[Above: Hand made silk flower decorations that double as ambient lighting!]
Entry #8 June 26, 2011
So today started off a bit earlier then other days, I was up and out of bed fairly early considering most days I am not really out of the hotel much before 11am or so. I began the day with a buffet lunch at the hotel, good 'ol eggs, hash browns, toast, etc. to power me through. I headed out the Mo Chit BTS station to check out the sights at the weekend market. I must say online there are several reviews about the size and types of wares available at this market which some might call a flea market back in the midwest. Honestly though most flea markets do not compare in size, capacity or variation in goods. This place really is huge, I am a bit suspicious about it being the biggest but it certainly is impressive. What caught my eye most were not the traditional knock off clothing brand products or stacks of DVD's or really even the food. The most impressive things to me were the artisan crafts that you could see individual workmanship in. For instance the picture above shows one of a couple of shops of hand made silk flower lighting decorations. Although you probably could not or would not want to use this type of lighting for an entire room, it would be very cool as an ambient piece of lighting, something that gets overlooked. The quality and detail is surprisingly high. Among the other highlights of my travel to the market was seeing a craftsman carve beautiful flowers out of soap, some really nice leather working and hanging art galleries. Although some of the artwork is shall we say less then breathe taking, there were a few pieces of art and artists work that stood out among the crowd. I know that many people love to go to market places and get cheap imitation goods, but for me seeing the products that have authentic production within Thailand are far more interesting, even the simple items such as soap that is home made is far more desirable to buy to me. I have seen many markets in the world selling 'name-brand' goods, and really this has no appeal to me, only the quality and delivery of style make a difference. My one regret is the item I sought after in my travels to this market I could not find. I have been looking for a quality straight razor and accouterments (such as sharpening stone and strop), but no matter how hard I looked I could not find any such thing. I suppose that these things are a rarity even in the US where at one point they were common household items, but I am not yet discouraged.
The other significant thing that I did today, was after my journey to the market and meeting with some friends for a couple hours I decided to have my fortune told. This is something I wanted to do before I came to Thailand, as I had thought this was a very common practice throughout southeast Asia. I managed to get a Tuk-Tuk driver to take me to a fortune teller, but it was not exactly what I was expecting. The fortune teller, used a combination of astrology (my birth day/month/year), hand reading and tarot cards to tell me my future. What I was told, is that I may have a very long life 90+ years and mostly good things will come of it. If I chose to get married it may happen by the time I am 31 which is coming up rather quickly, and I will have 2 children 1 son and 1 daughter. I am a little skeptical because almost everything he told me was entirely good, or fairly ambiguous with the exception that when I am 45 I will be on vacation and have a small accident, such as cutting my foot on my glass or something small like this. Although I am hardly a sadist, I think of myself as fairly pragmatic and believe life is filled with both good and bad moments, so I wonder if I need another opinion. Overall I enjoyed the experience and for 300 baht = $10 US what is the harm of someone telling me about how good my life will be. One thing that I did ask is where I ought to work in Thailand, he asked me to name several cities I was considering and after some analysis he suggested either Chiang Mai or Bangkok. He explained that in both cities I would find good work and be very happy, but that in Bangkok I would make more money. I think I will try getting my fortune read again but not by a street side practitioner, next time perhaps at a temple or somewhere highly recommended. The interesting thing about this whole trip though, is that my driver had to take me a fair distance to find the fortune tellers, I was surprised that there weren't any practitioners in the near vicinity, but again perhaps this is a sign of the rapid commercialization of the city, where traditional practices are moving out to the fringes, this hasn't yet happened to all traditional practices, as I see spirit houses are still very common in the city and I have witnessed several people paying homage to spirit houses throughout the city, including one right outside the market today.
[The last little side note I want to make is that I am feeling a bit stronger about this blog, now that I have reached 8 posts, it seems as though it is helping me digest my experiences and take better consideration of what I am experiencing. I hope you all are enjoying the journey with me, and thank you for reading!]
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