First few days not in the Hospital

Thailand is as I remember it. Hot, humid and full of people. 

The cities are full of westerners trying to experience the real Thailand, by wearing fisherman trousers flip flops and t-shirts while staying in their 4 star resorts with pools and all the western luxuries you can imagine. Night markets are the same… but worse. Full of farangs, making the whole experience cheap and tacky. With stalls tightly packed together, the small avenues of free pavement are taken up by the mass of white people looking for their quick deals. Flip flops 25 baht (25p), sunglasses 80 baht (£1.75p) and here they are haggling over small prices but yet not haggling over their £50 designer underwear, which poke unceremoniously out from their very low rider trousers.

            Despite of all of this night markets do have an undeniable beauty to them. If you can find the right market in the right city you are greeted with strange and obscure objects. In one of these markets, full of only Thai people, had, hidden in the back a law office. Behind all the cloths, the singing fake birds and the canteen was a huge sign stating that it was indeed a law office. This surrounded by the canteen makes for a fantastic setting for a cheap meal. Looking at all the vendors selling the same combination of rice meat and noodles. Choosing one of these was not difficult as in all but 1 of the 5 had a seemed to have multitude of ants running around their food. Choosing the cleanest and ant free vender, and going for the least adventurous meal I could think of. Regrettably the ants had found their way into the cooking area and into the fried rice. Ants are not too bad to eat. It’s just a shame they weren’t part of the meal. It was nice despite the ants; the market beside the canteen was full of strange and weird meats. The oddest meat that I saw was and still is what looked like a huge Cumberland sausage, although upon asking what meat it was, it turned out to be buffalo or what she said was buffalo.

            The stalls slowly started to shift into a furniture market full of gold leaf furniture, Buddha’s and large what looked like mug trees. Beautiful craftsmanship. Far too many chairs which have been chiselled out of solid logs. The ornaments were even more sublime. Tiny little Buddha’s probably no bigger than a pack of cards. Wondering left and right to find something western. Finding nothing but pets for sale, I stopped and watched these puppies in cages. These puppies were young maybe about 8-9 months in actually very good condition. But it wasn’t the puppies, which caught my eye, having geese fully grown in tiny cages. It’s difficult to say how I felt because of the difference in culture.

             I suppose the strangest thing was these string domes, which had cockerels in, dotted around the floor these cockerels were circling and squaring up to each other. A strange sight, but strangely striking. These birds were in their best plumage, vibrant greens and blacks. Dashed with pure whites and bronze, with some mottled blues to. Beautiful birds. It’s a shame that they are kept in these domes; you can see them all over the country, dotted around the high way and in small villages. Watching these birds for a good few minutes my eyes got caught by some women tossing some strange white and orange things into the air. Curiosity though that I should investigate. 

              On closer scrutiny these were ant eggs being separated from the ants. By throwing them up in the air and catching them in a colander, allowing the eggs to be caught below on a blanket then separated into smaller plates. This works up until the point that the ants escape find the places and try and steal the eggs back. It is funny to watch as the venders try and catch then and regain their merchandise. They spent much time catching ants as they do trying to separate them out, I don’t think they appreciated my chuckling though as many started to harangue me with fast and loud Thai.

            Of course this is the start of the insect market. Strange insects peering up from vast tables of pre-cooked locust’s, crickets and strange fried caterpillars. Of course the biggest and most popular insects to eat are the water bugs. There are several which have been opened to show their ‘lucky’ eggs. There are thousands of these eggs. It looks like CSI, the guts of these insects slatted on the table, the legs at unnatural angles to the body, disturbing but normal for Thailand. Deciding to try and embrace the insect eating something, which I could probably get my head round, I bought some fried caterpillars hoping they would be like French fries. I have no idea what I was going to taste. Selecting the fried grub to be eaten. The caterpillars were strange easily eaten but because they were so small. Not really tasting like anything but having a strange soapy tang after finishing them.