When morning rolls around, Joe is first person out of bed. I guess 12 hours of sleep really can cure just about anything? He feels much better, and today we want to explore the mall that he and Téa didn’t go to last time.
There are two malls here in Hua Hin, Bluport is the closest one to us, and the one Joe and Téa went to the day Maylin wasn’t feeling great. The other one, maybe even the better one, is called Market Village, and is a smidge further away. We book a Grab taxi, and head to Market Village for the day. It’s good to have indoor, air conditioned activities when every day is 28-30 humid degrees!
We head to the basement first. This is one of the amazing market stall food vendor basements that I love, and it is split in half. One half works on the prepaid card system, similar to that of the Cicada night market, where you give the ticket lady cash, and she provides you with a card loaded with the correct amount of money. We choose not to go with the prepaid area today, and head towards the cash only stalls. While walking around, getting the girls their steamed buns and fruit smoothies, and picking up a “plain meat and rice dish” for Joe’s recovering tummy, I spy a vendor stall with a crazy lineup of locals. When my family has been fed, I go straight back to her, and order one of her 8 dishes. I hit the jackpot, I think!
After our tasty lunch, we head off to explore the mall. Joe spies a Daiso, Japanese dollarstore which we are also fortunate enough to have in Vancouver, and we head to pick up a couple of necessities for the condo.
We explore this mall from bottom to top. The first things we buy are new sandals for Joe (the ones he had made in Bangkok are … not great), as well as new swimsuits for the girls. Swimwear here is a whole range of skimpy bikinis through onepiece to shorts and shortsleeves and full blown ankle to wrist coverage. There are super cute swim dresses for girls and women, and what many of our condo neighbours wear. The girls end up with long sleeve rashguards with shorts. I don’t find my new swimsuit today, but plan to come back another day without kids in tow. Trying on anything is hard with a girl on each arm, and swimsuits are a nightmare to try on on a good day, so I definitely need my full concentration trying them on.
We also go hunting for some more beach friendly footwear, and end up finding chunky Crocs-like clogs for Maylin. Téa’s feet are too big for the same brand size 2, but too small for their size 3. We go upstairs to the official Crocs store, and find that she fits their size 2 beautifully. However, at full price, we agree that her tooth that has been loose for weeks needs to come out first, then the beautiful new shoes will be hers second. Ie, she chooses how much she wants these shoes. Mommy really needs that tooth to come out! (She has a habit of avoiding what she thinks will hurt, so she refuses to wiggle her tooth, even though we’ve told her numerous times that the more she wiggles, the less it will actually hurt. So now the adult tooth right behind it is emerging in the space next to it, and will eventually seal her milk tooth in, and we are trying to avoid another dentist extraction, if we can…)
All done at the mall, we head out front to book another Grab taxi. These taxis cost us around 80THB, pick us up where we ask them to, and drop us off at the door. They are air conditioned and have seat belts. We COULD get home for 60THB, but we’d have to climb the stairs to cross the busy road, then wait for the tuktuk bus to come by, hope that it has 4 available seats, and meet lots of new people along the way. Nevermind trying to clutch onto your shopping bags! So yes, the Grab taxis are a great option for our family of 4, plus bags.
Back at the condo, guess what we did? YES you are right, swimming! Swimming, then showers, then head out for another night market! I love night markets, and would much rather be picking and mixing and eating a variety of stuff at a night market, than going to a restaurant… The Tamarind night market is open Thursday through Sunday every week, and the Cicada is Friday through Sunday, so we are definitely having another market dinner! Joe actually hasn’t tried the full on market experience at either market yet, and as we walk out, we get to Tamarind first. The atmosphere is magnetic, and we are drawn in to the smells and the sounds of the market.
Téa’s first request is the Tornado Potato, and the same stall sells crispy corn, so Maylin gets that. We also walk by a lady selling “coconut pancakes” (so far we know of three different treats that all use this name!), so I buy 10 of these tiny, crispy shell, coconut cream and salted egg yolk topping sweets.
Once they’ve got their initial snacks, I buy another mango passionfruit smoothie and go sit down so Joe can go pick our meals. I had this exact smoothie on Thursday, but today I swear she used double the fruit. It’s even more delicious!
Joe can’t help himself, and comes back to the table with a crispy pork knuckle.
After dinner, we head over to browse the Cicada market for their shops. Maylin suddenly asks for a washroom, and we get to try out the market facilities, always useful. Her stomach is upset, and so is she. She asks to go home, and Joe offers to go home with her, leaving Téa and I to browse the market stalls on our own.
We have all the time in the world, so I get to take a closer look at the sandal vendor the girls pulled me away from yesterday. There are so many crafty vendors here, so much talent, and we discover an entire row of painters! Their art are so colourful, and one lady truly cakes on the acrylic paint onto her canvases, creating three dimentional paintings. I ask her how the paintings would survive in a suitcase, and she takes one of them off the wall and SMASHES it into the ground. Look, she says, no damage! True enough, upon closer inspection, there is no damage! Amazing! There are several artists working on their next big project there, and we stand and watch the man painting an elephant larger than me for a while. Téa and I both appreciate that we have time to truly look at these, we know Joe and Maylin would have pulled us away after only a few seconds…
There is so much going on at the Cicada market today, much more than yesterday, it feels like! There’s a young boy doing a shadow theatre, being all the character voices, and moving all the puppets himself. We can’t understand a word, but it looks amazing, and due to his great speakers, we’ve been listening to his voice all along “painters’ row”.
The road home from the Cicada night market takes us either next to or through the Tamarind night market. Téa and I choose through, because they have ice cream, of course. So dessert is had, and the night ends well. We both choose the chocolate/coconut mix, and because the toppings are free, we have cookie sticks and animal crackers to dress our ice creams up.
When we get home, Maylin is feeling much better. There’s something to be said for air conditioning and that reliable, clean washroom nearby… We end the night with some video games and more blogging.
God bedring til Maylin og Joe! Ellers ser det ut til at det blir gode dager i Thailand.
Takk, Mette! Jada, det er deilig her, absolutt!