It’s Saturday, and we’re waiting for the toilet fixer man to come fix the toilet leak. Joe stays home to wait for him to arrive, while I take the girls and head to Village Market, where we will meet him later.
The girls and I hop on a green tuktuk bus, which gives us a quick, warm and entertaining ride to the mall. Once we get there, our first stop is a cold and refreshing fruit smoothie, mixed berry for Téa, strawberry for Maylin, and passion fruit for me. After a while, I realize – I have no internet connection! My phone is simply not picking up any signal in any direction, and I have to hunt for free wifi.
I go to the usual suspects – luckily there’s Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King and KFC all offering me free WIFI. Each asks me to log in, and my stored passwords all come back as incorrect. Hmmm, I have to find somewhere else… There’s a Brunch & Brew place across the front plaza, and I head in to buy a cup of coffee. Their wifi requires a password, and of course passwords are for customers only. So I purchase a cup of coffee, log on to their wifi, and am finally back online, to find several messages from Joe. I call him, and he will hop on the next tuktuk bus to come meet us. Because I have no internet, we agree on a location for us to meet inside the mall. After all, it’s hot out here!
Joe arrives, and today we are indulging one of Joe’s cravings – ramen for lunch! There are so many Japanese restaurants in Hua Hin, luckily, there’s a really good ramen restaurant on the second floor of this mall. We go in and the girls decide to split one bowl, and Joe and I get a full one each.
After a delicious lunch, we head down to the grocery store. We’re looking for something specific, and our local convenience store just does not have the selection that this, half an entire mall-sized grocery store, does. Amongst the aisles we find this, which Téa asked me to take a picture of:
I love browsing international grocery stores, I love exploring foreign cultures through what they buy and what’s available! One of my favourite ones was the grocery store near my university in France, which filled with tins of foie gras and bottles of champagne before the holidays. Here, it’s a generous mix of international influences and Thai ingredients. I have guesstimated 50/50 foreigners and locals in the malls, but it might be even heavier on the foreigners.
After the grocery store, seeing as all we have are non-perishables, we head upstairs for a snack. There’s a Thai dessert place we’ve been eyeing for a while, and today’s the day! The girls and I head up there, while Joe picks up some secret stocking-stuffing supplies at the grocery store, and place our orders. The good thing about Joe catching up in a bit, is that I get to order something too big for me, as he’ll help me eat it, without getting to protest when I place the order…
After a long afternoon at the mall, we head home, hop in the pool, run through a shower, and emerge, ready for another market dinner! (We’re real fast, aren’t we? Only took us one sentence to leave the mall and be ready for the market!) But first! I have ordered two more loaves of sourdough from across the street, so I head across to pick up the first one. Behold the beautiful bread:
On our way to the market, Maylin made me take this picture, as she had to stop and look at this little bird:
We have decided to give the Cicada market another shot. We’ve been here a couple of times before, but now that the town is filling up for the holidays, we’re thinking maybe it’ll be busier, and more vendors will be open. Cicada market differs from Tamarind by their clean esthetics, cash coupon system, and streamlined everything. Every vendor uses the same plastic plates and real cutlery, there is staff to tidy up when tables are vacated (just like at the mall), and all the signage is the same format, fonts and colours.
But no matter how many tourists are filling the town, the beautiful and well organized Cicada market is NOT busier. The food is on average 40-50% more than at Tamarind, but there are some things available here that are not at Tamarind. Joe and I browse and contemplate, and the girls go back to their old faithful dishes that they know they like.
Not pictured: Joe’s noodle soup
After the market, I walked down to our fruit lady and bought papaya (of course) and watermelon. Nobody else shares my papaya addiction (lucky for me), and they picked at this watermelon only enough for me to save half for tomorrow’s breakfast. (There’s never papaya left over…)
The evening finished with a movie and some video games. Another perfect Saturday night!
The Bird is a common myna. Found in urban grassy areas, and known in southern Asia.
Thanks, Marilyn!
Have you considered that maybe our Pepsi just has colour added? Lol
I think the colour of cola beverages come from the coffee/caffeine ingredient? But yes of course, also colour! It might be easier to add more colour to make it look appealing, than to remove all colour like this?