Commerce & Confusion

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On my last couple of days in Bangkok I spent more time mooching around the markets and malls in the newer part of town, Sukhumvit. On Wednesday evening I ran across some stalls offering samples of various foods from all around the world, including sugar-free ice cream, Subway sandwiches and most oddly of all a platter of deep fried flowers. Now this is something I had never come across before. You might think it is Japanese (well, I did when I first saw them) but apparently it is a Thai delicacy. How does it taste? Like you'd expect, really; kind of like pineapple fritters but with petals instead of pineapple - I can't say I'd go out of my way to order it in a restaurant. There were also scheduled displays of cooking during the afternoon and evening each day - I stopped to watch some Korean cookery which was as it was going on was described in English, Thai and what I assume must have been Korean. It was, as you might expect, unintelligible!

Also in the same part of town, in the Central World mall what did I happen upon but the actual English Premier League trophy, engraved with the league winners from the last few seasons along with a display of signed Chelsea shirts and some framed photographs of the Chelsea team and Stamford Bridge. The Premier League is very popular with Thais (and Malaysians) such that when someone asks where you're from and you say England, the next question more often than not is which football team do you support? Not surprisingly the trophy display was crowded with locals getting their picture taken with the trophy and shirts.


As in Malaysia I took a lot of photos of strange or amusing signs during my travels in Thailand, Krabi and Ko Pha Ngan had a few but most are from Bangkok. Of all the amusing signs in the city, the one that made me laugh the most was the one shown below right. You can perhaps guess what the sign on the other side of the pillar on the exit road from a car park said. On the way up the stairs to a rooftop bar on Khao San Road was the bizarre 'hit your legs' sign - I didn't dare ask what it was supposed to say! On a related note, if 'upbeat' means jolly, then to 'beat up' must be a good thing, right? One music studio whose poster I saw in the mall seemed to think so.

In the window of one of the tailors ('Majestic') on Sukhumvit Road I saw an endorsement from Sandi Toksvig who a few years ago I used to enjoy watching on Call My Bluff on BBC. While it wasn't practical for me to have any clothes made here it would certainly encourage me to choose this shop over the hundred or so others I passed during my time in the city.

A lot of the signs I saw concerned theft and valuables. The sign warning of pickpockets at one of the wats wouldn't have been particularly unusual, but clearly they felt the need to emphasise that said troublemakers were "non-Thai". Elsewhere, if the signs are to be believed it is your valuables themselves that are the cause for concern...

Finally, once again I have a quiz for you. This time, though, unlike the Malaysia post I don't have the solution! Walking along one of the main roads into the commercial centre of Bangkok, lined with market stalls and street food vendors I saw the sign in the photo below left. Clearly there are certain things that are forbidden at this busy intersection - the puzzle is to work out what it is you're not supposed to do from the seemingly random photographs. The Thai writing might clear things up - then again, it might not...

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Comments

[Mark I]

Good pictures!
and the prose is improving too. Pics 10 and 25 the funniest.

[Robin]

[e-mail]
Hi Ian, enjoying your Bangkok updates! This sign says that all carts are banned from this particular soi because of the traffic and also a fire risk (Blue writing). It then says that if you break the rules you will be fined and sent to prison! The green bit below is the name of the district and the red symbol the police department. Am currently learning to read and write Thai but had to get a bit of help with some of that!