Shopping

Mannequins have seen better days, but is that a real Vercase??

Shopping is something you tend to do everyday for a large variety of reasons. The availability of things from around the world and of the latest technology is abundant and the pricing is as varied as the authenticity of the product.

The word knockoff is one that come to mind quickly. A stroll in the night market has stall upon stall of designer wear from sunglasses, to electronics to footwear and of course clothes and jewelery. To the casual eye, it look real, but Tiffany is not likely to be found in a night market on a card table, which should be the first clue. That beautiful sterling silver neck chain in the blue silk bag and the blue box with the Tiffany stamp are convincing enough, I guess. The up side is that the quality of everything is good and when you want a T-Shirt that is comfortable, light and cheap, the label is of little consequence. I recalled my first experience in this market when I was in Kosovo in 2000 and was surprised when we left Zurich on a flight and everyone under the age of 30 was dressed in Prada, Gucci and LaCoste. For a war recovering area, in my naivety I wondered how they could afford to buy such luxuries. Only by going to the market stalls did I begin to understand that the label may be real, but the goods certainly were not. It was a stark reminder of how much emphasis is placed on the label and the status that comes from being able to advertise for the fashion houses. Oh yes, if you are that concerned about the genuineness of the good, they do have actual fashion retail stores where you can get the real deal and pay accordingly, although to me, two people in a Paul Frank T shirt look the same, one may be $2 and the other $200.

By far the best experience is shopping in the markets. There are  day markets and night markets and even some that start at 4 AM when the fish boats dock and the seafood is still kicking.
Clive is more familiar with those as he tends to be out doing his morning run by 5AM, while I am more the night market type of person. They are easy to spot, as the traffic is a major indicator you are nearing a market.  Cars and truck double parked, motorbikes pulling in, crossing the street or U-turning and pedestrians crossing as well. Literally row upon row upon row of motorbikes parked on every available piece of land. Normally set up in rotating areas, from a barren field suddenly pops-up rows and rows and rows of tables, all with umbrellas or tarps to shade the table. Mixed with the vendors selling fruits and vegetables, are the essentials such as toothbrushes, Q-Tips, clothing, laundry soap, plastic and ceramic dishes and containers, juxtaposed with the sacks of various rice's, chillies and curry pastes, piled high in large bowls. and of course coconut milk or cream. Across the aisle is the butcher selling everything from whole deep fried chicken with feet and head, to the fish sellers. I have had to adjust my grocery shopping mentality to buy what you need for the next day or two, then you go back to the market for the next few days food supply. My favourite cooling drink is lemon grass tea. In BC I could sometimes find lemon grass, never fresh and always about $3 for three stalks. Here I can get 12 stalks for about 30 cents and it is fresh. The first batch of tea I made was very strong because I was so used to having to boil the stale stuff in BC. So about 3 stalks of fresh makes about 4 liters of tea. Then there are the food-to-go stalls. You can have fresh young coconut, which is green and they use a machete to chop off the top. Pop in a straw and drink, a spoon to scrape the soft slimy flesh and very thirst quenching. Or perhaps a drink of orange juice while they grind them and pass you a cup of fresh juice. Or a drink of something cold, like a lemon shake, fresh lemons, pulped with ice and served with a straw. I am getting better at not getting brain freeze when I drink them. A 45 gallon drum over a charcoal fire produces some very nice corn on the cob to munch as you browse. But the worst thing is the baking. So much of it and so good and I cannot have just one. One local market even sets up a complete industrial sized baking oven and makes fresh cakes and pies. At the Songkran festival, we discovered these neat little teats, that I can best describe as being like my grandmothers rosette’s, the Norwegian specialty of deep fried batter on heated irons dipped into the hot grease. In this case that is coated with Spanish peanuts, then deep fried. That required a double purchase as we ate the first bag there and had to have some for home too of course.  The make fresh sushi (for some reason spelled Su Shi), even home made ice cream, like coconut or mango or for the kids, Popsicles, that having seen made, I think my friend Daphne may not be telling tale tales about scaling icebergs in Newfoundland with a can of carnation milk . They have these metal tube that sit in large tubs of ice which they rotate back and forth with the flavour they want poured in , pop in a bamboo skewer and it forms an icicle that frees from the form with the warmth of the vendors hand. And every type of food dish you can imagine, including a noodle dish that  uses the body organs of the pig as the base. Or perhaps a bag of pig blood. These two I cannot bring myself to try, but they do seem very popular.

Everything is cash only and all negotiable. With the exception of the food items. For all other good you simply have to move to another vendor selling the same thing, and you are bound to be followed an d offered a lower price yet. There is some advantage to going early as the first sale is a sign of the business to come. I have seen many times where the cash I paid was slapped over the products as to bring good luck and sales for the night.

