About once a week, my SIL and I go to the market to buy fruits and veggies. The amount of fresh food you can buy for less than $10 is ridiculous. This week I got a bunch of bananas, one head of cauliflower and one head of broccoli, a baggie of small tomatoes, three carrots, a bag of citrus fruits (I thought they were limes, but then my SIL said she thought they might be tangerines, so, I decided to give something new a go and try them out anyway!) and... maybe that was it for today. But I got all that for about 60,000 kip, if that, which is about $7.50.
The difference in prices between the market and the mini-mart for vegetables and fruits is ridiculous! The fruits and veggies at the mini-mart are easily twice the price, if not more. So going to the market is definitely worth it.
When we go to the market, we attract a lot of attention, of course. SIL and I both wear the babies when we go, so that we have both hands free to carry bags and pay for our goods. Any number of these things attracts attention. Mostly it's the little blonde/bald white heads and tiny white feet. The Lao people love babies and they are not afraid to let you know. I think my nephew got touched by approximately 50 people at the market today. At one point, my SIL said, "That's it, little man! You're getting a bath when we get home!" I don't blame her. Between the amount of people putting their hands on him and the amount of sweat pouring down the lot of us, we all need baths when we get home.
Hardly the organized, clean, open air, twice a week farmer's markets of back home... the markets here are all day every day kind places...I'm not sure the opening and closing hours, but, my guess is that it's quite early and quite late. They seem like the kind of places that are never really empty (though I'm sure at some point they are), which also means that they never really get a proper cleaning. They are built on concrete slabs, but often have wooden slats laid down over holes, water leaking here and there, rubbish on the floor, etc. Because of the rain in Laos, they are also covered- this means that there is very little air circulation. The smell of the meat and the fish, and possibly some sellers piss-pot all mixes together with the food that is being cooked in the little restaurants and who knows what else. The smell of the city and the people themselves. Today's market didn't smell that bad. The first market SIL took me to was the worst in terms of smell. I honestly thought I was going to vomit at one point. The smells were very strong, acrid, rotten smells, and it was hard for me to get through parts of it! Don't get me wrong, I'm not usually a person who can't handle smells- I don't gag at diapers or anything else. But these smells, they were strong!
We've gone to three different markets since I've been here, just to check them out and see what each has to offer, and this one today was not the best. It wasn't the worst smelling thankfully, but, it did have the oddest assortment of food products, and it was not well organized. Both of the other markets we went to did at least have all the fruit in one place, the veg in another, the meat and fish together, and then the stalls that sell packaged food, kicthen items, etc, together as well. This one was all over the place. Because we couldn't really understand where to go, we spent a few minutes wandering around the whole place to start just to see where we might find the nicest fruits and veggies. You never know what else you might come across, so I was quite happy to do the wander. But this wander took us past some more stuff that I had a little trouble with.
You all know I'm a vegetarian that cooks meat for my omnivorous husband. I handle meat, I cook meat- I'm generally not bothered by meat. Every once in a while the smell of it cooking might turn my stomach a little, but, I cook it anyway. But the meat we saw at this market, made me almost toss my breakfast. We walked past little wash tubs on the floor that were full of slithering, slimy eels, hoppy, worty frogs or toads, all kinds of little and big fish- some alive, some trying to jump out of the pot, others dead. There were live ducks in plastic bags- just their heads sticking out. There was some kind of dried meat that looked like jerky, but one side was covered in coarse hair.
The eels were what got to me the most. I know people eat these kinds of things, and I don't have anything against that, but the whole tub was full of them and they were just slithering around all over each other. It was a writhing mess of little heads and tails. Shudder- I just got goose bumps thinking about it again! I don't know why the frogs didn't try to jump out of their bowls, because they were certainly shallow enough that I would have thought they could have, but they didn't.
We had to walk through this one section twice, as we went in one direction and then backtracked. Needless to say I was very glad to leave it behind us! And, because I had Beni on my back, I don't think she got touched as much as my nephew, as she wasn't as obvious as he was, being worn on my SIL's front side, his smiling head facing out. Because the people the handle the frogs and the eels and the ducks...they are the same ones that want to rub your kids face and hands. Barf.
One of these days, maybe on a weekend, when things settle down, when we have our own transportation, when we're not running around trying to buy up stuff we still need for the house, we'll go to the market and try to take some pictures. I would certainly like to share the sights with you- be glad I can't share the smells. :) Or, go pee in your full garbage can, then close it up and let it sit in the sun for a week, and then open it- that's kind of like what that one market smelled like.
