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With media reports and officials conflicting over the fate of Suan Lum Night Bazaar, BangkokRecorder asked the vendors themselves whether the capital's favorite night-time shopping area will soon be gone forever.
The Night Bazaar opened in 2003, but the lease on the land ran out this year, and the land is reportedly set to be used for a new development of condominiums, office buildings and a retail and entertainment complex. Shopkeepers were given notice to vacate the premises before April if they want to avoid legal action. While the bidding process for development is said to be underway, no announcement has been made whether the 3,000 stalls will be able to locate to an alternative venue.
BEC Tero Hall, a concert venue with capacity of 6,000 people lies within the same grounds. Artists who have performed there include Bryan Ferry, The Black Eyed Peas and most recently Jay-Z. The company is already looking to relocate, along with the popular Lumpini Boxing Stadium to more modern
venues in the city.
The land itself is owned by the Crown Property Bureau, a non-government Thai agency responsible for managing the personal assets of His Majesty the King and his immediate family. CPB leased out the property, once the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School, to a firm called P Con Development for a total of three years. The contract expired in April this year, but the bureau agreed to extend the lease period for another year to allow the traders more time to find new trading sites.
In September, P Con Development asked CPB to review its development plan to either allow the company and its more than 3,000 tenant traders to stay on or provide a new site on Ratchadamri road for them. Pairoj Tungthong, P Con’s CEO, told shopkeepers that he would pay 2.1 billion baht for a concession to build a commercial complex on 40 rai of the land plot to compete with major developers if they signed a deal with him.
"I will not leave the traders who have helped create this place," Mr Pairoj was quoted as saying in The Bangkok Post.
The CPB hit back by saying P Con had failed to pay 32 million baht in property tax.
While the night market has been criticized for its labyrinthine and featureless layout, it has become a popular shopping spot with both tourists and Thai people who prefer it to the uncomfortably warm Chutachuk weekend market or the city’s ever-growing number of expensively-priced shopping malls.
 One of BangkokRecorder’s favourite Night Bazaar stores has been open for around 2 years. ‘Million Ideas’, located on Zone Ayuttaya Soi 3, specializes in printing customers’ own designs on T-shirts and other clothing garments. The young Thai designer in the shop’s small workspace admitted he doesn’t yet know where the business will go if the market closes in 4 months’ time.
“There are many rumors from different people and media, they all said different things,” he explained.
 “Bangkok could lose a major tourist destination. It is a downtown area and if we no longer have the market, people will not come here anymore. In the past, people usually went to MBK, but these days a lot people come here instead.”
He believes that tourist shoppers would miss the market more than their Thai equivalents.
“There are lot of Thais, teenagers and people who work nearby coming. But more foreigners because, actually, the price of products sold here are not so cheap for Thai people. Thais are usually just wandering around.”
 Another of our favourite stalls is ‘Surround By Idiots’, also on Zone Ayuttaya Soi 3. Shopkeeper, Alex Chua, has been selling skater-style T-shirts and accessories since shortly after the market opened. He “still has no idea” where he will go if the market closes. If he is forced to leave, he does not expect he will receive any compensation.
“I don’t want it to be closed actually,” he told us. “I have to earn a living.”
 “If it were closed, more than 7,000 people would be affected, they will lose their jobs. I think wealthy people should give poor people opportunity. They shouldn’t build so many condos. Foreigners spent more than 30 million baht a month here. It is the best market in Thailand. The prices at Siam Paragon are far more expensive than normal people can afford so this night market is the best solution. Even foreigners, they prefer to buy things for a cheap price.”
However, Alex believes that Thai shoppers will also lose out if the market closes.
“Let’s say normal Thai people earn 9000 baht a month, they still can afford things sold here. But if it becomes shopping center, things will be very expensive. Only rich people will come, and what about the poor? Where would they go if they would like to buy new shirts for 200 baht? The thing is: 80% of Thai people are poor, 10% are normal, 10% are rich. It’s not just the 20% that will want to buy new clothes.
 “If Suan Lum is closed, we will lose a lot of tourists coming here because in foreign countries, there are no markets like this, only department stores and shopping centers… If Bangkok becomes all shopping centers, foreigners will go other places like Vietnam that have markets like this.”
Like many of the larger, prime-positioned corner stalls, ‘Surround By Idiots’ is sub-let with a crippling mark-up for the stallholder.
“Actually, it’s 7,500 baht per month when occupied directly. But mine is 25,000 baht,” he explains.
 He points us towards an older stall holder who he says is more knowledgeable about the future of the market. Preferring to stay anonymous, the middle-aged silk salesman had a more militant attitude. He had been there from the beginning, and as a pioneer of the Night Bazaar he wasn’t going to take defeat easily.
“We’ll have no place to go so we will fight for it,” he told us. “In the first 2 years our business was not good, we made no profit. It‘s been better in the last 2 years but still, when there were scares such as SARS, bird flu or bombs - everything that effects visiting foreigners directly effect the business here.
“We just want to ask for an opportunity to go on our business here for another 2-3 years at least. But they just want us to leave anyway. The thing is, the contract was detailed that if they want us to leave they must give us a new place which we can still sell our products. At the beginning they told us they will allow us to settle at the opposite of Central World, but that was not true, they didn’t give us a place. They only want us to leave. They must give us a better place, at least no worse than here, which we can accept. That’s what we would like to ask for.
“40% of people coming here are Thai, 20-30% are foreigners who come with Thais and 30-40% are foreigners coming by themselves. Thais spend here less than foreigners… Here is the best place in Thailand that foreign money flow in the country. The products are directly sold to foreigners.
“More than 10,000 people would be affected by a closure. On average, at least 3 people per stall, not including their families.”
If vendors are given a second reprieve, it may well be temporary. Given Suan Lum's uber-prime location on the corner of Rama 4 and Wireless road, it seems inevitable that the land will one day be re-developed for more profitable activities. Whether the stallholders will have a well-positioned, alternative Night Bazaar that can continue to attract thousands of tourists appears less certain. However, whether those same tourists will be as drawn to yet another "glorious" Bangkok shopping mall inspires even greater doubt.
By Laurie Osborne with Panjarat Kittiamornchote
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