Saturday Market

We live on the edge of a medium sized city. We are about 10 km from downtown Phitsanulok and about 1 km from Naresuan University, a large modern government sponsored university with well managed faculties in all the disciplines, particularly medicine, engineering and agriculture. We have enjoyed treks into the city and just today we spent very interesting hours at the Textile Museum on the Naresuan campus, an extremely informative description and history of the cotton and silk cloth manufacture that has been notable in this region.

However, the highlight of our week always seems to be the Saturday morning market, a very rural and very community centered event that takes place at a crossroad about 2km from our house. The event starts about sunrise and goes till about 9:15 am. We have been there as early as 6:45 and everything is in full swing already, but at 9:15 things just disintegrate and everyone is cleared out within 15 minutes. It all happens along the roadside at a crossroad. The people who sell there are mostly farm folk and I am sure many of them grow their produce. There is no formal organization but everyone just seems to know what is expected and it happens.

The event seems like a cross between a community yard sale, a country fair and a neighbourhood barbecue. You weave your way between people, bicycles, dogs, motorbikes, trucks, and even the local bus that rumbles down the street at 7:15. No one seems surprised at what turns up, except for the two white people, Jo-Anne and I. This is not tourist country and the local people do not see many whites, especially white women. They have a category for the few white men who live in the area with their Thai wives, but a white woman is a rarity.

There is an abundance of delicious fresh vegetables, much of which we are not familiar with, but we are learning, and have found numerous items that we really love. By the way, notice the bunches of fresh asparagus in front of the lady vendor. It is delicious and cheap, cheap, cheap, so eat your heart out, you snow bound northerners.

Jo-Anne likes to buy vegetables from this lady because she always has plenty of high quality produce and she  is always talking. We only wish we knew what she was saying. She is very friendly and always helpful and happy to serve us so we look forward to getting good food from her.

After a little squeamishness we have ventured to buy pork (and chicken) at the street market, and we haven't suffered any ill effects yet. I am sure Agriculture Canada would have some questions if you tried to do this in Canada, but the pig in the picture seems quite content to have given his head to the cause. By the way, we haven't ventured to buy a pig's head yet, and most likely won't. Also, notice the eggs, they are not refrigerated in Thailand and are sold either singly or in multiples of 10.

You can also buy many varieties of fish, either alive, dead or cooked. One day we even saw a whole tub full of big live frogs, quite a lively show.

You can also buy lots of fruit, clothing, dishes, hardware, shoes, and many kinds of prepared foods, especially deep fried, barbecued and baked items.

When we go home I am sure we will always feel a little disappointed with Superstore. They just won't have the drama of a Thai country market.