Thailand Day #6

So last night after I posted our blog from the comforts of our air conditioned hotel room, we headed back out to experience some of the night life in Patong. First we headed back to the night market, which is where we had got our dinner from. It was still quite busy at about 10pm, but some of the stands were gone already or had closed because they ran out of food. However, the stand in the picture below, was NOT there when we ate earlier, but it definitely deserved a picture. I know it may be hard to appreciate in this picture since I don't think you can zoom in, each of these trays contains a different type of deep fried insect! From large cockroaches to maggots to grasshoppers, you name it - you got it. Seriously, ewwww. And yes, people were buying this stuff left and right!

I veered far away from this stand, and instead got myself some dessert (shocker, right?) I got Thai ice cream - served in half a coconut with strips of real coconut beneath the ice cream. The toppings include grass jelly, corn, roasted peaunuts, and a couple other things that I don't know what they are (50 baht; <$2). It was SO yummy!!! (I also got another cold frozen drink - this time watermelon and ice):

And instead of insects or desserts, Derren got himself some fried chicken with hot sauce to dip it in (about 25 baht, or less than $1):

We headed down a little farther in the market, and the cycle repeated itself. I got more dessert, and Derren got hot, spicy food. In the next three photos you can see some of the process of my dessert being made. This is a very popular dish in Thailand, and has several various names - Banana roti or banana crepe or banana pancake. Basically its like a piece of dough spread out REALLY thin, then laid on a hot grill covered in oil. Then he puts bananas inside and folds up the edges. I then chose chocolate as my topping, but next time I will pick nutella. The other toppings range from coconut to honey, and many more!

Here's the start of the dough ball:

And once the crepe is on the grill, he is adding the banana (which I think had been mixed with an egg):

And for the topping! He then cuts it into little squares for easy eating while walking on the street. Very delicious and only 50 baht! (again, <$2)
And here's was Derren's third dinner, Pad thai. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the man and woman are both sitting on the motorbike which is attached to their cart. The little set-ups these people have at the markets are crazy!

After our second dinner, second dessert, whatever you want to call it, we headed toward Bang La road which is where are the bars and night clubs and prostitutes and transvestites (and tourists!) hang out every night. And there is cheap alcohol EVERYWHERE you look. Check out this "bar" on the side of the road as we were walking:

Derren just bought himself a Chang (Thai) beer from Family Mart (convenience store) since it was so cheap there and he drank it as we walked. And yes, it is completely legal to walk the streets with open alcohol containers - they definitely don't care about that!

I was completely floored when we arrived to Bang La road. I thought I had seen some night life on the neighboring streets, but I hadn't seen anything compared to what this street had to offer - it was like the dirty version of the Las Vegas strip on steroids. Check out this short video I took when we first arrived on the road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFSs3TKqX40&feature=youtu.be

Here's a picture of one of the crazier and busier bars on the road:

And another "bar" on the side of the road:

Unfortunately my camera finally died so I didn't take many more pictures - it was hard anyway since it was so dark and there were so many neon lights! But there were just tons of people - we are going back tonight so maybe I will get a few more pictures in! A few of the bars even have glass boxes on the second story, facing the road, where there are skinny white girls in skimpy dresses pole dancing for everyone the street to see. And most of the bars have scantily clad women dancing on the bars.

So after a while of walking, we headed back to our room to end the night.

We slept in until about 10 this morning, and took our time heading out to the street again. We went looking for some good local food for brunch/lunch and ended up finding a little sit down type Thai restaurant a few blocks away. Before we got there, however, we found these little dessert type goodies being sold on the side of the street for 20 baht, so we got one to try. And we also found an iced coffee stand (I say "found" because these guys drive around on their motorbikes, so you're lucky when you find one parked somewhere!) For lunch at the restaurant I ate fried noodle with vegetables (about $3):

And Derren had fried chicken (really "stir-fried") with chili paste and white rice (just over $3):

After lunch we then did a lot of shopping at all the little shops along the roads that sell all the fake merchandise - tons of fake bags, sunglasses, watches, clothes, shoes, you name it! And finally today we bought a few things (after Derren did some good haggling and bargaining with them!)

Here is the only dog picture I'm posting today. This guy was sleeping right in the walkway to a market, and I watched as about five people had to walk around him to get into the market and he didn't even open an eye:

During our long walk, we also checked out the beach and the busy road along the beach. Patong beach is VERY VERY different from the Mai Khao beach that we just spent five days on. That beach was so isolated and absolutely beautiful. This beach was INSANELY crazy with people and Thai people trying to sell you a jet-ski, parasailing, oil massage, henna tattoo, hair braiding, etc. And you even have to pay to "rent" a chair on the beach. Even the beach and water were so much dirtier (as expected). We put our feet in the water, but otherwise were pretty turned off and not interested in hanging out at the beach today. Here's a shot as we headed out onto the beach:

And a shot looking back at all the chairs and umbrellas that you have to rent:

Oh, and I thought this sign was pretty funny:

After our quick escapade to the beach, we just did more walking and shopping. We had a couple of snacks in the meantime. This is the type of stand that is all over the place where you can buy fresh fruit to snack on. We had some pineapple (20 baht) as a snack:

And this woman was sitting on the sidewalk (they usually walk around with these things on their shoulders selling food), and she had a little grill going where she was cooking these little glutinous rice cakes with egg. It was only 10 baht, and I wanted to try one, so we did!

Here's what it looked like: (I really liked it because it was just like hot, eggy, sticky rice. Derren thought it was boring!)
We then went back to our room to cool off and rest our feet for a while, and it was just in time, because the daily monsoon rain came in - we just missed it! Here's a shot from our hotel room during the POURING rain!

After resting we headed back out for a tiny bit more shopping, and then back to the night market to get some dinner. And let me tell you, did we get some dinner!!!! We got a TON of food tonight at the market (and all for less than $15 or so). It all started when Derren got some pad thai with shrimp and oysters:

And I found a different stall to make me some vegetarian pad thai. And next to it is my mango shake (mango + ice). I also ended up going back out for some boiled vegetables to add to my meal which just was not green enough for me.

And here is a glimpse of the variety of food that Derren ended up with. He got a noodle soup, the pad thai, a pear shake, a few little fried pork and crab things...

Check out this video I took of where we were sitting behind some of the night market stalls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65qakCEbsoc&feature=youtu.be

And did I also mention that in addition to what I mentioned above, I also got these little dessert banana pancake things with coconut on them, and we got mango sticky rice for later. We also came across these chinese desserts, and we couldn't resist (don't judge us and all our eating!!!) We each tried one of the little turd looking things (they were deep fried sweet potatoes) and then we bought one of the danishes that is filled with peanut for later:

After all this eating, we took our desserts for later, and went into the shopping mall for a while. Inside the mall there is a grocery store, and we went inside to see how different it was from our own stores! It was absolutely insane and full of people. Check out their meat department - you just use the tongs to grab what pieces of chicken you want and then they weigh it and you pay cheap amounts for it:

They also had a ton of seafood and dry bulk foods. Also, I had to take a picture of their ENTIRE aisle of oil!!!!!!!!!

We didn't really get anything, but plan on coming back tomorrow before we leave for our next hotel resort - we want to stock up on some food and snacks so we don't have to buy food at the resort.

We are now just in the hotel cooling off, and are planning on heading back out to Bang La road again tonight. This time we are going to find a bar to park at for a while, get some cheap drinks, and people watch for a while!

Thanks again to everyone following along on our trip - we look forward to your comments and to hearing from you! We miss you all!

Ashley & Derren