Hot And Wet - OK, Make That Hot And Sweaty

I should have realized this little girl at Pantip Plaza wasn't sleepy - she was just too darned hot to squirm around.

On my first trip to Thailand my travel companion and I arrived near midnight in August at Don Muang International. The cabin crew made the announcement that the outside temperature was 29C (85F), and that the humidity was 90%. "Swell," said my friend, a native of Massachusetts "just like back home".

As we stepped through the exit door of the plane it was almost as if we were being pushed back by a wall of thick, damp air; the smell of exhaust fumes added to the scent of the moist, tropical breath being exhaled by the Big Mango itself. Clambering down the portable stairway to the tarmac we made our way to the shuttle bus that would deliver us to the terminal proper, but the aircon wasn't working in the bus, so we were even happier to get inside to claim our baggage and be on our way to the hotel.

Upon arrival to my room the bellboy (by default, I'm sure) flicked on the air conditioner and cranked it way "down", even before dropping my bags, accepting his tip and making his exit. Being from a relatively temperate climate I hadn't been as happy to hear air conditioning beginning to blast in long time, even though I did have to make an adjustment soon to keep from freezing the fruit on the welcome plate. Since that first visit I've learned I'm most comfortable overall keeping the room in the middle 70s, even when I sleep. Usually I don't use a blanket, so I'm fine with that even at night.

The entrance steps to Pantip Plaza near noon

A year or so ago I was there during a stretch of similar weather. I'd woken up later than usual (unexpected stomach problem in the wee small hours) and missed that golden window of time for an early morning walk; the temperature was already unpleasantly warm, and I knew it'd be a fool's errand to go out on foot for any extended period of time. In addition to that I had a guest arriving closer to dinnertime: a regular reader of the blog, making his first visit to Thailand. I figured I ought to save some steam for a potentially late evening out, so I tried to think of someplace to go for a few hours before coming back for some reading and a bit of a nap.

Some time back I'd already posted about the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, a lovely spot to people watch, look about and see the ever-changing exhibits (their link is here), but since it was also a place I thought my soon-to-arrive "guest" would appreciate I set that idea aside and figured I'd just take the easy stroll from the Ratchathewi BTS station to Pantip Plaza. I needed a cable I'd somehow left behind and knew I could find a replacement there. Besides, it wasn't all that far, and I figured I'd do just fine. I was mistaken.  I was low on water in my system - but it really wasn't all that bad. I grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator, downed half of it, and headed out.

Resting on the Pantip Plaza steps

Stepping out of the BTS train at high noon I was reminded of that first trip I mentioned earlier, except it was hotter.  Much hotter. The temperature in the shade of the station, even up on the open train platform, (some three stories up) was a good 103F/104F (39-40C), and there was no breeze whatsoever.

Cutting down through the Asia Hotel that's connected to that station (always a fair was to cheat the heat for a few minutes) I headed off toward Pantip Plaza, making a detour into the first 7-Eleven I came to. My shirt was already clinging to me when I got inside, so I went for a sports drink instead of water - just to keep some electrolytes in the system.

If you're paying attention while out behaving like a mad dog in the mid-day sun you'll notice many Thai without a hat shielding themselves from the direct sun with whatever they happen to be carrying, be that a newspaper, a flyer or whatever. Part of that is to avoid sunburn or tanning, but part of it is surely just to deflect the heat. If they have nothing to use, they'll vary their course as they walk along to edge along the sidewalk in whatever shade's available. Along the way I joined just such a line of folks in what probably looked like a pick-up game of Follow the Leader, with one farang in the middle.

This man didn't seem upset that nobody was buying heavy slippers in the heat

Arriving at Pantip I quickly found my cable, but I wasn't looking forward to the walk back to the hotel. I'm not a cheapskate by any means, but I felt a little foolish spending the money for a taxi back to the cool of my room when I could walk it, so I just stood around in front of Pantip and gathered my energy for a while while watching - with an odd pleasure, I admit - the locals also wilting slightly in the heat. Misery loving company, and all that, you see.

Two brothers played quietly in the shade while their parents sold cold drinks

The snack vendors weren't doing all that bad - it was, after all, lunchtime - but the drink vendors were doing a brisk and lively land office business, as my late grandfather would have said. Busy enough that I had to wait for nearly 10 minutes for enough of a break in sales to get the picture below without a half-dozen people in it. I bought a coconut, myself, and considered a second but opted for a bottle of water instead.

Thankfully, the first hint of a breeze came up that wasn't caused by the traffic on the street. It grew to a steady pace, giving everyone a bit of a break from the stagnant, dead noontime air. Figuring I still had time to read a chapter or two and snooze some before my "guest" was to arrive from Suvarnabhumi I began my walk back to the BTS station and home.

Slowly, of course... and weaving along the way to stay in the shade wherever possible.

DVD? CD? Come Look, Sir! - The Pantip Plaza Touts

Patpong Night Market - with a DVD stall halfway down the right side

The first real mention made here about the sales touts that accost you if you happen to venture onto their turf was back in March of last year, some 500 posts ago, [Sexy Movie? Sexy Movie? - The DVD Touts ] and it was about how I had a little fun with the guys who surreptitiously sidle up to you and try to get you to look at and buy X-rated movies.

Many of them had a crudely made scrap of paper or cardboard they'd palm and show you, so I made some myself back home and on my next trip flashed mine at them.  It was fun, and even before I left Bangkok 10 days later I saw how they'd taken my idea and run with it; they'd made their own laminated versions!

My home made "Sexy Movie" card

The porno market is a very small part of the overall copied media market in Thailand, and although it's illegal to copy and sell movies, music, software and games there you can find them almost anywhere. Even in recognized movie and music chain stores you're likely to see what could only be generously be "grey market" items.

