Sometimes a scent, a light, a sound – and images surge up from the past. I arrive in Bangkok on Friday the 13th – a lucky day – very early in the morning; the day is just breaking, casting reflections on a canal, and armfuls of flowers appear, soon spilling out of the warehouses and shops and flooding the pavements. Fleeting visions, a magical moment.
Pak Klong Talat, the country’s largest flower market—and one of the largest in the world—stretches along pavements and alleyways, through sheds and backyards. Here, the hustle and bustle begin as night falls; vans arrive one after another until the early hours of the morning, unloaded by sheer muscle power; thousands of nimble fingers sort, categorize and thread onto stands the delicate, heady jasmine, the orange marigolds and orchids of every shape and colour. Every flower, every plant is a new journey, the discovery of a different region, a delight.
Years later, it is past 10 pm: a buzz of excitement and bustle, the same venues, little hands busily crafting the marvelous ‘Phuang Malai’ garlands, with their ever-changing braided designs, suspended from the ceilings, moments punctuated by bursts of laughter. The flower, a symbol of happiness, life, love, offering and sharing, is everywhere, omnipresent 24 hours a day, leaving only a few spaces for pop-up restaurants and their piping-hot soups.
The world changes, loses its mind, belches, vomits and sometimes loves, but Pak Klong Talat remains, a timeless, marble-like statue that continues to bestow its flashes of joy and beauty – those little essentials of everyday life that give you a wink as you pass by.
It is a hymn to love and life, a little something that doesn’t cost a fortune – it’s time to go and discover it. Follow our path, strewn with petals and scents, just like us: different and unique!