Angry Urban Dweller: Day 2: I Will NOT Pay 190 Baht For a Tee

Listening: Everybody come and play. Throw every last care away. Let's go to the mall... Today.

What's my problem? I'm a cheap mofugga

Yesterday, I met up with my friend Cara at her hostel around noon, and we, along with a kid from upstate New York named Dan, went to the weekend market near Mo Chit. Umm... holy shit. Umm... really... holy shit. The place was huge. The place was packed. There was crap for miles and miles (figuratively). The large majority of the stands sold crap such as tee shirts, bags, belts, military surplus, bug zappers and so on and so forth. There were restaurant stalls and bar stalls, along with a variety of snack stalls ranging from fresh fruit (including jackfruit, rambutan, fresh tamarind, mangosteen, along with run of the mill strawberries, pineapple, mango, papaya and the such) to grilled sausages, stuff that looked like Chinese roast pork and char siu (Chinese BBQ pork), and deep fried wonderfulness.

Cara was a champ. She walked out of that market with a couple of dresses and a bag. Dan and I walked out with nothing. I almost bought a white v-neck tee shirt with a black and white koi fish coming over the shoulder, but the dude wanted 190 baht (just shy of $6) for it. He wouldn't budge, so I smiled and walked away. I needed the 190 baht more than I needed a tee shirt. It was a cool tee though. I'm still on the lookout for it.

For lunch at the weekend market, we sat at a restaurant stall that was heavily populated by Thai folk. It was funny. We saw the place within the first five minutes of getting to the weekend market, and I remarked, "That place is full, and not full of westerners. It might be a good place to have lunch." We walked around for a couple of hours and ended up back there to nosh. The food was fantastic. We had deep fried chicken hip, spicy pork liver salad, spicy bamboo shoot salad, sticky rice and some rice noodles. To top it all off, we beat the heat with a few frosty Shinghas. Everything was delicious. I'm still expecting for food to be spicier than it has been, but it has all been really good. It completely changes my mind about Thai food. The Thai food in Boston can kiss my travlin' ass.

The thing that I was most intrigued about in the weekend market were the popsicle sellers. It was so simple but really quite ingenius. They had a metal cylinder, about the size of a large bamboo steamer that had another metal piece holding metal tubes, much like test tubes suspended in it. They would fill the test tubes with fruit flavored liquids, fill the drum part with ice, water and rock salt and would spin the piece holding the test tubes so that the icy water beneath them would freeze the contents of the tubes. It was fantastic. I want one of them... badly. I would hang out in Harvard Square and sell popsicles.

It pained me to look at some of the stalls and know that I couldn't eat or drink what they were offering. It was clear that they were using local water and ice to make frosty concoctions. They all looked really yummy. At one of the bar stands, a group of teens were drinking alcoholic slushies. I know I can get that stuff in the states, but could I really get it in the flavor of rambutan or red tea?

After the weekend market, we headed over to the Siam area to pick up a phone for Cara. She didn't have her phone unlocked and needed one. I expected us to see some for sale at the weekend market, but no dice. The mall that we went to was really upscale. She bought a cheap little Nokia, and I lusted after a Samsung. I may go back and get it before I leave southeast Asia. It was seeeeeexy.

Dan was really only in town for the day, as he would be going to teach English in Nong Kai. So he bounced out of town at Five o'clock. For dinner, Cara and I, along with two other people, Ed and Stacy, went to Khao San Road for some dinner. It took us forever to get there because our cabbie thought that we said some other San Road, which was on the other end of town. There was a huge demonstration in one of the parks protesting the government, so seas of red shirt clad people were clogging the streets. When we finally got there, the major topic of discussion was the question of "Is our server a chick or... a dude...."

It was a weird night for me. I was already sleepy by the time we headed out for dinner around eight. The sleepiness was compounded by the two Singhas I had with dinner, so by the time we got back to the Sukhumvit area, I was zonked. They went to the "pink bus to get a drink, while I went to find the pisser. By the time I got back, ten minutes later, the "pink bus" was closing up and they were sans drink. It was half past one by that time, so I figured it was time to go home.

Anyways, it's getting late in the day. I should be getting on to meet Cara. I'll leave you with some pics though.