Walking Street Market, Chiang Mai, Thailand
These things are so colourful, so bold, so vibrant. And so useless.
There is a lot to love about the market culture of Asia. But the excitement and novelty fades over time. It’s not the cost (things like this are cheap!), but the arriving at the cost which is exhausting; everything is a haggle. Every transaction is a second guess. Did they agree to your price too quickly? You paid too much. Did you have to play act walking away before they agreed? You’ve left a bit of your soul on the road, depriving someone of a few bucks of livelihood.
We don’t need this crap, but we buy it anyways. It’s more than a bit ironic that Western consumerism is fueling the growth of developing economies.
We’ve tried to be responsible with our purchases.