Every
Friday to Sunday, Krabi has a night market which is opened from 6pm till late.
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| Spot Aunty Polly already munching on toasted cashew nuts! |
We know there’s
no better way to experience a touch of local life than to join the locals for a
walk-about in a weekend street market, so we signed up for a 3-hour night
market tour.
Our tour
starts with a 20-minute van ride from Ao Nang to Krabi where we are dropped off
near a shopping centre, a few steps away from the street lined with
stalls. The van driver tells us that he
will be back to collect us from the same spot in three hours.
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| Aunty choosing sticks of grilled seafood from a stall |
Even before
reaching the market, Aunty Polly can’t resist buying a pack of toasted cashew
nuts from a nearby shop and opened it to munch as we walk along. We follow the flow of people, mostly heading
in a general direction and guess correctly that it is the way towards the night
market!
The
market looks very much like our pasar
malam with sections for household items, knick-knacks and souvenirs as well
as cooked food, fresh food and fruits.
The
strategy is to review the various kinds of food on sale before making our
choices. After passing the product
stalls, we find the food stalls laid out further inside the market with sections
for halal and non-halal food.
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| A range of freshly grilled plump pork sausages! |
Looking
at the interesting range of local food is making us hungry and the aroma from
the grilled skewers of seafood and whole fish is simply mouth-watering and quite
irresistible. And it didn’t take long
for us to start buying a few sticks of food to taste.
The crowd
is quite overwhelming and as it is getting quite impossible to walk comfortably,
we are glad to discover a centre court where tables and chairs are set up in
front of a stage where a live show is going on.
Singers are taking turns to belt out Thai pop songs and dance artistes are
performing to Thai techno music – played way too loudly!
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Fresh mangoes go into the servings
of mango sticky rice dessert! |
The
tables look like they are all occupied but after a short search, we manage to
secure a table to sit down for our meal.
Mal does not hesitate to hit the stalls to buy his favourite choices of
grilled calamari and prawns, and whole fresh coconuts while I order freshly
made, green papaya salad or Som Tam
and that tempting grilled whole fish for mum and the aunts to enjoy.
We are truly
doing justice to all the food and that fish in particular. Aunty Polly peels off the layer of scales to
reveal fragrant flesh which is eaten with a spicy dip sauce. When my aunts and mum are done with the fish,
what is left is just a clean skeletal comb of its centre bone!
The music
volume increases as he performs each juggling feat with fire and in the
finale, the lights on the stage are dimmed for better effect as he swallows torches
of fire!
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| Fooling around with our food! |
It’s not just
my imagination when I feel a burning sensation in my mouth too because I had chewed
on bits of chillie padi, liberally
tossed into the Thai papaya salad! Whew!
One of
the ladies who’s helping to clear the tables comes to our table again, this
time with a hat to collect a donation for the fire-eating artiste. As I drop some Bhat into the hat, I’m
listening to the announcement again and this time, there is an attempt to speak
in English. And we hear that this
fire-eater also conducts classes to those who are keen to learn the art of
eating fire!
More
people are buying food and searching for seats, so we finish our meal to vacate
the table for them. Feeling comfortably
full, it’s good to take a walk out of the market to work off our meal of
sumptuous Thai street food. We take time
to browse around the stalls and find our way back to the meeting point for the
van to pick us.
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