Bangkok Markets, Part 2.

[randomness]

I was wandering around this morning trying to find the moneychangers down in Pahurat, the South Asian neighborhood here in Bangkok, to check the rates against what I'm getting from the banks. I didn't find any of them. I may have to wait until I get to Little India in Singapore, where I know where to look.

Anyway, serendipity struck, and I walked through both Pahurat and Sampeng markets looking for a moneychanger.

Pahurat and Sampeng markets are sewing heaven. Pahurat is one of those buildings that is bigger on the inside than on the outside, and Sampeng seems to go on for miles. (It only goes on for blocks, actually.) Shops selling buttons, zippers, ribbon, and notions of all kinds, and some finished clothing.

And fabric. Fabric as far as the eye can see, which admittedly isn't very far because everything is so tightly packed together.

Over lunch at a food stall, I realized that I had a lot of friends who would have a blast here. And then it occurred to me that a lot of them would probably want to see the Morning Market in Vientiane, and maybe the silk in Chiang Mai, and maybe Little India in Singapore, and so on. And there was the weaving in Luang Phabang.

There are a lot of fabric markets here, some of them for tourists, and some for local people. Pahurat and Sampeng didn't have many tourists. I think a lot of people locally either make their own clothes, or buy fabric to have them made, since labor is cheap.

I don't know the first thing about fabric or sewing, so I wouldn't be able to give any detailed help about the material. But I imagine I could bring people to the markets and say, "Look! Fabric!" :)

Comments

[marith.livejournal.com]

Ooh. *covets madly* If you see any cloth in white or pale shades that looks as though it would be good for dyeing, let me know?

Re:

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I'm so bad at this that I even failed to correctly get my friend KJ a few yards of blue silk. So, while I can tell you there's plenty of white or light-colored cloth, I have no idea how to determine what kind is good for dyeing.

:(

Re:

[marith.livejournal.com]

It was just a thought! The markets sound gorgeous. If I'm ever brave enough to visit non-English speaking countries, believe me, you'll be the first person I ask. :)

Re:

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Although...you could come here and I could point you at it.

Re:

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

I use thaisilks.com for this- they cater to dyers and have ok prices in bulk. you need to verify most places that it's not sized, which most finished yardage is.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who makes hand-sewn quilts from silk scraps who would probably think she'd died and gone to heaven.

Me, I favor quilting cottons. But I could probably spend a couple of days oogling fabric anyway.

Re:

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

The thing about there is, there may *be* quilting cottons some random place- remember that a lot of our goods are made in that part of the world. Some of them wind up falling off the export truck (overstocks, wrong orders, seconds, whatever) and winding up in the local markets too.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, that sounds great! I want to go there again!!! We missed all those specialty markets the last time we went.

[chris-warrior.livejournal.com]

and envy rears its ugly head.

hey!

[markeyisapunk.livejournal.com]

a friend of a friend just pointed your entry out to me, because hey! I am in bangkok too. I'm only here for a few more days, then I travel somewhere--probably south. the hostel where I am staying is an internet cafe, though, so the internet access is good. I know the fabric feeling too, I've know I can't appreciate half of the dirt cheap prices here, because i don't sew and I don't wear fancy jewelry and so on, but I've been imagining how different friends would love this or that, and wishing I knew what they'd like best for me to bring back to them...

anyway, just thought I'd say hi, and if you want to catch dinner or something, I'd totally be up for it!

Re: hey!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

anyway, just thought I'd say hi, and if you want to catch dinner or something, I'd totally be up for it!

I'd love to get together, but I just left Thailand. I flew out today, on extremely short notice. I had to leave because my visa on arrival expired. I'd expected to be able to extend it on Monday but found out that you can't extend visas received on arrival.

(You can imagine how my plans got disrupted, 'cause I was expecting to be in Thailand for another week or so.)

So, I'm in Singapore now, heading for Sydney in a couple of days. I'm not expecting to be back in Thailand until the end of March, when I get back from Australia and New Zealand.

How long are you in this part of the world, and how far south are you thinking of going?

Glad you said "hi". Hope to meet you and get dinner with you at some point!

Re: hey!

[markeyisapunk.livejournal.com]

hey again,

I'll be in thailand until the 27th, so it looks like we probably won't meet up on this trip, but happy travels! and sorry about your visa :(

Re: hey!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

happy travels!

You too! Have a great rest of your trip!