Bollywood moment at the Pahurat market in Bangkok

If you had asked me in the past if I'd be interested in watching a Bollywood movie or go hunting for bright shimmery Indian fabrics, I would have shrugged my shoulders and pooh-poohed the idea. That was 15 years ago. These days, to the amusement of my friends, I would gladly spend my weekends eating Indian food and getting lost in an Indian goods market or talad (Thai word for "market") -- which unfortunately, Manila does not have yet. To my delight, I managed to visit my favorite Indian market in Bangkok recently. It is called Pahurat Market, located in the old part of Bangkok about 800 meters from the Chao Phraya River. The market was started by Indian immigrant families residing in Bangkok, and has existed since the end of World War II. River Route and Chinatown My trip started with a short ride aboard the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat. I took the Bangkok Transit Skytrain to Taksin Bridge (Saphan Taksin station) and walked under the bridge towards the pier, where the booth for the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat is located. With its orange and yellow color and wide body compared to regular express boats, the Tourist Boat is noticeable from afar and seats 40-50 people. A trip upriver or downriver is a flat rate of 25 Baht (35 pesos). We disembarked at the Rajawongse Pier, the gateway to Chinatown (or Yaowarat to locals). I walked up Rajawongse Road to reach Pahurat, which is adjacent to Chinatown. Stores and stalls selling all sorts of dried goods -- ready-to-wear clothes, bags of all shapes and sizes, hair ornaments, trinkets and accessories, cards and other paper products – lined the street all the way to Yaowarat Road. I turned left on one of the small winding alleys branching out of Rajawongse and found a small Chinese temple, Wat Ga Buang Kim, its yellow pillars encircled by fiercely bright dragons. These small alleys give the feeling of being in another world, where the next turn might lead you to another wat or market. Through another Chinese-inspired archway and out to another small soi ("street" in Thai), I found another well-traversed alley that widened out to a big compound housing Wat Chakrawat. What caught my eye were the ornately designed black and golden curliques of its iron gate and a naga (mythical serpent in Thai folklore), which guarded the front of the wat. The street led to Chakrawat Road, which I crossed to reach Sampeng Lane, a major enclave of textile shops and food stalls where goods can be bought cheaply. Hole-in-the-wall Indian resto About 500 meters through the shady and crowded space of Sampeng Lane is Chakraphet Road, one of the boundaries of Pahurat Market. Smoke-belching cars, buses, and motorbikes crowded the street; in fact, I don't remember Chakraphet Road being vehicle-free except during the last Bangkok riots.

After the long walk, my stomach was grumbling so I walked about 100 meters to my left into a small, shady soi and ended up in one of my favorite eating places, the Royal India Restaurant. A few local friends had joined me on my very first trip to this restaurant about a decade back, and I realize it has never changed. Rather nondescript, the entrance to the restaurant can hardly be seen due to lack of a sign. The restaurant is small, almost a hole-in-the-wall space. The ceiling still wears the old patterned wallpaper I had seen on my first visit, and only the red brick walls had been cleaned and repainted. Nevertheless, I am greeted by the appetizing smells from within -- of cardamom, curry, and other spices mixed with meat. The place is frequented by both foreigners and the local Indian community, not bad for a 43-year old restaurant which has won the local Tatler Magazine Awards for best restaurant and customer service for three years. After a gut-bulging repast of samosas, chicken masala in a special Royal India sauce, and nan bread, I was sufficiently filled to walk to my next destination -- the little Indian-owned shops opposite the road. Most of the little businesses that sprouted around Pahurat Market are somehow connected with the trading of goods sourced from India. In this little soi just opposite Royal India Restaurant, I found my objective -- a well-stocked Indian convenience store! The very friendly Indian lady proprietor was busy attending to an impatient customer but after he left, she turned all her attention to me. Most of the time, I buy Indian snacks made of lentils, chick peas, and other crackly stuff nicely packed in sachets. But today, I bought my favorite Indian soaps made of sandalwood and other herbs, plus some boxes of incense for my little altar at home. I noticed the new four-storey building next door, which seems to have sprouted from the vacant lot a year ago. It was the new India Emporium, a white spic-and-span building in this row of grey, dusty and dilapidated shop houses and buildings. The air-conditioned mall has coffee shops, a food center, and lots of Indian goodies - shimmery fabrics for saris (India's national dress for women made of six yards of continuous material draped around the woman's body) and local wear, imitation gold accessories from India, the curved and ornately decorated leather Indian shoes, tailoring supplies, Buddha souvenirs – all at reasonable prices. Textiles are priced from 100 to 150 baht (140 to 210 pesos) per meter, while a heavily embroidered and sequined shalwar kameez outfit (an Indian dress consisting of a loose, long tunic and wide, long pants) costs only 799 Baht (1,100 pesos). But the India Emporium, despite its very tantalizing array of goods, didn't exude that "flea market" feeling I was enchanted with in Pahurat so I dashed out and went straight to my destination just a few meters away. Thai-Indian vendors The thing about Pahurat is, you can easily get lost looking for your favorite stall selling textile bargains or accessories. There is no clear or orderly pattern for the corridors inside this market. Good thing my suki is located on the second floor of the market, up a rusty old escalator that has not been working for years. There he was -- sitting amid the tiers of shiny bundles of cloth. Ashish is the son of the distinguished looking Indian lady I used to buy cloth from, very much looking like a native Indian from the peninsula. Ashish is a third-generation Thai-Indian who was born in the Kingdom and, like many young people of mixed ancestry in Thailand, has very little interest in visiting his parents' homeland. "We get most of our goods from our suppliers in New Delhi," said Ashish. "They come here quite often. So we don't even need to go to Delhi and face the traffic or spend on the costs of flying, accommodation, etc," he quipped. Ashish said business was rather slow lately, which wasn't too surprising because of the recent violence in Bangkok. He added that a lot of the stall owners in Pahurat have moved to the new India Emporium. "Maybe because there is air-conditioning there, better stalls, all new," Ashish said matter-of-factly. "Here, we have only the textile wholesalers left." Whatever the cause for the transfer, it was not reflected by Rachen Batra, managing director of the Usha Saree Palace, one of the oldest sari textile manufacturer and importer stores in Pahurat. Commanding a good location at the corner of Pahurat Road and Chakraphet Road, it was certainly an auspicious place to do business. Batra is also a 3rd-generation Thai-Indian national whose grandfather migrated to Thailand more than 100 years ago to do business. He said his sari business caters to five countries - India, Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. "All these countries need saris, therefore we provide them with the cloth," he said. Batra added that despite the proliferation of many beautiful sari cloths in India, there are still Indian buyers who purchase his products. "There are certain textiles that are not available in India. We have these textiles made in Japan where Japanese silk is in abundance. But the designs are made by us and by Indians 100%," he said. Apparently, affordability is not an issue here, Batra explained. He said his saris - mostly made of silk or chiffon - can be bought at a reasonably-priced range of 200 to 3,000 baht (280 to 4,200 pesos). Batra foresees a thriving future for his sari business. He believes his clients, including the local population, continue to wear saris even in this modern age. To cap your trip to Pahurat, I recommend a visit to the Old Siam, a shopping mall with European architectural influences on the corner of Pahurat Road and Triphet Road. Old Siam is one of the oldest shopping malls in Bangkok with lots of dry goods, but the bigger attraction is the old-style Thai market inside which sells all kinds of indigenous Thai food including a great variety of Thai desserts. - YA, GMANews.TV