We started the day with Thai ice tea. I guess here it's just called 'ice tea'. Regardless of the name, the making of it is an art form. Hot (but not boiling) water is pured though giant strainers of loose tea leaves. Loads of sweetened condensed milk is added, and then the whole concoction is poured back and forth between metal cups to cool and froth. As he pours (with as many as three cans in his hands) the tea man turn slow pirouettes and brings the cups closer and farther away from each other. All without spilling a drop!
After our tea, we nosed around the various shops. Perhaps most surprising was the shop specialising in country and bluegrass. Somehow we had stumbled on 'Little West VA' in the heart of Bangkok.Of particular interest to me were the underwear sellers. A broken underwire and dead elastic converged with simply being tired of wearing granny bras. To my rescue came stall after stall of nice bras for $1-$2. Or so I thought. My bosoms are of average size by US standards. By Thai standards, however, they are HUGE - as evidenced by the only bras being close to my size having no sex appeal in colours like 'putty' with padded straps and triple rows of industrial hooks. After much searching, I finally found a simple black size 36, and snapped it up. First thing back at the hostel I tried it on. It was comically too small, a concept that my all-male roommates found hard to fathom. Lets just say my cups runneth over.
Despite the bra debacle, we had a marvelous time eating our way through the market. Most of the shops were a wash, but OMG the food. Perhaps this is why my clothes are rapidly filling out in all the places trekking had emptied them. Row upon row of steaming vats and sizzling woks competed for space with charcoal grills, smoothie stalls, and deep fryers. We never actually ate a sit-down meal, but sampled all sorts of tasty treats form the various stalls. Highlights included the phad thai, grilled something that I think was giant squid, strawberry-coconut smoothies, and spiced fish balls served with a spicy-sweet dipping sauce. Nothing cost more than 50bhat (about $1.75) for the big plate of phad thai, and most snacks were only about $.30.I try again for a bra at the local shopping arcade, and again come up blank. The largest they carry is a 34B that looks more like a 34AA. I console myself with an amazing pumpkin custard served right in the steamed pumpkin shell.
After digesting for a few hours over a book that could have been written by Cz (by the wife of a traveller who is decidedly less keen on having 'adventures' than her husband), we head out for the phad thai at our local street vendor. It is billed as 'the best in the world', with newspaper articles in many languages extolling its virtues taped up on the cart windows. It does not disappoint - spicy and sweet with piquant lime undertones, this is probably where we will have our New Year's Eve dinner as well.Our stay in Bangkok has morphed from its planned 2 days to nearly a week now. I really like it here, for much the same reasons that I liked the Pest side of Budapest and all of Istanbul. It is a heady mix of ancient temple, modern craziness, and just enough dirt to feel authentic. I look forward to ringing in the new year here with fireworks and over 100,000 of my closest friends tomorrow night.
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