In Search of Peacock Feathers in Little India

My friend Anthony is in Bangkok now. He is in need of a bunch of peacock feathers for a New Year's party on the island of Mustique (go figure). This is Bangkok, where, if you can't find it, it probably doesn't exist. So we were confident we could find some. A Thai friend directed us to Little India and told us how to say "peacock feathers" in Thai (not surprisingly, these are not the first words you find in your phrasebook). Deep in the bowels of a crowded market in Little India, we struck the motherlode. Now, after helping Ant find his peacock feathers, I feel like I deserve an invite to his party on Mustique, but I'm still waiting.

Ant finds his feathers:


Outre headgear alert: the same shop also stocked this unusual tiara which Anthony took a real liking to:


I suggested that Ant buy one of these shirts to complete his wardrobe:


This is just an aside: There are more tailors in Bangkok than anywhere else on earth. These guys will make you not just a suit, but an entire wardrobe, for about US$100. A good friend of mine needed a suit for job interviews in Japan. When he returned to our hotel and tried the suit on, I almost gasped with horror: it was traffic-stoppingly bad. Everything that could be wrong with it, was. The fabric was uniquely cheap and horrible. The cut was bizarre and anti-fashionable - like he had gone blindfolded into a Salvation Army store and groped his way to the suit rack and hauled it out of the store. It had weird waves and ripples and wouldn't sit right no matter how he adjusted it. Strangly, he was convinced it was a fantastic suit and I fear he still sports it on formal occasions. Now, one thing I've noticed about the tailors in Bangkok: the fierce competition has driven them to new heights of one-upmanship. First, every tailor in the city claimed to be "The Tailor of the Year." Then, some enterprising soul claimed the coveted "Tailor of the Decade" award. Then, the guy below topped them all by claiming to be not only "The Tailor of the Millenium" but also, "The Only Tailor in Bangkok to be UN Certified." I am still trying to get the number of the UN Department of Tailor Certification so I can complain about the suit my friend bought all those years ago. And, to be fair, it wasn't from the Ambassador Tailors.