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Published: June 26th 2006
Kanchanaburi Market
Anticlockwise from bottom left : aubergines (no purple ones in Thailand), pumpkins, allium flowers, onions, coriander...Our second-to-last full day in Kanchanaburi...We plan to leave earlyish Tuesday morning to catch our buses to Lopburi. We have had a great time here - Kanchanaburi is a wonderfully peaceful and relaxed town.
We started the day with a visit to the main fresh-produce market in the south of town. It was about 10am by the time we arrived so it was quite quiet, but there were lots of vendors left in the covered building. On sale was a beautiful array of brightly coloured fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. The latter two were a bit gruesome at times - they seem quite keen on boiled pigs' heads here...Ho-hum. As for the fish, there were mainly two kinds available, pink coloured tilapias and
bplaa duk, or catfish. These come from the Khwae River and range in size from that of a squirrel, say, to that of a very large dog ! The larger ones (see photo) are particularly impressive. The fishmongers retrieve tilapias from large water butts so are actually sold live ! I like the freshness thing but not the though of fish-flapping-in-your-shopping-bag...We decided not to buy a pet tilapia and went for a bunch of juicy-looking emperor lychees
Herbs aplenty
There are dozens of different herbs for sale - a sea of green. Here are the staples - coriander, mint, sweet basil, holy basil. (larger than the ones you can buy in the UK, and much smoother skin). Delicious !
For lunch we went to a large outdoor restaurant, by the river slightly north of our guesthouse. It was deserted except for a group of young Thais (a good sign when there are Thai patrons !). Amongst other things we ordered
som dtam bpuu maa or horse-crab green papaya salad. I think Alex may have been put off by the raw crab ! After worrying for a few minutes about parasites (a fear largely fuelled by Alex's well-known knowledge of all things pathological) and other nasties, I tucked in...it tasted gorgeous. It's more than 24 hours since I ate it and I feel fine. My opinion is that lots of lime and chili kills most bugs. Hah !
A very cute kitten tried it on by jumping onto my lap and looking at me with big bug-eyes. I assume it was hoping to get it paws on the crab shells. No such luck - I didn't want to find out what chili does to cats ! It was awfully sweet though.
We spent the afternoon relaxing and reading...Alex is ploughing through JRR
Are you lookin' at ME ?
Two medium-sized river catfish...and lots of tilapias. The one third from left in the front row was very much alive and flapped when the camera flash went off. Tolkien's
The Silmarillion while I am practising my Thai with the local edition of
National Geographic Magazine. With a bag of lychees on our laps the afternoon flew by.
Dinner time (yes, we do do other things than eat here, but eating is so good !) again. Alex was feeling a bit homesick due to lack of home food. We decided to remedy the situation by having some English food for dinner...We found the perfect place :
Ali Bongo's is a beautifully decorated Indian Restaurant (I
did say English food) right opposite Blue Star. We had an absolutely amazing dinner - the menu had
sixteen different breads :
roti, paratha, chapati, naan and many more. The food was easily the best Indian we've had in a long long time ! Alex ordered a Bacardi Breezer - which arrived in a wine glass !! How refined.
By the time we had finished dinner it was 9.30 or so. Now, many of you will know that I find
listening to paint dry vastly more interesting than football. However, all the little bars along the road were screening the England-Ecuador (or Elguador) match so I couldn't not...
Want to start a snack-cart business ?
Then stop by your local snack-cart shop and buy yourself a brand new snack cart off the shelf ! This is the latest model with internet access and five forward gears...
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Daddy and Maman
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Photos
Glad the digital camera is proving so useful. It is brilliant seeing your lovely photos practically instantly. We are following your route on the map in the "South East Asia on a shoe string" that you left on your shelf. No escape we know where you are nearly day by day. Lots of kisses.