Living in Thailand |
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”
— Robert Louis Stevenson |
Living in Thailand |
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”
— Robert Louis Stevenson |
Todays Mission: Check out the largest open air market in Thailand, Chatuchak Weekend Market (aka JJ Market), and try Som Tam Thai (Central Thai-Style Green Papaya Salad). I was told that Chatuchak Weekend Market is a “must see”, and according to Wikipedia, it has more than 15,000 stalls and is divided into 27 sections. I was also told by two of my new coworkers, that Som Tam Thai is a dish I need to try. Side note: Since my last outing I have discovered the “ViaBus” app (shout out to an unnamed, surprisingly talkative, Buddhist monk I met at the mall this week) which is a real-time public transport bus tracking and navigation application that works with Bangkok Transit. Thanks to this app I may never get lost again! (Not likely, but one can dream.) So, I left my condo, by bus, around 10:30am and arrived at Chatuchak Weekend Market at 11:30am (spending a whopping 35 baht~$1 US). And, they’re not kidding… this is the mother of all flea markets. When I say you can find ANYTHING, it’s real…and it’s more than a bit overwhelming. Here are a few photos: By 12:30pm I found some Som Tam Thai, and officially declared this mission a success. Som Tam Thai is sweet, spicy, salty and sour all at the same time. Per Google, it is served all over Thailand and each region has a different version. Som means “sour taste” and Tum means “pounding with pestle”. I ordered mine “nit noy ped” (a little spicy) and it was very, very good. Yes, at Chatuchak Weekend Market you can buy anything: clothes, bags, essential oils, china, furniture, a massage, plants, great street food, and a hedgehog. Ah, yes…“the pet zone”. This is where things get a bit sketchy ethically, for me. If you enter the pet zone from the front, things look okay. The animals at the front have air con, look cared for, aren’t in over crowded cages, and have access to water. But as you work your way deeper into the pet zone, the animals get more exotic and the conditions become questionable. I saw kittens, puppies, chickens, a sloth, chinchillas, parrots, iguana (maybe bearded dragons?), hedgehogs, and many, many other exotic animals.
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