gemstones
thailand | travelled in 2012 | posted on jun 14, 2012
chanthaburi actually is a sleepy provincial town in south-eastern thailand. for tourists, it is usually only a transit station to the cambodian border or to the dream-beaches of the tourist island ko chang.
on weekends, however, everything in chanthaburi revolves around rubies, sapphires, emeralds, zircons and other gemstones when dealers from thailand, china, india, sri lanka, the middle east and africa come here to buy and sell their goods at the weekly gemstone market.
at first sight, you get the impression of a typical southeast asian street market. in small market stalls or temporary stands on the pavements, the trade happens between scooters and street food stalls. only, it is not about cheap clothes or food, but about thousands of gemstones. at simple folding tables, buyers are waiting for goods to be presented to them: small stones, smaller than the head of a pin - you should avoid sneezing - , stones, big as marbles or bigger, raw or already cut and polished, always packed in simple plastic bags. with tweezers, magnifying glass, torch and scales, the quality of the goods is examined and discussed - colour, purity, flawlessness and weight are the decisive factors - and with the help of pocket calculators, the price negotiations are conducted with an international language clutter. prices of 20,000 euros for a single stone are not uncommon.
