Walmart Eats our Hearts Out

There are two grocery shopping experiences available here. The modern shopping centers are as vast and varied as any found in the US, although, as you might expect, the shops hawk a much broader collection of goods from around the world - especially from Asia. Hi-tech to low-tech, ipod to back-scratcher, it's all there, encased in echoing, loud, pop Thai music. And, of course, there is a western-eyes-user-friendly-aisle-after-aisle super market embedded in the mix - although the special section, where one can buy saffron sarongs, candles, incense, buckets of basic food stuffs and shaving supplies to use as donations to the monks, might make a westerner scratch his head (as I did the first time I laid eyes on it).

The more affluent Thais shop the supermarket's aisles and the less fortunate roam the aisles out of curiousity, but the real grocery shopping for the majority of Thais still takes place in the wonderful, open air markets where they buy the good-stuff-for-pennies foods and staples. Open air markets can be found every few kilometers along most major roads. They are curiousities and just a bit culinary/scary for most westerners because of their apparent invitation to every bug, parasite and bacteria found in these germ-friendly tropics. Open air markets have FDA CONDEMMED stamped all over them. We love them, but you have to use a whole bunch of savvy when you take their tasty delights home with you. Never eat unpeeled fruit - always wash leafy greens (and then wash them again) - and trust in The Force if you bring home a dish with cooked meat in it. Our bodies are wonderfully adaptive mechanisims, so once you have undergone a bout of dysentary chagrin, there is a good chance that microbe warriors have been installed in your stomach to prevent it happening the next time they encounter the onslaught. We think we have our warriors in place (having already undergone our toilet terrors), so we love the open air markets and all the goodies they offer. A, not being able to resist a pungent, fresh apricot, put it in her mouth this evening before washing it, but caught herself and didn't swallow it. (Her morning ablutions will reveal whether or not she caught it in time.)

Below is a series of photos A took at the market we visited this evening. This is the real-deal-good-stuff-cheap. The foods are fresh and mouth watering; you can buy a shirt for two bucks and a rose to place as an offering in your spirit house for less than five cents. The poor are so, so simply rich and Walmart eats our hearts out.