10 to 13 Aug BKK - Random Items of Interest

It was the 12th of Aug, after our day at Bungsamran. We were returning to our hotel by taxi, and we were grumbling as the taxi-driver had chosen to not to take the highway and the journey took much longer than we expected. Fortuitously, while weaving in and out of the city's roads, we noticed this 'hawker centre-like' with many stalls. As it was within walking distance of the hotel, we decided to bath and change before walking about 15 minutes there.

It was already around 9pm, so many stalls were closed. As we walked around the place to check out the few stalls that remained opened, we chanced upon a cart that had many types of insects displayed! The owner was actually having his dinner there, and we had to wait till he finished his dinner before he would serve us... so it was a good thing he was finishing already!

There were about 8 types of fried insects available for sale - ranging from ants to grasshoppers, locusts, larvae and worms. Each type costs either 20 of 30 baht for about 3 spoonfuls and are all eaten with a dash of sauce and sprinkling of spiced powder. Unfortunately, the stall owner spoke no English so he did not understand our question of what the condiments were. The entire transaction consisted mainly of excited pointing and jabbing on our part...

We then sat down to try the insects, which we hoped would go down well with beer. Well, all I can tell you is that most of them tasted rather similar - salty and crunchy!

I assure you that these look worse at close range...

We were slowly trying the insects and washing them down with beer when the second surprise of the day showed up. It was at first quite puzzling when we heard trumpeting sounds coming from outside the food centre, which we thought was from the noisy horn of a lousy driver. A few seconds later, there was a commotion behind and we turned to see 3 men leading an elephant around.

Yes, a real, live young elephant! One man sat astride on the elephant, one held small bags of sugarcane sticks to sell at 20 Baht, and the last man collected the money. We bought 2 bags and enjoyed the unusual experience of feeding an elephant. You only had to hold out the sticks of sugarcane in front of you. The elephant would immediately extend its trunk over to gently pluck it from your hands and pop it into its mouth. The bundles of sugarcane disappeared really fast!

We apologise for the badly taken photo, we were too stunned!

I guess we were more than happy in the end, that the cab driver did not take the highway!