Next to the big house is a small patch of land, currently housing an above ground water pump, sporting 5 water feeding pipes which go into the ground and I presume, then end up inside the small row-house type of building. This building house 5 residences, consisting primarily of 2-3 rooms. Mostly I see single people, or young couples. I refer to this place as the apartments. It is a convenient place about midway up the moo, as it provides for a turnaround space for a car or truck, as the moo dead-ends at our gate. Next to the apartments is vacant land, that has been taken over and is full of vegetable and flowering plants, tended to day and night by the people who occupy the next residence on the moo. I refer to this area as the gardens. There is a building, that is all under one roof, but I believe that this holds 4 generations of family. The first small area has what appears to be a man about my age, a man in his 20’s with a wife and a baby, in the next unit, appears to be three women in their 40’s. They have a large tropical fish tank in the front of the home, and a cage with a bunny rabbit. They also spend the days using the open space to cut and bundle their herbs and vegetable, which they gather from the garden. In a small setback space there is an older man and his wife. Somewhere in this area also lives a elderly woman. I normally see her when she sits on the bench and chats, sometimes with herself and other times with one of the women. I refer to this area s the neighbours as they are immediately adjacent to us. And then there is our house, at the end of the moo and closed to access by a large metal sliding gate, painted a deep blue with gold paint for the tips of the pointy spear like rails. I have no idea what the neighbours or others refer to our place as, but I suspect it has to do with the fact we have 4 basset hounds here.
Just before you enter the moo, we have what I have referred to as the Moo Shop. It is the hub of activity in the neighbourhood. I m convinced that everyone in the neighbourhood patronizes the place and immediately across the road from the moo shop is where everyone puts their garbage from the moo. The garbage area has it’s own story to tell, but so far I am impressed with how it is an integral focal point. We have taken to bagging our empty bottles and setting them beside the garbage barrels. Clive spoke to a woman one day who was trying to get him to hire her as our house cleaner. It seems she had been laid off recently, with the impacts of the significant drop, albeit it a seasonal occurrence, but exacerbated I think by the events in Bangkok and a drop in visitors to Thailand. She expressed her appreciation to him for sorting out the bottles and cans. One day I went down with Thunderbird 3 loaded with cardboard, garden cuttings and empties. I dropped it off and then left again on my own Scoopyi minutes later, and the cardboard and empties were gone. There are also a number of Soi (street) and roaming dogs. The garbage bins provide a great communal eating place. One evening on my way to the moo shop I saw a bush tail and a pair of hind haunches poised on the rim of the barrel. I assumed this to be a cat, until “Scrags” the soi dog popped her head up, looked me over and continued to rummage.
Over time here, I find I am at the Moo Shop probably 4 times a week. I have discussed it before, but suffice to say it is truly what I would call a one-stop convenience purveyor.
Recently we were introduced to Thai whiskey. Well I should clarify this. When you order whiskey, they bring you a mickey of a product named Sang Som, and it clearly on the label says Thai Rum. It costs about 110 Baht for a mickey, roughly $3.20CDN. It is very very nice, especially over the rocks. It is distilled from sugar cane and meets the term Rum in that sense. The taste however is not like any rum I have dank before. It is a similar taste to a very fine whiskey or even aged scotch. It packs a punch; but so nicely. I have since discovered you can buy a liter for 210 Baht , roughly $7.50CDN. The Moos Shop also sells this whiskey or the very cheap stuff packaged in beer bottles with metal lids with pop-tops. That is considerably cheaper. You can however have a drive-through drink as well. many a night I watch as motorbikes pull up after dark, a man on his way home from work. Leaves the bike running, passes the moo shop keeper 5 Baht and has a shot of whiskey and get back on his bike and off he goes. Sometimes when I go to the shop to order some cooked food, I will have a beer for about fifty cents. Five cents more than a coke, but more refreshing it seems some nights. People eat at the moo shop and if you order whiskey with your dinner, they bring you the unopened mickey and a pail of ice.
Smoking here goes on quite a bit, but somehow with all the open air spaces, it is hardly if ever noticeable. The usual places same as back in Canada apply. Public facilities don’t all smoking, but outdoor restaurants do. The Shopping centre in Phuket is non-smoking, but they have a smoking outdoor balcony off the food court. There are no familiar North American brands here. Names like L&M, True, Krung are the commonplace and menthol is a favourite type of cigarette. I will admit to having tried to smoke ones called True and what was left of my throat, has me convinced I don’t need to go there again. The price of cigarettes is equal to about $1.95CDN. But keeping the price relative to the local economy, that is a significant cost. For those who are on limited means or controlling their intake, they can also buy cigarettes individually. So the man who has a drop-in drink, may also have a smoke for the road. A lighter has been nailed by the doorway to an elastic band, just for that very purpose. When I think back on all the fuss we went through in corrections to deal with smoking and controlling lighters, I sometimes think we over-think things. A simple elastic band and a nail...
