Back from the land of smiles...

NB Click on any of the images to enlarge



I am delighted to tell you that Thailand offers, besides fine weather and beautiful beaches, a wide variety of miniatures! But you have to be willing to do some footwork (I finished off 2 pairs of sandals on uneven sidewalks!), take the bad smells with the good, (Sidewalk restaurant versus open sewers!), and do plenty of haggling!


Nearly all of the miniatures available are objects relevant to the Thai lifestyle, or things they are familiar with. The blue and white are used as containers in shrines (holding flowers or incense etc) , and the pots, bottles and bowls are all paraphanelia related to their cooking and the food they eat, for instance food available at the roadside vendors.

Most objects are made really well, but not always to 1/12 scale, especially the food and plants. Western food are not made to the same quality as Thai food, so I bought only a few things 'western', (including oreo cookies twice the size it should be, see the display shelves in the photos at the bottom of this post, they are the same size as the doughnuts!). I did buy plenty of Thai food however...especially the sushi is divinely real.

I found a load of stalls at the Chachatuk weekend market, quite a few things at the Suan Long Night market, and there is an excellent little 'shop' on the 3rd floor at MBK shopping centre, but haggle hard, it is a bit pricey! Keep your eyes open, minis for sale everywhere but hard to find between all the other stuff. I even found urns at the Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant's souvenir shop??? Makes no sense to me...

Oops, I knocked it off the real table=(

I found LOTS of Celadon as well!

A variety of animals... they are very cute! Most of the animals relate to the Chinese 'Year'

The baskets come in many shapes and sizes and so do the bamboo baskets and bowls. Made by nimble fingers!

The food vendors are found everywhere! Setting up an alfresco restaurant anytime of the day and absolutely anywhere! They are very popular with the Thai People, and during lunch break, even young executives can be seen eating from the collapsable table , perched on a plastic stool. The reason why you find a row of these bicycle carts, parked amiably alongside one another, is that they sell different foods. One might provide soft drinks, another juices, another meat kebabs, the list goes on. For every 'kitchen on wheels' you would need different pots, containers etc, and the little stall in MBK (3rd floor) sells ALL of these! Down to the plastic baskets! I considered for a moment to start collecting these too, but fortunately the feeling passed again when I realized I have enough on my plate as it is. Would be very cool though... perhaps one day!

The cakes were truly lovely, slightly over the top creations, but comes in many shapes and colours. They are true to size, the only trouble is which ones to buy. Oh choices! The ice creams were so adorable, but the cinnabuns (I think?) were a bit of a mistery for a while. (They came as part of a 'set'. I would not have bought them otherwise.)

The glassware was well made, but limited to a few things, and some specifically for the mini food vendor. The large glass jar for example holds something which looks like a stock (with plenty of spices added!), but I thought it could be used as a vase, or something.