Having seen on Facebook that a lady dressed in traditional Thai dress driving her tri-cart around Pattaya selling vegetables, we caught up with 39-year-old Ms. Nutjina Bangnimnoi, lovingly known as Oi, on Feb 25, who was tending to her mobile shop selling vegetables.
Oi sells her vegetables at markets and outside beer bars and entertainment places, where she finds most of her customers who are seen happily singing and dancing along with her as they buy vegetables to take home after work. The prices are very low, at only 20-25 baht a bunch. Tourists also gather around thoroughly amused.
Oi said, “I’ve helped my parents sell vegetables since I was a little girl. I like this profession so much that I carried on selling vegetables through my adolescent years until the present day to earn my living.
“I sell vegetables day and night,” she said. “I sell at the fresh market during the day and I go around the Pattaya beer bars and entertainment places at night.”
Oi went on to explain the outfits she wears when driving around on her vending motorbike sidecar. “For the past five years, I have been dressing up in fancy outfits to imitate a lot of the famous characters from Thai TV soap operas and shows. Today I am dressed as ‘Ngo Pa” or ‘jungle native’ with the fuzzy rambutan-like hair.
“This is my favourite outfit as it seems to attract a lot of attention from my customers. I also sing and dance, which amuses and entertains the people who gather around my cart to no end. They sing and dance along with me which makes me very happy too.
“Locals and tourists take a lot of photos and videos of me and post them on social media, which makes me even more famous.”
With a big warm smile, the happy and kind-hearted vegetable vendor said, “I don’t mind if the people don’t buy my vegetables, but at least I know that I have made them very happy.”
