I am an American expat living in Bangkok, Thailand. When we first moved to Thailand I had visions of a Third World country and expected things be much more primitive, but Bangkok is a glorious city fully integrated in the 21st century and the modern world. Sometimes, it is so much like home with towering skyscrapers; efficient mass transit; and everyone speaking English while shopping in high fashion shopping malls that I find it easy to forget we are living in Asia. That is until I visit the Klong Toei wet market to buy my groceries. Bangkok has many chain food shops that carry assorted imported food stuffs that we find comforting, familiar and sometimes indispensible but I often choose to shop at Klong Toei instead. At the market I find myself fully immersed in local culture. Dodging motorbikes and porters with heavy baskets hauling shoppers’ purchases can be tricky as I meander through the rows of foodstuffs. But I love to see the gorgeous Thai smiles and hear the eruptions of laughter as people make their transactions. Surrounded by exotic fruits and crushed by throngs of shoppers my pulse quickens and my spirit is engaged as I revel in the chaos. The vibrant colors of the fruit and vegetables; the hectic sounds of people haggling in Thai and the calls of live livestock waiting to be sold; as well as the unavoidable smells including both the pleasant aromas of fresh herbs and stomach turning odors of fresh butchering assault my senses to remind me that this is indeed Thailand and far away from the suburban America I grew up in.
