Elephants (love) in Chiang Mai...

 

I was something like 3-4 years old when my parents asked me the famous question one asks a kid of this age: what is your favourite animal. Imagine their suprised look when I answered (very proudly for an Eastern european kid): an elephant:-))) Nothing common or expected as: cat, dog or may be a donkey... Since then elephants are big love of mine. I have few of them as wooden carving, soft teddybears, etc. around me at home and even at my office. So when I arrived in Chiang Mai in december last year and I started seeing elephants everywhere this made me smile:-) There were elephant statues in most of the streets, sometimes just as simple stone decoration. There were flower pots in elephant shapes, there were wooden elephants and ceramic ones making temple gardens even more charming...Elephants are the inspiration of young Thai artist like Supachet Bhumikarn in the center of ChiangMai, his cute boutique (called ) even has foor handles in elephant shape. By the way did you know that "chaang" is the Thai word for elephant?

About Thai people...

 

Thailand is often called "country of smiles"...and indeed one may encouter smiles at every corner! Of course not everyone is walking around with a big smile, but the people seem to love smiling for good mood, as a greeting or just when they see one is taking pictures. Another thing that striked me is the fact that you (almost) always see Thai people working, they are like tireless and hard-working nation, always busy.

Bangkok's biggest fresh market: Klong Toey market, part 2

 

... I had to simply bring you one more time to the Klong Toey market :-) It was such an overwhelming experience that I have decided to show you here few more glimpses from the market life...Of course we have seen few stands selling unusual stuff: such as insects (first picture), or jumping tiny shrimps (second shot), or live frogs (few pics down). With our guide from the cooking workshop we have also learned that Thai people use nature for their colouring agents as you can see on the third picture, green liquid colour made from plant leave. Same goes for all of the other flashy colours (mostly used in desserts): as pink, orange, purple, etc...

 
Fish and seafood is a major part from Thai cuisine and everyday life too. At Klong Toey one could find anything from still alive fishes, dried seafood (fishes, squids or shrimps) up to grilled and ready to eat as the grilled carfishes on the top!

 
Our guide gave us to try some fresh Thai peas to try, they were yummy.

And of course we could not stand the temptation and did some shopping, just the basic stuff: fresh fruits (local mangoes& mangosteen), fresh spice (peppers, lemongrass) and a bottle of fresh coconut blossom juice...

Bangkok's biggest fresh market: Klong Toey

 

If you love going to fresh markets and discover the local culture in a cool way then you should definitely not miss the Klong Toey market! This place is huge, its the biggest Bangkok's market for fresh fruits, veggies, spices, fish, meat and cooked food. The market is opened every day starting from 6 am till after midnight. Spicy is an unthinkable part of the Thai cuisine and one may find here peppers in all colours (green, red orange, yellow), the bag in the middle (with the green looking grapes) below shows fresh black pepper.

 
The drink to go are surved in plastic bag and always with a straw.

 
The choice on fresh seadood is huge An interesting way to know if a crab is male or female are the colourd on its belly, as on the pic below the top one is the female one and the one under it: male.

 

The walk might be something narrow as a lot of locals come here and a lot of luggage carriers help the buyers for restaurants&shops, but the visit is really an exciting experience. Next to mountains of fresh local fruits and exotic spices one can see tons of still live fish and seafood and choose from different food stands...We came twice. Once before our cooking workshop and one more time before we left in order to buy some fresh things for home:-)

 

Below one may see the famous mix for Thai soups (like for the "tom yum"), made out of lemongrass (the long stalks), kaffir lime leaves (the green leaves) and the galangal (the root ginger-like pieces).