They have major retail chain stores here, such as Big C and  Tesco-Lotus, home outfitters such as Home Mart. Sporting good in Sportsmart. You will find them in major shopping malls, similar to what you have in North America or Europe. Most of them have vendor stalls located in the front of the store where you can deal with an authentic genuine Apple store, the everywhere KFC, Subway or Dairy Queen. The menus are different than elsewhere. For instance, KFC sells fish fillets similar to what McDonald's does in America. Dairy Queen sells sticky rice with mango Blizzards. There is even a Starbucks on the island, although the drinks you have, are sold here as cold versions. Last year I had a dark cherry mocha cold drink and just before coming here I see Starbucks is selling that as a hot drink in Mission now. My favourite has to be the attention to customer service. While setting up the house here we had to make a few purchases, which we could not transport on our motorbikes. No problem, they send a driver with a pickup who simply follows you home and unloads and then will unpack and set-up whatever you bought. No costs. In BC I always found it interesting that you could get delivery, usually a week later and at a cost of between $50 and $100. Then your purchasing experience gets even better. The sale price was pretty good for what we were looking at and they then discounted the price again and threw in a bed set with duvet (which they also delivered). There is no shortage of staff to assist you and they are always ready to help you pick the item that meets your level of guarantee, price and function. We have not experienced any up-selling. The process is a bit formal, as with the purchase of a washing machine. You are taken to a office type area and seated, while the various forms and information is copied. They fill out the warranty cards and mail them for you. They even tend to have a local repair place that does any warranty work that is accessible and you do not have to ship things to across the country, like I tended to have to do in BC ship to Montreal or Toronto.

While we have not been here long, I am already finding the one thing I do not like about shopping here, and that is the bad tourists. I will not say that any one nationality os any worse than another because we all have our yob's. But I do find it strange that in the middle of a night market in Phuket when it is 26 degrees and you are surrounded by all of the action and the great food, that people whinge about not finding any scones; or french fries; or their favourite brand of beer from back home; or a good cup of coffee/tea, or a cheese sandwich. Or the people who openly complain that it sure did not cost them 30 Baht ($1) to make that meal, so they feel the bowl of rice with cashew chicken should be selling fo 15 Baht. They just spent 400 baht to get a taxi to the market and the 30 Baht dinner is a problem. Of course being Caucasian, you tend to stand out in a crowd. I watched people pass the “please respect the dress code for entering temples (a shirt, covered legs, at least to the knees, and they still wander into the temples, point their feet to the Buddha in a pair of swim trucks, some do manage to leave their beer at the door. Bangla road in Patong is a very interesting scene to witness, tourist behaving badly. Usually drunk, half dressed and singing their national anthem, off-key at the top of their voice, so that you know for sure what country they are from. I witnessed and encounter in  a local shopping arcade the other day that simply stopped me cold. Two very muscular men walking like they had pooped their pants, in their tank tops. Apparent overdosed on steroids and themselves. The conversation went as follows--I don’t know why the **** you can’t ****’n find a decent ****’n drink in this ****’n hellhole of a ****’n cesspool of humanity, I can’t wait to get the **** out of here and back ****’n home, at which point they turned to the security  person and said, which way to the ****’n computer ****’n store. It is not wonder that that particular English word has managed to be learned quickly by the local people. It is also understood to be hugely insulting, apparently to the indifference of the user. I cannot imagine, and we have been around the world a few times, that these same people would act this way at home or put up with anyone treating them the same way on their home territory, or perhaps I am wrong. Then again I have had a sheltered life ;-).

One thing about shopping here, that I do not see much different than going to Costco in BC, is that they do not always have the stock that they might have had last week. It is sold out, or the delivery did not come or someone before you bought the last 8 pieces.  In Clives case, a hot roll of spit roasted chicken breast. But you live with it and get to try new things. We went for our weekly big grocery shopping and I wanted to make some dishes I am used to, only to find they do not sell the products I wanted or was used to and my Thai is not good enough to differentiate from Fish Sauce and Oyster sauce. So we have a new twist on my Kung Pao chicken, that's life and we found anew way to have the chicken. Or perhaps the refrigeration has broken or the coffee machine is not working, so you have tea instead. Clive was rather shocked to find a large bottle of clear fluid on the counter written in a foreign (to us) script, but the English that was there, boldly announced the product name as Red Cock. I had gone for some sherry for my Kung Pao chicken, but if you want anything but Brandy or Whiskey at the supermarket we go to, the picking as between slim and nothing. I had studied the bottle enough to make out some very small English print that proclaimed this fine product was distilled from the finest rice. I decided that it must be some derivative of Chinese rice wine, so I took that as a substitute. I do know it was alcohol, and I do know that it was not  sake, and I know I would not be drinking it from a glass, but it does do a nice accent on the kung pao. This from a  man who drank fermented rice liquor in a hill tribe village in Laos last year and proclaimed it good , Clive claimed it to be bacon fat as he aided to my tent to pass out.

Earlier in the week, I came down suddenly with a throat infection of some type. I stayed in bed while Clive went to the pharmacy, described my symptoms and returned with anti biotics, and ibuprofen. It is not as simple as him just walking in and asking for it and walking out, but I am over 50 and you know how those over 50 self-diagnose , prescribe and explain ailments, so I keep it short. No need to  up a doctor’s office or emergency department when the people trained in pharmacology can do the basics. Three days later I am better and symptoms relieved.

As I finish this installment, I also need to share our most recent experience in going to a garden shop. Well mostly the shop is about 8’X8” and contains a bed. The rests of the nursery is covered in shade cloth. We stood in amazement at the variety of tropical plants, that we could only see in exotic bouquets. The vastness of the area and the size availability was amazing, from pond plants to palm trees. birds of paradise to frangipani trees and orchids of every imaginable size and colour This is a tropical paradise and I close with a photo of one of our purchases that totals about $1.50CDN. We were constrained only by the fact that to put some of those plants and pots on the motorbike we even agreed would be foolhardy. But we did it anyway, there is always the pillion seat, handlebars and floorboards.