Thailand Adventures Part 3-Bangkok Shopping

BANGKOK SHOPPING

Feb 27 Continued

Went to weekend market.  Think Guatemala central market on steroids x100.  Yeah that crazy.  Very interesting.  Stacks and stacks of caged animals very sad.  Sky train back very nice.  Real Thai dinner.  Mild was HOT.  Dessert a ball of sticky rice and mango.  Yummy, but now know why all Thais so skinny!  Had neat dancer.  Brought out welcome rice wine.  Passed on that.  Two awesome massages for me.  Give cap for hair and Gstring. ;)  Even Peter got one.

When this is about the extent of your shopping at home...

It is a wondrous day to go to this.

That's right, not only did we get to go to a real shopping center, but Siam Square in Bangkok, no less.  Our shopping list was little, to ease us into the life of crowds again.

List:  

•  Eat something yummy that I don't have to cook

•  Buy a watch battery (since the one I ordered 2 months ago, still hasn't arrived)

•  Go to a grocery store with more than 4 aisles

    Siam Square is a mecca for food lovers.  The hardest part was making the choice of where to eat.  After much deliberation amongst the seven of us, we found an Italian one with a Thai twist.  Yum.  Then we were off to find the battery.  After walking through an enormous head-ache inducing perfume section that seemed to go on forever, we reached the shoe section.  The shoes were insane!   They were sequined, spiked, bright, gravity defying heels and platforms.  I can't believe anyone would seriously wear them.  Whoever does, can bid their Achilles tendon good-bye.  Think I'm exaggerating, because I don't wear heels.  Check this out.  Why would anyone do this to themselves on purpose?

    After the shoe freak-show we got to the batteries.  They wanted to charge me $10 for a watch battery!  I didn't like feeling that I was getting an inflated price, just because I was a foreigner, so I passed.  If I had known it was going to take me a few hundred kilometers and countless times of miming what I needed, I would have paid double that price. 

    We then headed to the grocery within the shopping center.  I was going down every aisle in awe.  A real  grocery store!  About 15 minutes into my ecstasy, Peter suggests that since we already bought the essentials that I put blinders on and we get out of there.  I said, "But honey this is the first real store I've been in almost a year.  I want to see what types of things they sell in a Thai grocery store.  This is part of the fun for me."  He says flabbergasted, "This is fun?  I didn't know."  Then with an attempt at sounding enthusiastic he says, "I am having so much fun."  Actually, even though in ink he sounded snarky, in reality he wasn't and it was very funny.  His whole demeanor changed and he became more supportive as I had my fun.  I also reminded him of the countless stores I could have dragged him into and that 20 minutes in a grocery store is truly not a slow and painful death.

    Good thing I warmed him up to shopping in air conditioning.  The next shopping spree was at the Jatujak (JJ) Weekend Market.  It the largest market in Thailand and with its +35 acres, there is no way we could have seen it all.  Luckily, we entered (completely by chance) through the animal section.  It was exciting and sad all mixed in one big stinky mess.   

These were alive and squirming

Even though it was hard to resist a face like that, after watching the video, you'll understand.

Squeezing Squeaky Rubber Chickens

Fowls Galore = Foul Galore

This was so sad.  A man was scooting on his belly.  I had the kids run to give him money and took a quick photo. 

Little blurry, because I was trying to be discreet

A lot of things had NO PHOTO signs.  Mostly on illegal animal sales.  I snapped this one and then realized it also had a sign.

These poor wilting dogs must have been suffering bad in the heat

See the black elephants?  I love how they carve from one block of wood.

The JJ was a mixture of pleasure and pain, but I'm so glad we went and experienced it.  Not only were we pouring sweat, but navigating the crowds with 5 children is no easy task.  The children were great, but Eva, understandably was getting fussy by the end.  I bought them each a peacock feather and that appeased Eva, but she kept brushing strangers with it.  We had long peacock feathers sticking out in the crowd, which made it easy to spot the children.  Rather than count heads, I could count feathers.