Some evenings, the moo shop turns into a live music venue, where people show up with instruments and sing Thai ballads, well to me they sound like what a ballad sounds like. It could be about anything. But the use of the Thai words love and heart and sorrow we already understand and there seems to be lots of use of those words, so I think ballad is accurate.
During the recent world cup football match, the moo shop was a bustling centre of activity. The tables and chairs got [pushed to together and out came the beer and Sang Som. A Plasma television came out from somewhere and onto a table top. A plastic robot looking set of rabbit ears appeared and the robot got turned and twisted about until the signal was good and then, it was game time. On the nights I was not sure of the game time, the occasional roar from the end of the moo, reminded me it was game night. I also got to knowing pretty well, who the odds on favourite was for the night, by comparing the scoring to the level of cheering and singing. I am also told, that wagers abounded, although I never saw anything openly. On one wall was a flow chart, hand made outlining the teams and then the names of people written in the boxes to indicate who they were cheering for.
The selection of good for sale at the moo shop are constantly changing. Your basic cooking essentials are there, soy oil, rice, coconut milk, oyster sauce and other products I am not quite familiar with. Various instant coffees whiteners and noodles are available, next to the stacks of fresh eggs, delivered daily by the egg seller. They are most likely fresh from some chicken within the hour and they have the most amazing oranges yolk and taste fantastic, costing about 10 cents each. On occasion you may even find a half-loaf of bread.
A range of medical supplies from tonics , Band-Aids, iodine, to Tylenol in packages of two. As well a range of creams and salves with pictures that don’t help me understand the contents. Laundry detergent, hand soaps, toothpaste and brushes, shampoo and whitening creams to lighten your skin tone. One thing you do have to watch for are the facial and skin products, as many of them contain ingredients designed to whiten your skin tone. The stand-up coolers contain various brands of beer, soft drinks, soy milk, yogurt and of course bottled water. A deep freezer our front, secured overnight with a heavy chain and padlock has bags of ice, found by burrowing through the products being literally kept on ice, such as the excess beer for the Friday night rush. And opposite is a Walls Ice cream freezer. Nestle and Walls are the main ice cream producers in competition here. The moo shop sells Walls ice creams, so the freezer is bright red with the Walls logo’s and a banner skirts the roof edges in the Walls colours. In come communities this marking of the business could mean many things, here is it an identifier, as most moo shops are basically front additions to the home. While I speak of the moo shop down our lane, there are others in proximity, but the common feature is the ice cream freezer out front.
To accompany your drinks or if you are feeling like a snack, and it seems the Thai people are in a constant snack mode, there is a large array of packaged snacks, from peanuts to sesame snaps and other dried fish products or small bun like snacks filled with savory or sweet fillings of one type or another. The packaging is clear cellophane, so the actual content is never that clear to someone like me.
The counter at the moo shop is manned by various family members. None of whom speak English and until recently our transactions had been by the use of a calculator to show me how much I had to pay. With experience we are both able not to understand Thai prices and can carry on limited purchasing discussions in Thai. I have seen the shop open with mom and dad about 7 AM and then various family members take turns doing a shift or two, except for the women. They spend their time in the small kitchen which consists of a room of of the eating section. the menu is a duo-tang style collection of 4 pages. Many dishes have been crossed off, and many new added. the old crossed off ones, had English and Thai. The new additions are strictly in Thai and all of the food selections are only Thai. The young man takes your order very intently and then out comes mom or grandma from the kitchen to be told what the order is and for her to see if you have any special requests. We happen to like the little added feature of a fried egg on top of our order. Sometimes there is a charge for this, sometimes not.
