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Today was market day. But before we went to the market we had to find some breakfast. Now I know I said that I would normally not eat at McDonald's when I go to a foreign country. But it was Saturday and after eating rice after rice dish I wanted something that reminded me of home. So since there was a McDonald's at the corner of the main intersection, we ate there! Breakfast consisted of French fries, cheeseburger, coke and taro pie. Yes they had taro pie here too. I thought it was only in Hawaii that I could get that but I guess not. The purple sticky pie was so yummy! As you enter McDonalds a statue of Ronald McDonald is there greeting you in the "wai" stance.
Back at BCGH we check out and waited in the lobby for our friends to pick us up. I handed out my SSD 911 Call Dispatcher card to that elderly Italian man living in Australia we met our first night in Bangkok. He was staying in the same place as us and chatted with me while we were waiting. Once our friends (the Acosta's) picked us up, we got dropped off at the Chatuchuk Market and Pastor Acosta went on with our luggage to their house.
The market wasn't too crowded when we arrived. Plenty of things to see and buy, there was a section on just pets, another on lamps, Thai silk, clothing, bags. . .you name it they had it there! As you walk through the crowds you can hear various languages being spoken, there were blind people singing and asking for money, merchants calling out to entice you with their wares and the smell. There was the smell of leather, noodles being cooked, fried chicken, rice, incense being burned. When you go to a stall it is customary to bargain with the merchant, now seeing as I have no bargaining skills and neither does my cousin we were thankful that Aunt Esther had such good bargaining skills. She talked one lady down from 500 Baht to 250 Baht for this Thai silk I wanted to get for my mom. It was a game just trying to bargain with the merchants to lower their prices. We had lunch at a café type place in the market, now mind you when I say café it isn't like back home where you have metal chairs, solid table for each group and can just leisurely sit down and eat, no here it means sitting down in plastic lawn-style chairs and sharing a table the size of a book shelf plank with a few other people. The food was boiled chicken, with rice that had chicken broth mixed in, cucumbers and you add the spices on top of the chicken. Simple yet delicious and I found out it was a typical meal here in Thailand.
We ended up only staying for another hour after lunch and then the crowd got to be too much. It was now very crowded where no sense of personal space is given and it was very hot. Then we took a van/taxi type of car to Ban Yai (the neighborhood where the Acosta's were living). In their neighborhood it consisted of living areas on top of the stores. There was a Farmer's Market around the corner and a few blocks down there was the Night Bazaar. Auntie Esther was cooking food and needed to get a few ingredients still from the market, so we tagged along. I saw jack fruit being sold by the slice, different types of eggs, apples, fruits and spices. There was fresh turmeric that hadn't been pounded into powder yet but was in fruit form, Chinese ginger, very small red onions. It was a fascinating experience! Dinner consisted of pork and cajous, sticky rice, papaya salad, regular white rice, fried chicken and beef stew. Then after dinner we walked down to the night bazaar. My cousin had to get a skirt and shoes for Sunday. Someone was singing Karaoke style using popular English songs and yet they didn't really sound too good. There was this one store called the Living Mall right across from the night bazaar.
That store is huge! I reminded me of Ikea but way bigger. They had plenty of fashionable room models. There was this porch swing I really liked and a gazebo that I wished I could take home with me. Along with some funky modern style furniture which if I was rich and could afford to send it home I so would! It was such a fun place to visit and see things. We then went home and I showed pictures of my family and trips in the past few years before heading to bed. Now here is something that puzzles me. Their bathrooms here are small and you don't have like a bathtub to shower in, there is just the shower nozzle and you used the whole bathroom space as a shower space also. I was trying to figure out how to shower without getting your clothing (the one's you'll be wearing next) wet if the whole bathroom is part of the shower space also. My cousin was laughing at me trying to explain it! I was just a tad bit flabbergasted and realized that the comforts of the States have seriously spoiled me.
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