Sunday 1/21 - We are off to the market today – the Rimping supermarket that is. After going to the gym this morning, and enjoying the translations on the signs from the pool…
…today is shopping day. Mindful of the alcohol moratorium before 11am and between 3 and 5p, we time our walk and visit for just before 11. As we are walking past River Market on our way to the Iron Bridge, I see some new construction and tell Ed to “look over there.” Of course he does, and as he is turning back to continue our walk, he runs smack into a Jack Fruit hanging over the sidewalk. I heard him hit from 5 feet away – it was a solid “thwack” sound – just awful. He thought he hit a concrete pole, it was so hard and painful. He ended up with abrasions on his forehead and what will forever now be known as the Jack Fruit Incident.
Note: pictures below are a recreation. Do not attempt this at home.
Excitement over, we completed our shopping, grabbed what we wanted to make for lunch and went back home to wait for the rest of our stock to be delivered.
After lunch and our delivery, we strike out toward town to see if Tiger Kingdom in Town is open yet. The answer is no, but along the way we are really marveling at all the changes that have taken place in the 2 years since we’ve been here. There are lots more shops and tons of coffee places (including Harinezumi, where you can enjoy your coffee with guinea pigs and hedgehogs – seriously, there are little hedgehogs in pens in the window), and there are now restaurants and some sort of night market where the car wash used to be about 5 minutes walk from our condo. One is a wine and craft beer place which you know we will be visiting soon. After walking almost to Thae Pae gate (the other end of the moat), we decide to stop for a beer and wine, but forget that it is 4pm and some restaurants can’t serve alcohol. Some can though – and we’ve never figured out the criteria – but we end up stopping at a place called Mad Dog Farang Food. We would normally never stop here, but hey, they are serving, so we’re in!
Tonight we hit the night market, and O’Malley’s for Ed’s burger and my Pad Thai.
It’s great as usual, but surprisingly empty. We can’t figure it out – it is Sunday, so lots of people are at the Sunday walking street, but still, O’Malley’s is normally busy all the time. Hmmm….Down the street at Bamboo, Jes Ca greets us with big hugs and smiles. It’s so great to see her. Again, its dead down here, and she confirms it is the Sunday walking street, but its a little disconcerting. We only stay for a little while, then head back home for the evening.
Monday 1/22 – Nothing exciting today. We are up early and actually get to watch the Vikings get the you know what kicked out of them by the Eagles. What a disappointment that was. I was so hoping for a home field Superbowl, but they just did not look like themselves. Who knows what went wrong, but something sure did. Ah well, there’s always next year.
Fortunately we are up early because suddenly we hear this loudspeaker blaring out singing and what we think is the national anthem a little before 8am. The sound is coming from behind the condo – and while we are already up, it is really loud. We listen for a while and it sounds sort of like a prayer…maybe? We think we hear them say Amen. Then there is also the sound of children squealing and playing. Googling determines that the Catholic Sacred Heart College is back there – which must be where the loudspeaker and announcements are originating. Hmmm…well…that’s a little annoying, but then again, we’ll just stay inside when it is the worst (of course it goes on and off all day long, so we’ll just get used to it eventually).
We take our traditional walk in the morning to Warorat market and pick up the essentials: Fried pork skin, pomelos, clementine oranges, and of course jack fruit! We try to find the vendor where I bought my wallet the last visit, but they aren’t there anymore, so that will be another trip to the market to wander. Walking back we notice the Pantiip shopping mall has new additions – namely McDonalds and KFC on the ground floor, but also this new convenience/grocery store. We peruse their shelves and figure this will be a good stopgap measure to fill in stock and not go all the way over to Rimping. Ed also found his short crew socks there for a lot less than they were in Pattaya – so all is right with the world.
We try out a new place right around the corner for lunch. It is all Chinese (sort of), barely a word of English, but it is really super cheap. We get fried Thai sausage (oddly good), pork dipping plate and a little bowl of meatballs (the meatballs only cost 10 baht – that’s like .31 cents). It’s all really good, and we’ll definitely come back here again. Next time to get the “bowls,” which is what everyone is ordering. The small bowl costs a little over $1 and it has noodles, broth, and some sort of protein. How can you go wrong?
In the afternoon, I get my first pedicure, and can’t resist taking a picture of one of the girls and her oddly translated t-shirt.
Dinner is Pho Ann and their excellent Vietnamese dishes. I’m not too hungry, so I order the spring rolls (I love how they look with the shrimp on top in every section. We split chicken wings and Ed has Pho – of course!
On the way back, we help a mom and daughter find the Cabaret show in the night market. They were standing on a street corner and the Mom said “Where in the F$** are we?” so I knew we had to help! I’m sure they were a little nervous when we walked them through the back way – down this creepy little alley and into the back entrance by the Cabaret – but I kept explaining this was the back way and they could just go out the front. They made it, which was what mattered and we felt good helping out.
We stopped at the Wine and Beer place for a night cap and discovered the new “market” was in fact a street food market. OMG – we are in heaven. We will so be eating here frequently. They have everything you could ever want – including whole “crippy” fish and fresh squid! Satays, salads, Pad thai, buns, you name it, it’s there.. And the wine place was ok too. Well, sort of. The wine wasn’t actually all that good, and the craft beers were really pricey, as you’d expect – the import taxes alone are tremendous. But, it was enjoyable sitting there watching the food market, and there was a live band too – so not all bad for a new experience.
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