather business, are the people who supply factory workers with a surprising variety of dishes, all dispensed from the seat of a motorbike and sidecar. At a factory near where I live, the workers are lined up at midday every day to purchase whatever takes their fancy.

If you should care to take notice of such things, you will see that, as soon as a successful business opens, there will be a vendor outside within a day or so selling something or other. It cannot be said that Thai people do not grasp opportunity when it knocks.

And here I must close as I hear the ting, ting, of the ice cream seller. There are two kinds of ice cream vendors, and this is the one I like best and I do love an ice cream at this time of the day.

By the way, I hope you like my new trousers. They�re black, you know!