Wholesale Market and Asiatique (Nov. 4, 2014)

Last night I didn't sleep well because there was a girl in our room who kept opening the window and letting all the air conditioning out. Every time one of us closed it, she opened it again. Finally she left it closed when I spoke to her, but then she turned off the air con when we were sleeping and it was so hot that three of us slept in until 10:00 when the girl left earlier for Chaing Mai. I told the guy who runs the hostel and he said that if anything like that happens again, to come and get him to give her another blanket.

Anyway, once I did come back to life and took a shower, it was quite rainy and stormy out anyway, so it was ok to have a slow morning. I chatted with Alice from England and then we decided that if it cleared up, which it did, we'd go off to the Wholesale Market. I think we finally left the hostel around 2 pm, but it was nice sitting with her and Roy, this Indian guy who lives in Singapore, talking. Really nice people so far, so that's a bonus. As you said J, and Mom, glad that I picked to stay here for the fellow traveler and company aspect along with the other benefits. I agree.

Alice hadn't yet been on the Sky Train, so that was fun to take with her. We found the market fairly easily because I had mapped it on my laptop........thanks Jon! I use it a lot. As we came to this market, which I thought would be kind of lower end, perhaps stalls or warehouses, we passed some cool sites and foods along the way. I love street food, it's so pretty.

Lady setting up vendor

Dumplings on the street

Street rolls

Fish on the cue

Shoe sale 

Liviah, squid on a stick.....mmmm

Then we came upon the Pratunam Wholesale Market. Well this market was not at all what I expected.  There were floors upon floors that spanned miles it seemed, of clothing, accessories and toys. It was more like a huge department store that a market. See what I mean?

Floor guide to this market

Me trying on sunglasses

View of elevators for the floors

We ate in the food court which was really cool. You buy a card worth whatever amount of money you want/need, then go to one of the millions of food vendors and use your card to get what you want. I had curry chicken soup with noodles, for 50 Bhat, which is less than 2 Canadian dollars. It was delicious and perfectly spiced.

Food court

Lunch

After we tired from looking around the market, and not finding me any cool, light cotton pants, we hummed and hahhed about whether to go to Asiatique, the place that English guy, Martin told us about. You remember him, the one that I thought was the guy from our hostel, last night in the restaurant. We decided to go there, as it was not far from our hostel and we could do the detour on our way home. It looked a bit rainy, but we decided to go for it. What a great choice!

We took the Sky Train to that dock where I caught the water 'bus' the other day. On the left side of the  dock, is a free boat to Asiatique. We lined up and jumped on. It took us for about  ten minute ride, the other way from where I went, down the river, and dropped us off. We had no idea what it was or what to expect, just that there were stores, food vendors and a couple of stages that you could watch shows.

What we saw from the boat, arriving at Asiatique

First impression was, that it would be quite expensive, but that wasn't the case at all. In fact, I found a pair of purple billowy pant of light cotton that were less expensive than any of the other markets I have been to yet. I bought them and will wear them tomorrow. I'll take a pic for you when I'm looking  fine...lol. The food, shops and stage were amazing. There is a huge ferris wheel there that is as tall as a high apartment building. We decided to go on it, to see the view of the city. This is no ordinary ferris wheel. It is super large, has fully contained cars with windows on all sides, and each one is air conditioned. Once you get on, you go around about 7 or 8 times, sometimes stopping at the top for a birds eye view. It was so cool, and I'm so glad we did it.

Foot spa.
The little fish eat the dead skin off
your feet.

Paper dolls that you buy the package
and construct yourself.

Ferris Wheel.....BIG

Photo from ferris wheel.
Dots are the people.

Me, in front but dark

Guess what these are Livs?

Carved fruit........gorgeous

Next we saw some shows, that I tried to video, and include here. I don't know if they will show up as video's and work too, but here they are, first try. One show was a warrior with a long knife, some moves and singing. The choreography and costumes were incredible. So was the knife work. The second show was a puppet show that apparently is in ancient Thai tradition. It was so cool and three people worked each puppet, that danced, moved, scratched, and communicated to the other puppet. Each one was about three or four feet tall and the three people that moved the puppet, also mimmicked the puppets moves for effect. It was so cool. I think there were more shows today because there is the River Festival there this week. Anyway, a totally cool evening of fun.

Then we went home, it started to pour, and we were cozy inside the air conditioned hostel after a nice shower.

Good night all.