How much does your vehicle number plate mean to you? If you're Thai, the numbers mean a great deal indeed. There are so many superstitions surrounding numbers that they auction off the most sought-after car registration plates each year. This year's event took place on Saturday 22 March in the ballroom of a Phuket Town hotel. A total of 310 plates went up for auction - and a staggering 14 million baht (R3,5 million) was raised. The proceeds go towards road maintenance.
The ballroom was packed with buyers, as the numbers were resented by attractive young women in revealing outfits. The alphanumeric plates for Phuket in 2008 begin with the two Thai letters ก (gor-gai) and ท (tor-tahaan), followed by strings of anywhere from one to four digits. This year's Thai letters, “กท”, are considered especially aspicious as the letters mean "double progress".The most highly-sought after plates, for which opening bids were 50,000 baht, were numbers with the same digit four times in succession. As most bidders were keen believers in Chinese geomancy, the top bid, as expected, was for plate กท 9999. The winner was local hotel magnate Wanrak Likhidvong, with a high bid of 740,000 baht (R200,000).
The second highest bid, of 510,000 baht (R150,000), was placed by businessman Atthapan Poojaroen for กท 8888. All 301 plates on offer were snatched up by luck- and vanity-seeking bidders, with the lowest bid fetching 19,000 baht.In Chinese culture, the lucky numbers are 4,8 and 9, with 9 the most prized. The unlucky numbers are 4, 5, 6, 7, with 4 deemed to be the most unlucky. (Some buildings avoid the number 4 in numbering their floors to avoid misfortune, so there will be no 4th floor, 14th floor, 24th floor, etc) Just for the record, my Phuket car registration number is 9208 (starts with 9, ends with 8 and adds up to 19...not bad at all). And to think it cost me nothing.
