Sunday 11/29/2009
We rose early on Sunday in delightful anticipation. We were headed to the Chatuchak market. Open on Sundays, the market features thousands of vendors crammed into what seems like a labyrinth. We walked from our hotel to the nearby train station.
Bangkok is a little more pedestrian friendly than KL. There is still a lot of pollution and smog but there is an extensive network of elevated sidewalks and trains. This makes it much easier to cross the streets (it's not "run for your life!" like it is in KL) and puts you above the exhaust generated from the huge number of cars, taxis, busses, and tuk tuks.
We took the train and were at the market in less than 30 minutes -- we'd definitely beat the crowds by going early (before 9 am). We found that you could buy almost anything at the market -- from smelly spices and ingredients, to souvenirs, to clothing, to art, to live animals.
Fortunately, we had Nancy Chandler's map to guide us or we would have gotten completely lost in the market.
I particularly enjoyed seeing a blues style band complete with banjo strumming along to a recorded album.
I tried a Bangkok ice dessert (pink fruit globs with coconut milk over ice). Some random guys were actually filming people nearby and took some footage of me eating my treat (unfortunately, it didn't really appeal to my western palate).
Some of our best finds were thai silk, random trinkets, and fun novelty t-shirts. Scott even bargained for a watch with Thai numbering on the face. That went nicely with a cheap watch that I bought in Singapore with Chinese lettering on the face.
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