Today’s first mission was shopping at the weekend night markets in Old Phuket town. We had been told by the locals that this was definitely a must do but it wasn’t exactly in the tour guides. So as each other journey started in Phuket we had to find ourselves a driver to take us on over to the markets.

Robbie found us a nice friendly bloke who said he would take us over for 400 baht and we were OK with the price so we didn’t even bother to haggle as it was bloody hot day, I just wanted to get there and buy some stuff as up until now, I hadn’t bought very much. A girl needs to shop!

We had a bit of a slow start on this day as we had had a bit of a sleep in and a relax around the hotel. By the time we got over to the markets it was about 3 o’clock.  The stalls were just setting up so we went to check out a temple and monastery which was across the road on a back street. Again this was something that wasn’t really advertised but Robbie had read about it so knew where to go.

The temple/Wat was pretty and ornate but not open to visitors.  We had to be happy with just checking out the perimeter. Across the lane from that there was large bell shaped temple under construction; it was all shiny and golden. There were big cement trucks pulling up with ready-mix cement but all the little workers where filling buckets with the cement and lugging the mix up into the construction site bucket by bucket not even a wheelbarrow in sight, bloody hard yakka but everyone doing it with a smile.

Amongst all this construction was a little village made up of small dwellings which we soon found out was actually a little monks village. A man came up to us gesturing us to follow him. I don’t believe this man could talk or maybe he was observing a vow of silence. He was adamant that we should follow him so we did. He took us to a small Buddha statue and again gestured to use to pay tribute to Buddha. Then he led us to a communal area with a monk in residence smiling at us gesturing to come in and take photos.

Everything was written in Thai but I think the gist of it was they were raising money to help with the construction of the Bell Temple. There was a money tree there that you were able to pin money to help with the building project.  None of us could communicate with each other but plenty of smiling and bowing was going on.

The hunger bug then hit us and on the way back to the market area there was a little shanty café on the side of the road that was full of locals laughing and eating. We thought we would have a chow down here as it smelled amazing but we couldn’t read the menu board so we ended up giving it a miss. I couldn’t be sure what the meat was that was cooking and even though it smelled good I was worried it may have been a little bit of Fido!

We crossed the busy road and headed into the market and came across a lady making fish cakes so we tucked into some of them. Dirt cheap too, about 50 cents for 8 of them. Then Robbie asked a lady for some Pad Thai and she made it right there on the spot, talk about fresh, again about 50 cents. All very yummy.  After eating we were ready to shop as we entered the actual tented area we found that this was not only a market but also a food bazaar and  we were about to enter a food mecca like no other we had ever seen before.

It is so hard to describe this place as you had to see it, smell it and feel the vibe everything imaginable was there being cooked right under your nose. It was an Asian super food extravaganza and with flavours and cuisines to please all cultures, religions and nationalities. (Click for Night Market Gallery)

Some of the food that was available left nothing to the imagination, there was fried bugs, (not Moreton Bay bugs) real bugs, like as in grasshoppers and cockroaches. They were not sampled by us :). There were tables full of big pig snouts and feet and long, long tongues, ewwwww. Passed on sampling that too surprisingly enough hahahahaha.

There was young girl crushing raw sugar cane turning it into a syrup that smelt so sweet. There were many, many people cooking in big pots with all sorts of Thai delights inside, soups, curries, fish stews & fish cakes to name a few. BBQ’s firing with massive flames with squids, whole fish, prawns and eels roasting on sticks everything you could think of was stuck on a stick and sizzling away.

The ladies were all happy and wanting us to sample their food and laughed when I pulled funny faces when things were really hot. No pressure to buy they just wanted us to try and chat about where we were from.

I stopped to look at these tiny little pineapples they were so cute and carved into a beautiful shape. The man selling them was hilarious so funny, I bought a little pineapple and it was the most delicious fruit I have ever tasted.  He was so pleased when I gave his pineapple the thumbs up!

We also found a potato that had been cut in a spiral and again stuck on a stick and deep fried, it was like one long continuous potato chip so yummy so we had to have one of them too.  I am a big fan of food on a stick, perfect grazing food! The cakes were beautiful and petite and looked too good or pretty to eat. The Japanese food was an art form on the tray and definitely put your average sushi roll to shame.

There was some foreign television show crew wandering around filming all the stores and the culinary delights.  It wasn’t an Aussie crowd they looked French or Italian, there was definitely a celebrity there being pandered to by the many assistants. Everyone just went about their business like it was nothing.  This place was more for the local’s than tourists it was a meeting place that local families came too for a night out to eat food and have fun  and trade.

The stalls went on and on, seriously, we could have walked for hours and not seen it all. (Click for Night Market Gallery)

Amongst all the food and families there was a scattering of beggars set up in prime locations to tug at your heart strings and prompt a donation.  They all looked pretty well fed so I couldn’t help but wonder if their families had put them there to earn their little bit for the family coffers, collecting them after the night was over.  Some of these people had no arms or legs so I couldn’t see how else they could have gotten there. One even had a dog that was pretty fat and happy.  I saw a lot of people donating to the dog and not giving to the person as the dog had an offering dish as well and I found that a bit odd.