The moo shop has what could be called a restaurant, but it is used for various activities besides eating. Seating capacity is about 30 people. Last Friday as is my occasional habit, I went to the Moo Shop to get some dinner. Our friend Dul was over and he came along, as he prefers to speak to the cook himself and tell them to spice it up more for him. Apparently Clive and I do not eat hot Thai food. We sat at a table, with a beer and waited as “mom” whipped up our orders. A man who was having Sang Sam and tonic water commented to me about how he had the large scar he showed me, from drinking too much beer. No perhaps the quickest on the intake, I should have noticed that he was at a table for four by himself and no-one was sitting with or near him. The following week, I was on a solo mission to get dinner from the Moo Shop. The shop had rearranged the tables into a single row, except for 2, in an apparent arrangement to facilitate a large dinner party. This time I had a Coke in hand and as I scanned the area trying to decide where to sit. One of the two tables had a party of 6 sitting at it, leaving one table with 2 chairs. One occupied by the stomach scar man. I should point out that he does not wear a shirt. He motioned for me to join him. To not do so would be an obvious slight and I knew I would be there for 10 minutes, so I did. He spoken no English, but his gestures, similar to the previous week, apparently meant that the scar was caused by drinking too much Coke. I looked at the table and saw a plate stacked high with what looked like it might be thick slab bacon, that had been woked or boiled, accompanied by a bowl of a very bright orange coloured type of relish, with what looked like many many many chili pepper seeds. Playing to my darkest fear, scar man picked up the plate and held it in front of me and handed me a fork. If you have ever eaten cold bacon fat with the rind on it, you can appreciate that it is a somewhat acquired taste and texture. The rind, not having been fried is very rubbery. Not content that I ate this without condiments, he loaded another piece and put a stack of the condiment on top. I ate this too, wishing I could open the bottle of Sang Sam I had just bought to take back home with dinner and douse my throat. But also afraid to crack the seal, lest my friend think it was time to drink his new friends bottle. In my best Thai I thanked him and told him it was delicious ad that I was full, but thanks for his offer. I immediately fixated on the television screen, to watch a Thai television show, that was apparently a comedy. Interrupted from time to time by my friend to proffer more of his snack. I am not sure that “I’m full” he bought as the moo shop “mom” walked up to me with the meals already to go. I really enjoy each trip to the Moo Shop. I see so many things, that I would probably otherwise never get to know.
I am finding that my attitudes as a North American are slowly changing. As I sat at a table to wait for the takeaway dinner, I pulled out a chair and noticed that it was grimed. I simply sat and said to remind myself to wash my hands when I get home. They are not always grimed, just it happens sometimes. The local chain supermarket store has a big poster at their entrance advising you that they hand wash and sanitize the shopping carts. But you would be mistaken to think that they wash the carts at close of business. The Moo Shop likewise can seem a little dirty, and then the next time is it spotless from the ceiling fan to the sliding steel door track. I do not miss my Lysol wipes that much, but I do keep a piece of toilet paper in my shorts or man bag (yes i now do own a man bag-I am officially an old man). Very handy to have when you go to a public bathroom, and there may be noting but a flush hose or a barrel with a bowl of water. In more high end stores, they will sell you some toilet paper for 2 Baht Exact change please. My one time of not having the exact change was good though as i got shown to a toilet stall that was glistening and had a roll of toilet paper that was the size of a COSTCO size roll of cheddar cheese.
I do not see the proliferation of hand sanitizes in every place I go, but there is always somewhere with soap and water. If the toilet is busy, then Moo Shop mom will probably ask you to please feel free use the sink in the kitchen.
A few weeks ago, across the street from the Moo shop a family put the BBQ out on the road and were selling chicken satay’s. A few days later they added sticky rice to the menu and by Friday had added grilled sausages. On Monday they had a construction crew in and demolished the front wall of the living room, creating a sheltered space to sell mom’s satays and sausages. I called this the start of the Moo Shop war. Direct competition literally a stones throw across the road from you. My conspiracy thinking only got reinforced when I went to the Moo Shop to get dinner one night to be told that they were not selling dinner. Reality checked back in when I realized that they new food stall did not sell anything that was already on the Moo shop menu.
The Moo shops are an anchor to the community and they are everywhere. While I may write about our Moo Shop, the reality is that there are 3 Moo Shops all within about 500 meters of the house. I just happen to frequent this one because it is close and they seem to keep reducing my prices from when I first moved in until now. I have also come to depend on the Moo Shop because it is convenient, but also the pricing from the regular retail stores is not much different. In fact a few weeks ago they were selling flip-flops for 49 Baht ($1.57CDN), and until then the best price we had found at the markets was 100 Baht. The Sang Som whiskey/rum is no different in price that any other outlet, except for Super Cheap (yes, that is the real name of the store; and they are), but if you added up the gas to get to Super Cheap for just the Sang Sam, then it is better to wander down to the Moo Shop and get it there. Most would be what I imagined the 7-11 chain of stores began, before they became into begin the danger zone they are to me today when navigating the roadways of Phuket. As a rule of thumb. they are the areas most prone to a vehicle accident. As I have talked about before, there is ALWAYS traffic coming from the 7-11 into your lane of traffic, primarily pedal or motor bikes, because they just have a short distance to go; they are coming your way looking for a break in traffic to cross to the other lane; and your field of vision is absolutely going to be blocked by the car, transport truck or even a tour bus which will be doubled parked in your lane anyway. After dark it gets worse with the motorbikes and pedal bikes operating without any lights. Luckily for the Moo shop there is no such problem. Just remember that the motorbike operator pulling out at the Moo Shop MAY have just had their shot of Sang Som.
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