Apart from the more than ample included buffet breakfast
catering to both Asian and European paIates, I’ve paid a couple of visits to
the night markets for cheap eats, when hungry in Patong. I was 3 and 4 and 5
years old when we lived in Singapore, so the experience of al fresco dining in the
street in Southeast Asia is indelibly etched onto all my senses: the pungent aromas
of food cooked on the spot, the tang of spices and plump fruits, the mysterious
plastic bags full of exotic syrups and sauces. Not one for noise and crowds and
hubbub, I find that open air markets, with their spruikers, the sound of chopping
knives, and the hissing of wok-cooked delicacies, nonetheless make for a
tolerable form of noise and hubbub. When pressed, I will admit that it is these
kinds of experiences that drive me to Asia, rather than somewhere like Europe.
Eating ‘clean’, simple, health-giving, fresh, organically grown tropical fruit
and produce has, at the end of the day, far more nostalgic appeal than European
stodge.
For instance, last night I was ravenous after a meagre lunch
and a spot of shopping in the bazaars for some gifts, and cotton clothes and
shoes that I know I will be grateful for back home in Perth this Summer. In the
night market on the main drag opposite Jung Ceylon, a few blocks back from the
ocean, I bought a rice dish, a large corn on the cob, and a delicious, large, freshly-squeezed
mixed tropical fruit drink with ice (papaya, mango, dragon fruit and strawberries)
for the modest sum of $5 in total. Much more fun and much better value than hotel
prices! And with prompt, smilingly efficient, service, wordless apart from an
authentic mutual exchange of “kop kun ka’s” (thank yous )instead of the fawning
“madame, madame, sorry madame” memsahib treatment that can be so trying at times.
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