Several months ago, I discovered a nice coffee shop at Bangrak market which served very nice coffee. So, I decided to revisit this coffee shop as a reward to myself for getting a few things done as scheduled. This place used to be called Bangrak Bazaar where there’s a big food hall on one side, and lots of small shops and a flea market outside. This food hall has been recently renovated so, it looked very spacious and modern. The food hall has become quite popular with tourists staying at the nearby hotel as prices were much cheaper and the choices of food were quite attractive.
The food hall had plenty of tables and chairs though it wasn’t air conditioned, the giant fans made the air circulation very agreeable. There were photos of food in front of the food stalls so customers could just point at the photos when ordering the food. There weren’t many choices for sweets and ice cream which was quite disappointing to me. There was one sweet stall and a coconut ice cream stall in the food hall.
Most of the small shops were selling clothes, shoes, fashion accessories and cosmetics. Outside the food hall, beauty products and nail salons seemed to be quite popular. Most shops tended to cater for women customers which reflected the fact that the majority of population was women nowadays. I only saw a small barbershop for men at the market, though there’s a bar at the corner but it’s too early for customer to indulge in alcoholic beverages.
The coffee shop I wanted to drop by for a cup of cappuccino, called Pao, seemed to be quite busy. So, I had to walk around the flea market nearby and took some photos. The flea market seemed ti be more lively than usual, I was glad to see that the local economy has picked up due to more tourists in this district. As the pier for boat trip to the Grand Palace was a few minutes walk from this flea market, more tourists would be passing by the flea market. However, there were still some empty stalls waiting for renters. I just hoped that these small business owners would be able to earn enough profits to cover their rents and investments.
It was quite educational for me just observing these small stalls. I had no idea that false eyelashes were quite trendy and painted nails has become very popular. I wondered why people would be spending their hard earned money on unnecessary things instead of spending on food and investments such as getting some Bitcoin, gold and silver. It’s a pity that our schools didn’t teach students anything about financial management and long term investments and the origin of money and currency. Perhaps the power-that-be just wanted to keep people ignorant and programmed for their own purpose. I always found it very difficult to discuss about crypto even with my well educated friends. They were all afraid of crypto coins which they couldn’t hold in their hands.
After a short walk, I went back to the coffee shop to have my coffee. I had to find a seat on the other side of the coffee shop. The two tables in front were occupied by some tourists. I requested that my coffee be served in proper cup as I didn’t like the taste of coffee in paper or plastic cup. The barista was very skillful and served very good coffee. I really liked the taste of the blend of coffee beans which gave very distinctive taste with slight aroma. I wished they also had some home made cakes to go with coffee. I guessed it would involve too much work in such a small space.
It was nice to give myself a treat of having coffee in the market place so I could observe people’s activities and be outside my comfort zone, from time to time. The owner of the coffee shop turned up later. So, I asked her where she bought the coffee beans. To my surprise, she told me that she had to order a special blend at the coffee bean factory in Chiengmai. Chiengmai was very famous for growing special kinds of arabica coffee beans as they were grown on mountaineous areas. She had to experiment with different kinds of coffee beans and how long they were roasted so that the result would be favourable. I couldn’t ask her to sell me some of her coffee beans!
I still had those special coffee beans my friend bought from her trip to Austria. It was a bit too well roasted but the aroma was very nice. It was quite a hassle to brew my own fresh coffee so I did it irregularly. But when I had my fresh brew coffee, I wondered why I didn’t treat myself to fresh brew coffee more often! That’s typical of me. It was nice to see lots of activities and vendors in the flea market looking busy with their customers. I guessed we were very lucky to be a popular destination for tourists from cold climate regions of the world. I just hoped that the predicted global financial trouble wouldn’t materialise this year! I wished something unexpected would avert the collapse of the financial world.
I hoped that the great reset would be transformed into more gradual changes. I was more concerned about the political and financial situations in my country. The political situation has become very unstable while the fiscal policies seemed to worsen the financial standing of the country. The government has been giving money to groups of people ranging from the elderly people with low deposits in bank accounts during the whole year. Many people could see that it was like vote buying during ejections. The final group of receivers of ‘free’ money would be teenagers who would be eligible for voting in two years’ time.
Many people questioned the effectiveness of stimulating the economy by borrowing money to give to some groups of people. I thought people were doing crazy things in desperate situations and the consequences wouldn’t be pretty. Everyone was trying to survive and hold on to power and positions at all costs. I hoped and prayed that those people with common sense and professional integrity would be able to mitigate some of these politically driven monetary policies. I would have to put my mind at ease by having my fresh brew coffee at least once a week.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
#marketfriday created by @dswigle.