SNAGGING a seat at Bangkok’s famous street food stalls is not for the faint of heart.
The long queues from pre-pandemic days have returned – and with a vengeance, with the arrival of millions of tourists since Thailand eased Covid-19 entry rules earlier this year.
Snaking queues and hours-long waits have become the norm at some of these joints.
At one-Michelin-starred Jay Fai, a street hawker near Bangkok’s Grand Palace, long waits are a rite of passage for anyone hoping to try its crabmeat omelette and drunken noodles.
Getting a table can take upwards of two hours, and diners usually wait another hour for chef Supinya Junsuta, who is over 70 and better known by her moniker Jay Fai, to whip up each dish.
“I got there at 9.30am and there was a long queue,” said Singaporean Geoffrey Lee, 27, an operations manager holidaying in Bangkok last week. He waited about seven hours to dine at the open-air shophouse.
Those unable to stomach the wait turn to Chonthicha Finkemeier, 42, who is what some term a “professional queuer” or “queue-fixer”.
With the return of crowds, queue-for-hire services have taken off in Bangkok. Initially familiar only to locals, these services offered by individuals and firms are becoming more popular among tourists too.
In December, Thailand achieved its target of welcoming 10 million international visitors. While this pales in comparison to the 40 million arrivals in 2019, this milestone signals a steady recovery of its vital tourism sector.
Chonthicha plies her queue-fixing services at several eateries popular with tourists. But table requests for Jay Fai are particularly popular, and she has the walk-in booking system there down to a science.
“You must understand how the queue works, how long it takes to seat (customers) and when the next round of queue numbers are given out,” said Chonthicha, who has a full-time job as a hotel concierge and offers queue-for-hire services in her free time.
For 700 baht (RM90) per booking, she helps customers – mostly foreign tourists – queue hours ahead, but times this expertly to her customers’ preferred dining time.
“I count the number of people in the queue (before me). If I am too early, I let others go first. I must calculate, for example, if the customer wants to eat at 11am, I will start queueing at 6am or 7am to get a certain number,” said Chonthicha, who spent hours studying the restaurant’s queue system before she started taking bookings.
When she first began this enterprise in August, she had five bookings. This has increased to more than 30 in December, which is the peak tourist season for Thailand.
The wait for a table is usually upwards of two hours at Michelin-starred street stall Jay Fai, and it typically takes another hour for food to be served. — The Straits Times/ANN
