Wednesday Walk: hunting for spare parts for my solar panels.

I didn’t give up the hope of finding the correct spare parts for my solar panels. So, I had to revisit the Bahn Mor area which was well known as a center for shops selling electrical gadgets, spare parts and hardware tools. These shops closed on Sunday while only smaller shops and vendors’ stalls were available on Sunday. The last time I was there, I didn’t have the chance to have a good look at all the shops. So, I hoped to be able to get the spare parts during my third visit in two months.

I had to get off the bus opposite the Old Siam mall and walked ten minutes towards the old rows of shophouses along a narrow side road. I had a good look at these houses which were rather old and some were quite dilapidated. They looked very similar to old shop houses in Chinatown and New Road. These were built during the reign of King Rama V, so they were at least 120 years old. This whole area was known as Bahn Mor which meant houses where pots (earthen ones) could be found.

This told me that in the old days, this area used to be a market for earthen pots and utensils. Vendors could unload their pots from the boats by the river nearby. Big rowing boats were used to transport goods and agricultural produce from the countryside to various vending centers in Bangkok. As a child, I used to see boats full of watermelons along the canals.

Walking along these shophouses was very nostalgic for me as we used to live in similar shophouses with a storage room full of goods. I couldn’t imagine living in such small space of a shophouse nowadays. I often wondered how our family could fit into such narrow rooms. But those days were the best memory of my childhood. I found out that living in bigger and modern house didn’t make me very happy. That’s probably why I was always very happy to see old shophouses. I felt very much at home walking around the narrow alleys and chatted with shopkeepers and vendors.

This area offered a chance for Chinese people with minimum education to make a living. But these days, there seemed to be less visitors looking for old types of spare parts for electrical and electronic gadgets and spare parts. The age of digital technology and automation had switched all entertainment gadgets and electrical appliances to digital main boards. These shopkeepers had a hard time adapting to the challenges of digital age. I felt quite anxious about the disappearance of these shops in the near future when the whole society became fully digitised. They would be left behind with old technologies.

I saw some shops tried to keep up with the popularity of solar lights and several shops had offered packages for building off grid solar systems for customers. But again, the changes in solar light gadgets evolved at quite a fast speed and there’s fierce competition from big solar companies with more advanced options. I wondered if these middle age vendors could catch up with all the impending changes.

This reminded me of the time when I warned my father about the big changes in his business; I even advised him to implement a new accounting practice. Something drastic had happened while I was abroad. When I came back for a brief visit, I found out that he had switch to the system I advised him a few years ago. It’s very difficult for the older generation of successful businessman to understand the risks of unexpected trends of changes. I did predict a few changes which all came true.

That’s probably why my father told me he wanted to let me look after one of his companies. But I turned it down with my excuses of being very lazy and too irresponsible to look after a big company. I knew my sibling was very jealous so I decided that competition among siblings was too tiresome for me. I’d rather have a calm and peaceful life with alternative career. I was glad that I let go of all my involvement in family businesses.

I walked around Bahn Mor area for almost two hours. I entered almost all the shops asking about the solar panel spare parts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find this spare part in any shop. It seemed people didn’t repair solar lights or panels; they just discarded them and bought new ones. The toxic waste would be quite alarming in the future as more people started to invest in solar energy. If the cost of electricity bills hadn’t increased too fast, people wouldn’t spend big chunks of money on solar light systems which could become out of date within a year.

It was as if there’s a push towards solar energy to benefit new groups of investors and factory owners. The wealth transfer from the old group of industry leaders had been dented and damaged while unwitting consumers were the victims of the new game in energy sector. High level civil servants and politicians became members of boards of directors of the new industry. The costs of recycling damaged solar panels and old batteries would be forwarded to the customers, tax payers and Mother Earth. A Chinese company from China was caught illegally imported electronic wastes to be recycled in some provinces without environmental qualifications. I reckoned all the useless wastes would be dumped in the earth as usual. Bribery made it easy for this kinds of dirty business.

After a while, I began to learn about the other regular spare parts and gadgets in various shops and stalls. These stuff would soon be out of date on a few years. Only one shop ‘owned’ by foreigners, some shopkeepers told me that’s the biggest and most modern shop, actually displayed automated circuits for handling smart farm systems, and robotic arms too. This shop also displayed various circuit boards for a complete off-grid solar system for big houses. I was quite impressed by the investment and competitive pricing of this shop.

I thought these shops wouldn’t bother to have spare parts for solar lamp and panels. They would rather sell customers a completely new set of solar lamp! But it’s such a waste to throw the whole thing away when I knew how to make it work with the right parts. I had to resort to ordering these spare parts from online stores from China. I hoped they would turn out to be the correct spare parts as I couldn’t read Mandarin. Some nice vendors taught me to make a direct connection between the wires. But I’d rather have the water proof spare parts to avoid the unintended problem in rainy season.

Several vendors seeing me walking around three to four times around their shops. They were curious if I could get what I was looking for, they told me it’s very unlikely to find these gadgets. I could see that there was no demand for these parts so it wouldn’t be profitable to keep them in stock. I was hoping I could find them by chance. If the parts from China didn’t work out, I had no choice but to connect the wires myself.

But my trip to this old flea market for electronics and electrical gadgets was very informative and educational for me. I had the chance to relive the atmosphere of my childhood, of being among hard working Chinese people. Though some shopkeepers were annoyed with me for not buying a new set of solar light, I knew they were under a lot of pressure. Business was very slow and customers didn’t come in droves like in the past. Several years ago, I saw crowds around the narrow road in Bahn Mor as I was traveling on a bus. How things had suddenly changed after the long lockdown.

I realised that things would change even faster as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and blockchain became widely implemented on our country. I could hardly keep up with new progress in AI and I felt I would be certainly left out one day. So, I had more concern about these underpriced Chinese vendors and the future of our society. The gap between the highly educated class and poorly educated class would widen through time. I hoped people wouldn’t be under the control of modern technology and that our society would still keep the faith in humanity.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#wednesdaywalk hosted by @ tattoodjay.