Iron Bridge Market of Bangkok

"Hey! What's he taking a picture of? Quick, cover up the computers, cover up the computers," the middle-aged Sino-Thai businesswoman screamed at her staff, motioning for one of the adolescent workers to tackle the reporter. A young hand reached up to grab the lens, but the photo-journalist twisted away from the grasping arms and scaled some railing. "Why the hell are you so slow?" the owner of the stall berated her employees.

Bootleg software, pirated videos, unlicensed cassette tapes; these are just some of the things that you can find crammed into the dingy aisles that make up Bangkok's Talat Saphan Lek or Iron Bridge Market.

The market has a reputation as a dumping ground for smuggled goods. Several Thai shoppers interviewed claimed that they are certain that customs duties haven't been paid on most of the items, and therefore bargain hunters can save up to 40 percent off department store prices.

Stall owners, not surprisingly, insist that the goods are brought into the country legally. One proprietor, the owner of a CD stall specializing in discs by Hong Kong and Taiwanese artists, asserted that they have paid all the appropriate fees to the authorities. He also claims that the reason his prices are so low is not because the items are tax free, but because the rental fees at the market are some of the lowest in the city. How low his rent actually is, he wasn't saying.

But despite these assurances from the dealers, many of the merchants can still be heard guaranteeing customers that their prices are as low as those in Hat Yai, the southern Thai town which has a reputation as a smuggler's Eden and a border guard's nightmare.

No matter how the articles arrived here, they are certainly traded openly in the market's dozens of tiny stalls. There is no attempt made to hide the goods from sight (unless you pull out a camera and start aiming it) and no one seems concerned about being "raided" by the authorities.

The market itself is built on a large metal bridge over Ohng Ang Canal in the Wang Burapha area of Bangkok, just to the west of Chinatown. The 200-meter-long aisles, which run along both banks of the canal, stretch from Charoen Krung or New Road south to Yaowarat Rd.

The market gets plenty of customers, despite the fact that shoppers have to force there way through throngs of people that crowd the one-meter-wide dim aisles. Likewise, patrons seem to be able to tolerate the heat and stuffiness inherent in a market with low ceilings and almost no ventilation.

You can start a tour of the market easily from the far southern side where it borders Yaowarat Rd. Begin at the corner that faces Merry King and Central Department Stores and walk east and you'll see several tables covered in red velvet with neatly arranged rows of old cameras. Zenits from the ex-Soviet Union, Pentacons from former East Germany, and a couple of brands with names written only in Chinese characters are all to be found 3 here. Collectively, they represent some of the lowest technology ever to be unleashed upon the planet. They are the photographic world's equivalent of the Scud missile.

There are a lot of recent second-hand models from Japan mixed in with the Soviet Block stuff, so there are actually some good deals to be found. Expect to pay about 5,000 to 7,000 for a basic mechanical camera and zoom lens, about 9,000 and up for autofocus cameras.

Walk further into the market and make a left as soon as you start banging your head on dangling power tools. At that moment you should be accosted by the sounds of pumping bass and the pounding of drums. Armed with stacks of receivers and rows of speakers, the owners of stalls selling stereos battle it out for the attention of the most customers. They blast the tunes directly into your face, loud enough to cause nosebleeds.

The market isn't divided into sections selling one particular kind of item, so if you take a few paces along you'll come across stalls selling clothes, videos, and binoculars in roughly even numbers. Past these are stalls selling more cameras, sunglasses, and cassette tapes.

The video sections always have at least a couple of people standing around them checking out movies before deciding on which ones to buy. There are often titles on sale here long before they are released officially in Thailand. Thai-dubbed versions of western films go for about 150 baht, while original-soundtrack movies with Thai subtitles are about 200 baht and up, which is about par with some of the other "discount" markets around town. The selection laid out on the table isn't too large, but if you don't see what you are looking for then you can thumb through the photo albums that have pictures of all the titles that are available.

Pass a couple stalls selling uninspired clothing and you won't be able to miss the mannequin head on a shelf surrounded by Malaysian and U.S. flags. Imported designer sunglasses are what's on sale here, and the owner of the shop claims that they are all legitimate. At 1,400 baht plus, they had better be. Even if you aren't in the market for sunglasses, take a minute to admire the potpourri of junk that the owner has used to decorate his stall.

Electronics are the big ticket items at the market, and those willing to spend the time dickering the price will be rewarded with some good deals. Rows of telephones in basic black and white that are suitable for any office are on sale next to far more unusual models - a bright orange "Garfield" phone, fluorescent-yellow "corn" phone, and the ever-popular "French fries" phone, which naturally enough looks like a pack of fries from Mcdonalds. Only in Bangkok could one find a market for this stuff.

Brain-washing entertainment has been the rage in western countries ever since the first days of MTV, and this fact is reflected by the popularity of comic books and video games amongst both adolescents and adults there. Thailand also has no shortage of people who have come to enjoy the truly "simple" pleasures in life, and at the market there are dozens of stalls that cater to their desires. Theses are the stalls that turn the big money at the market.

The majority of these stalls sell home video game machines and the game cartridges needed to play with them. The most popular system, according to the employees at Surin V.D.O. Game, is the Super Famicom, which is produced by Sega of Japan. In department stores the machines range from 5,000 to 7,000 baht, but at Iron Bridge Market the prices start at about 4,000 baht. Hundreds of game cartridges line the shelves next to the machines, each one selling for from 500 to 800 baht, depending on the popularity of the title.

The prices here may be lower than the more reputable outlets, but taking into account the fact that the minimum daily wage is only around 130 baht, it became obvious to the merchants here that some even cheaper form of providing games would have to be developed. Enter the computers that are seen throughout the market and which cause such a fuss when they are photographed.

Merchants brazenly copy games from cartridges on to standard computer disc, which they then sell for about 60 baht each, a savings of between 440 to 40 baht off the cartridge price. These discs can be played by using a special adapter which is also sold by the same merchants.

"Sure, we can copy any game you want," a teenage salesman says confidently. "If you buy this system we can get the games as soon as they are released in Japan. We guarantee that you can get them here before anywhere else."

Apparently, the market is in that same state of legal limbo that Panthip Plaza is under, where anyone with a couple of hundred baht can get computer programs copied in a few minutes. And while the politicians of the country say they are doing their best to eradicate copyright violations, the merchants carry out their business without any interference from the authorities.

Talat Saphan Lek is opened every day from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, but on Wednesdays many of the camera dealers at the entrance to the market are closed. Should you come across any electrical items that you want to buy, you should definitely take the time to shop around, as the market area is rather small and their are many stalls selling the same things. If the merchants seem extremely obstinate in their pricing, you can always tell them that you saw the same item for 20 percent less at Penang Market in Khlong Toey