The Doll Collector
Nataphol ‘Tor’ Sinsaduak has been collecting (mostly) Barbie dolls for a decade. He has over 1,000 in his collection (though, only brought 300 to this photoshoot), some of which cost him a Barbie-gasping 10,000 baht. “I love dolls,” he says, “I love dressing them, I love playing with them. I didn’t have many friends when I was young.” Tor works for Thai Airways when he’s not hanging out with his ‘friends’, and even though his 1,000 are a pretty impressive haul, he says he would never sell any of them.
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l LOVE SHOP: 27 Soi 9 Nimmanhaemin rd.
The Collector of Pink
Urai Chaipathanasak is no ordinary meatball seller, she is also known as the woman in PINK. “I started this business two and a half years ago. I design everything myself, the van, the logo, the colour scheme. I actually did it all because a Chinese fortune teller told me that pink is a colour what will get people a lot of friends,” says Urai. She says she loves the Japanese and Korean fashion too, and loves the femininity of it. In the spirit of a true happy-go-lucky type of lass she tells us that, “Although I don’t earn a lot of money, I am happy. I can share my meatballs with people, and people can share love with me. Many customers come and ask for music. I can give them a microphone and let them sing and dance, and then I give them meatballs for free!” You can find her: Mon/Tues: Mee Chok Plaza, Wed/Thu: Tesco Lotus, Kam Thieng branch, Fri: off, Sat: Walking Street on Wualai Road, Sun: Sunday Walking Street.
The Collector of Superheroes
Phumipat ‘Oat’ Jiarajetchai is actually one of the Citylife photographers. He says he was always inspired by cartoons and superheroes when he was young (and has been begging to be featured in the magazine for years!). “I’ve been collecting figures for ages. I started searching for them when I was about eight years old, when I moved to Chiang Mai. I collect all kinds of old stuff: glass, sculptures, king’s photos and other things,” says Oat. He tells us, “I love the way they are. They are old, but they are classic, they are authentic.” He reckons his collection is worth a bob or two now, somewhere in the region of 100,000 baht.
The Collector of Everything
Mongkolrat ‘O’ Jarasporn is the owner of the Tha Pae Inn hotel on Tha Pae Road where you can see some of his massive collection of just about anything. O has been picking up all kinds of bric-a-brac for about 15 years and is now the proud owner of around 10,000 ‘items’. His treasure trove includes all sorts of pop bottles, cans of food, packets of sweets, soaps, cereal boxes, banknotes, newspapers, billboards, cans of soda, calendars, piggy banks, some great old posters and lots more. “I get all the stuff from shops, the walking street, second hand markets and I just find things. I take most of the things to the hotel and display them to show other people.”