Monday in Bangkok: Market Pics

For those of you who know me at all, you probably know about my utter fascination with Markets. One of my favorite things when I travel is to walk through Markets. France, China, Italy, Korea, Germany, Vermont, Vancouver: Find me a market & I am a happy girl. Farmers Markets, Cheese Markets, Flower Markets, Food Markets, Chinese Medicine Markets, Freshly slaughtered Meat Markets, Vegetable Markets, Craft Markets, Animal Markets- anything. If it's a local market with local smells and sounds and people, I'm enamored. Good smells, bad smells, stinky smells, sweet smells, bread smells, dead beetle smells, candy smells, paper smells- all of them make me smile. To me they are what I think of as the heart of the community.
Mostly in Asia the markets are food markets and Chinese Medicine markets. Now my biggest surprise was how much difficulty I had finding one in Bangkok! This was an incredibly small one, so small as to be barely noticeable as a Market- but it was in fact, a small market. These flowers were for sale outside most temples as offerings to the Buddhas. They were so beautiful- I wish I could have photographed more. As is I did get quite a few laughs for the few I did photograph.
A few ready-made dishes for sale here, but mostly tourists walking along this area so I'm not sure this woman made too many sales...
I don't know what the red stuff is. The little shells were beautiful. I'm pretending the red stuff is not blood. Seriously. NOT BLOOD. It honestly probably isn't, but when I saw the bowl of these shells in the red stuff, it's all I could think of. And no, I'm not a vegetarian...but I know at least one who reads my blog who is probably going to hate this pic! Sorry Candace!
Another weird fascination of mine (beside very old very short women in foreign countries) is hand lettered signs in markets. When you think of making a hand lettered sign to advertise a price, it seems like such a mundane item, until you see the beautiful script of another langague spelling out the item and it's price. In English, it's mundane. In Thai, it is a little work of art.

Again, Not a clue what these guys are. They looked a little like fish roe that you sometimes see on top of sushi. And maybe that's all they were...but I was having all sorts of fun imagining what they could be!
Oh the smells!!! Think: THAI RESTAURANT. Think: An entire street smelling like the most amazing Thai food you have ever tasted. I have a somewhat strict rule about street food- not 100%, but I'd say that 90% of it is a "no"- just safer that way. There are some things I'll buy on the street no problem- but normally "meat containing" things I tend to avoid as a safety precaution, but this about broke down every defence I may have had. Fortunately (or unfortuantely?) Dina was with me and she kept on walking while I lagged behind to take photos. Had she stopped I may have given in & had to taste some. The smell was enough to make my eyes roll back in my head. So amazing.
Another "off the hip" shot. Actually, there were probably around 30 and this is the only one that actually came out. I love digital. This was on the public ferry that ran up and down the river. There were monks nearly everywhere in the areas of Bangkok we walked around in- even more prevelent than in China.
Since I am the photographer, it means there are often few or no photos of me on my trips. Unless they are the photos taken at an arms length and even those get old after awhile....Dina was kind enough to snap a shot or two for me. Just as she was telling me what a bad photographer she was she took this one, which might explain my laughing- the next one may well have been taken by my Grandmother since I only had a half a head! Okay, not quite that bad...but this was the better of the two! At least it shows I really *was* in Thailand and I didn't just scoop all these pics from the web!
Next up: out & about for a walk in Bangkok