With our stomachs suitably stuffed full it was time to get on with the shopping, there was nothing that you couldn’t buy here. DVDS, textiles, clothes, souvenirs, home wares, toys, art, sculptures, picture frames, shoes, bags on and on it went. It was so hard to know where to start. Luckily I had made a list so I was on a mission, I went berserk shopping, shopping, shopping, I had so much stuff I wanted to buy and even had to buy an extra bag to carry everything around in. Seriously we shopped for hours but still spent hardly any money but by about 9pm we were just plain exhausted. So mission accomplished, I had textiles, sculptures, picture frames, bags clothes, silk and much, much more so much fun.

We then had to find a taxi back to Patong, and that took a bit but we managed to find a guy who agreed to take us back for 400 baht, he jumped at the price when Robbie offered it so we were happy when he agreed first up no haggling. Half way home there was a bit of a detour and he seemed to be taking us off the usual route. I was getting a bit worried but all was good and then he pulled up at a service station to get some petrol. I think he was waiting for us to pay for the petrol but can’t be sure, his English was very bad and our Thai was no better hahahaha, then he tried to get us to pay more, cheeky bugger. Robbie wasn’t having a bar of that, the price is the price. He tried all the way back to our hotel to get more money from us. Didn’t happen though, a deals a deal.

He dropped us at the hotel and we dropped off our shopping and cameras, got changed and headed out for a drink. All this shopping had worked up a thirst. It was also coincidentally the eve of Robbie’s 50^th Birthday and he wanted to turn 50 on Bangla Road. As usual there was loads of people, music and action – it was about 11pm. We went to one bar but it was a little timid for someone about to hit 50 so we ended up in the Moon Bar which is right in the heart of the madness. We knocked them drinks back pretty fast (it was a hot night)  and we ended up sharing  a table with an Aussie guy for a while, it was his first time in Thailand so he was spinning out at the madness. He was running out of money but couldn’t go back to his room as the mates he was sharing with were entertaining some ladies. We told him where you could get 6 shots for 100 baht (about $3) so he scurried off very excited about the prospect of cheap drinks. Oops forgot to tell him it tasted like metho !

The big hand and the little hand hit 12 and as midnight came it made it officially Robbie’s 50th birthday, so then the fun began. We drank and laughed and celebrated and bought souvenir crap from the street venders and grooved to the music. Bangla Road is a party every night but tonight it was all for Robbie. Seriously, if you’re 50 and can keep up this pace, you are doing pretty good I reckon and pretty much a legend !

Then at 2am the bar suddenly closed, we were told that it was an election day so all bars had to close. So we paid our bill and off we went found another bar still operating so we had a drink there but then they closed.

Can you believe it? It’s Robbie’s 50^th and one of the rare days on earth that Bangla Road has to close early. Don’t know who told us to follow them as it was a bit insane with everyone exiting the clubs, but the crowds from all the bars were filing into 7/11 to buy takeaway drinks and head to the beach, so we thought that was a good idea.

Robbie in his wisdom even bought plastic cups, he is such a boy scout, always prepared :). So off we went to the beach following the crowds. There were little parties happening everywhere. We plonked our arses down on the sand and I don’t know where we got them from, but we collected two Thai ladies of the night along the way who ended up sitting with us and chatting away. Me, always the social worker, even when drunk had to know the ins and outs of their lives and how they got to be in their line of work. They were very proud of being able to support themselves and their families.

Robbie bought himself a filthy big fat cigar (even though he doesn’t smoke anymore) from a street vender  as a treat for his 50^th birthday. He  thought he was king of the world sitting on the beach sucking on that and sipping Mekong whiskey out of plastic cups with me and the ‘girls’.  We also bought a couple of sky lanterns sending them up into the night sky for good luck, despite the signs warning tourists not to buy them from people selling them on the beach. At that moment in time I believe Robbie was a very happy man.

Then I got sick, oops too much Mekong (fill in your own story about what happened next ), if you know me well I think you can guess :). After a little rest on the sand we headed back up the beach to our hotel. I have no idea what time it was except it was very early in the morning. Robbie got a burger along the way, but I think he pretty much carried me home so how he got to eat the burger and carry me is a mystery.

We fell into bed covered in sand and slept through to 1pm. When we woke I was pretty hangover and believed I would probably die, so Robbie went and got me a burger and chips, the only known hangover cure. He delivered this to me which I struggled to eat but I felt better with something in my tummy after leaving most of it behind on the beach! I just wanted to go back to sleep so Robbie went for a massage and left me to die in peace. I had just gotten back to sleep and the maid came and woke me up to make the bed, so I got up & she said she would be back in 5 minutes, but then she didn’t come back. I was not happy. I sat on the balcony watching the world go by, trying not to die waiting for her to return to make the bed so I could get back in.

Robbie got back from his massage and we got changed and decided to eat in our restaurant at the resort. It was still Robbie’s birthday and we thought we still needed to be celebrating. We drank Mia Tia’s out of pineapples and ordered lobster for dinner, it’s ‘our’ tradition. That’s what I had for my 50^th in this same restaurant.

It cost us a fortune by Thailand standards but was pretty flash. There was a band playing which under normal circumstances would have been great but we were still fighting a hangover. We went and had a couple of more birthday drinks after dinner in a more quieter location until that hurt. We then went to 7/11and got some cold drinks of the soft variety, cashews and pistachio nuts to take back to our hotel for supper. We got the whole selection of snacks for under $3, what a bargain !

Happy Birthday Robbie welcome to the 50 club!