If you buy a computer from somewhere other than a major retailer you're liable to find that the Microsoft Office that you also purchased and had them install isn't legal, either.  I've heard stories from folks, but since I'm not that adventurous I haven't tried buying computer gear there... yet. I tend to stick with the rules, anyway, and would likely be sweating like a pig trying to bring any sort of bootlegged items back through US Customs.

That said, I haven't been above purchasing movies and music to enjoy while I'm in the Kingdom, but I leave them behind with friends when I leave.  To you purists who are grinding your teeth, I agree: it isn't right to do that, either, but I'm a country mile away from perfect - and my friends are always pleased to have the spoils, so to speak.

In addition to the market stalls - especially in areas where tourists are found - you'll find shops in many towns to buy such items, and if you're lazing in a beach chair beneath an umbrella on any number of beaches you're likely to have some of the same items carried to you by a walking vendor, although those primarily tend to be mainly recent movies and porn.  One of these days I expect to hear some beach vendor approaching repeating "Mac? Windows?" as he trudges along, but it hasn't happened so far.

Some of you will remember the Where The Wild Boys Live story that ended with the two go go boys making use of my room to watch some porn VCDs they'd bought on Jomtien Beach that afternoon while I sat in the lobby and wrote for an hour, and it's a fair indicator of how people's curiosity about sex tends to cross all boundaries. 


[As a side note: VCD or video compact disc is a format foreign to most in the West, but it's common in parts of Asia. It uses CD discs rather than DVD discs, and often splits a movie onto two discs due to capacity limitations.  The video quality usually suffers, too, but you'll see players that play them throughout Thailand. While many are legitimate releases they won't play on your regular DVD player at home.]

The central core of Pantip Plaza in Bangkok

In Bangkok there's an enormous shopping mall devoted to all things electronic, including grey- and black-market items. Point of fact, there are others I've heard of, but since Pantip is an easy 10 minute walk from the Ratchathewi BTS station I've usually gone there. It's a great place to buy batteries, cables and other electronic peripherals, as well as all sorts of other electronic toys and chotchkes.  As you can see from the stitched panorama photo above that I took from a higher floor, it's huge; the photo only shows the open atrium area that encompasses half of the total area, if that much. You could spend hours there, and if you get hungry there's a food court, an S&P bakery/restaurant, an A&W root beer burger place and the usual assortment of vendors on the sidewalk out front.

There are dozens of shops on the ground floor selling CDs, DVD and VCD movies, Wii/PlayStation/X-Box game knock-offs, and a fair number of similar stalls around the landing of the 2nd and 3rd floor escalators, too.

Thousands of sleeved covers in cellophane to peruse - and this is only one shop of dozens

The police know they're there, and they know that the police know they're there.  More than once I've seen a vendor get a phone call and suddenly lower the shades or curtains over their stand, having been tipped off that uniformed "visitors" are about to arrive.  On one visit they all heard at about the same time, and the shuffling and swooshing sounds of stalls "closing down" was a rushed and audible event all around the area.  The vendors then either hide inside or stand near their stalls, looking as innocent as possible to avoid losing what stock they had on hand or paying the "fee" to make peace with the officers.  If you don't notice what's going on and ask one of them about something you're looking for you'll get "Can not," or "Not have".  Sometimes those stalls are shuttered for a day or three, depending.

Examples of pick-up receipts

In fact, most of the time in places like Pantip Plaza they don't have the actual discs on hand in the stall at all. After you pay for your selections from stacks of covers in cellophane sleeves that are clamped onto a clipboard you're given a slip of paper as your receipt and a "runner" is sent off outside of the building to retrieve your selection. You're told to come back in 20 minutes or so, and they then hand you a bag with your items in it.

Naturally, although peeking in to make see if you think you got what you ordered is acceptable you are not welcome to open and peruse your purchases in front of their stand.

Some of such merchandise is kept on premises, but such shop stalls are far into the nether regions of Pantip; far off into the back, or high on the top floors, where the lights are dimmer, let's say.

The cost for these items is less than 25% of what you'd be likely to pay in your home country, but it all depends on how lucky you feel about getting them through customs when you return home.  The one time some years back that I did bring a movie home with me for a nephew the agent who was rifling through my bag pulled it out, looked at it and said "Oh... I didn't know Star Wars was out on DVD here yet."  "It isn't," I replied, figuring that was 100baht I'd never see again, but he again said "Oh", and put it back into my bag.  It made me uncomfortable enough to stop while I was ahead.

As an example of cost, though, I had a man show me a set of extended releases of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in Blu-Ray, nicely packaged in a metal tin made in Japan, including the earlier 1970s Ralph Bakshi cartoon version for US$25 - and this was nearly a year ago, long before similar sets were released here at well over US$100.

Naturally, I'm not in any way encouraging or endorsing any such behavior, but as the saying goes: you can pay your money and take your chances - and there are chances a-plenty.

Pantip Cheerleaders

Students and young adults doing product promotions is just as common an occurrence as groups collecting money for charities or schools. If you missed the kids doing their synchronized dancing back on May 7th, you can see it here.

One afternoon I walked out of Pantip Plaza (where I'd been having some fun with the "Sexy movie?" touts) and almost squack into the middle of the group in today's clip, promoting what I took to be an internet service provider - Three Broadband.

Unfortunately I missed the beginning of their last trick, and they disbursed immediately afterwards. Cute bunch of guys and girls, though - and they were having fun doing their bit.

As I post this YouTube is still processing the clip, but for those with a fast enough connection it'll be in HD when they get finished. You can find other video clips by clicking on the Video Clips label in the right hand column. Today's makes 12 clips, with a lot more to come.