But in among the simple pleasures of the market are representatives of a darker side of Phuket society: people with twisted bodies or missing limbs, making whatever living they can from begging.
Enjoyment sweeps from the eyes of the shoppers as they spot one of these disturbing people. Some are shocked, others disgusted. Some are sympathetic and slip coins into the tins or hands the beggars hold out.
In another corner of the town not far from the market, an old man named Sawai Promjinda rests his chin on the stump of his left arm.
With his right hand, he holds proposals for changes to the laws relating to rights of the disabled.
“We need more rights. We have to fight for them,” Sawai, who is president of the Phuket Council for People with Disabilities, says. He wants to see greater equality in society, with the physically handicapped more readily accepted as normal people.
“There still isn’t enough support for the disabled,” he says. “Many facilities simply don’t accommodate the disabled.”
The Thai government currently has an annual budget of B800 million to help the disabled. That includes a monthly welfare cheque for each disabled person: the princely sum of B500.
The 2008 Act for the Support and Development of Disabled Livelihoods states that the disabled have a right to live and work in society. Large companies are obliged by law to hire one disabled person for every 100 employees.
In reality, says Sawai, many people ignore the Act. Some companies won’t hire any disabled people because they allegedly don’t have the ability to do a given job.
“We have a law to support the disabled. But if people don’t comply with it, society will move further away from equality,” Sawai observes.
The law does not, however, help with simple but almost insurmountable problems such as getting around in a wheelchair. Public transport and buildings – including government buildings – usually take no account of their difficulties.
“Community leaders are very important to improving the lot of the disabled,” Mr Sawai says. “If they don’t care, then there will never be facilities for the disabled.”
But – perhaps surprisingly – Sawai believes that discrimination doesn’t come only as a result of society’s attitudes. It can, in fact, be reinforced by the disabled themselves.
For a start, although it may be hard to get a job, it is possible – but few disabled even try. Of the 3,000 registered disabled people living in Phuket, only about 200 have what could be called “proper jobs”.
Some simply spend their lives hiding from strangers’ eyes, rarely moving from home, thus effectively hiding the problem too. Others reinforce negative stereotypes by begging, wandering from market to market.
Many disabled find it’s the easiest way to make a living – and not a bad one at that. “I used to be a beggar,” says Sompong Juiplub, 43. “I earned around B2,000 to B3,000 a day. Good money.”
He sits on a simple wheelchair made from two wheels connected by an iron pipe, which replaces his left leg, lost 35 years ago.
As he speaks he works on the back of a dismantled TV set. He holds a soldering iron in his right hand, the solder tube in his mouth – his left arm too, is missing.
At the age of eight, with both left limbs missing after an accident, he was pulled out of school by his parents. Illiterate, disabled and without skills, begging was really the only option for survival until he met Sawai, who encouraged him to start a new life with a proper job.
Now he has his own TV repair shop and employs three staff. Ironically, none of these are disabled – Sompong tried to hire disabled people but none wanted to work for him.
“Being a beggar is a kind of cycle. You want to get away from it but you can’t, because it is the easiest way to earn money without any investment,” Sompong explains.
“From my own experience, I’d say the best way to help the disabled is by giving them chances to get an education, to learn skills.”
There are two government offices on the island that offer education and skills training for the disabled: the Phuket Special Education Center (PSEC) and Panyanukul School.
But once again prejudice all too often gets in the way. “Many parents can’t see the need for an education for their disabled children,” says Vanida Suraban, a Director of the PSEC.
Many don’t even register their disabled children with government offices that provide financial support, and will help find a child a place in a school and pay a portion of medical costs.
“Registering their disabled children, or sending them to a centre for the disabled make parents feel inferior in society. Some parents simply can’t accept that their children are disabled,” Vanida says.
Even when parents want to put their children into school, it can be difficult. Schools may simply refuse to take the children, citing a lack of specialised personnel and learning equipment that is more expensive.
Then, if one wants to live as a “normal person” in society, there’s the price to be paid simply because one is disabled.
The cost of good plastic limb can be more than B10,000, while the cost for physical therapy starts from B80 per session in a government hospital, or B600 an hour in a private hospital.
Charitable donations are sometimes available for the disabled, but all too often they cannot afford the cost of transport to go and get a donation, and they can’t pay for the nice clothes that are deemed necessary in polite Thai society to show due respect for the donors.
Sompong remarks that donations, if not delivered to the disabled at their homes, is less about charity and more about the donors getting face.
So, back to the weekend market, many continue to beg for money. But using their pitiable condition to get money is not a sustainable living, says Sawai.
“I wouldn’t recommend any disabled person to make a living from begging. They can do better than that if they have the support,” he says.
“Things are better than they were 10 years ago, when the disabled were mostly ignored [by the government]. But they still don’t get enough attention. There is still a long way to go in fighting for their rights.”