Although we had heard that in Thailand internet connections were reliable and constant and speeds were very good we weren't going to bank on it.
Thankfully, this is what we found, as an average -
It's better than 10 times our download speeds and
100 (YES, you read that correctly - 100) times our best upload speeds
When I come across this sort of service in countries that many, arguably, consider less developed than Australia I want to scream 😱ðŸ˜
I know that the service we get in Watsonia, <5Mbps down and <0.25 up is not indicative of all of Australia but it is nonetheless very common.
If anyone disagrees that our Australian internet is anything other than utter shit then you are wrong, and likely to be in the minority which have fibre somewhere in your infrastructure, which by comparison to other countries with fibre is still shit.
Period. Rant over.
With a little juggling of furniture and available TV screens/monitors we managed to get Tiz set up quite nicely.
I'm sorry about the mess of cables to the right but they are there to hide the chain
I've used to hold Tiz to her new "workstation". 😜
Someone has to keep bringing home the $'s, and I voted for her!
The day just seemed to slip away today and after a bicycle ride around Cha Am, whilst Tiz worked, it was time to get ready to go to the Cha Am Wednesday Night Market.
Every bit of usable area within the red lines I've drawn has stalls selling anything and everything
...... and I mean anything and everything
We headed up Narathip Rd ~5:30 as we knew that the market gets really busy very early.
You know the feeling of when you know what you're going to see and when you get there it's MUCH bigger and almost everything about it takes your senses to the extreme?
That's Cha Am Wednesday Night Market, in a very good way.
The following set of pics are not the greatest to convey that thought, as Tiz was feeling a bit off and what met us was a bit overwhelming so we didn't stay as long as planned.
So much so that, given we will be able to return another 6 or 7 times, we decided to do a "quick" whip around and then head home for some dinner and G&T's, for medicinal purposes 😉
Prawns and green lipped mussels, which are abundant and therefore cheap
Charcoaled fish.
A blatant display of my ignorance of the species as I have no idea what type it is
Steamed wontons
Nigiri (aka sushi rolls to most of us) which tempting but very sus
given it was sitting out there in the heat and humidity
The look on my face reflects what I was feeling -
What the heck is this place about?!
To my left you see the beginning of an area that seemed popular with older, white haired, large, singlet wearing, European men drinking beer.
It looked a very sight, to me, and one I never want to be part of.
Deep fried sweet potato balls, about the size of a walnut
Marinated chicken waiting be cooked to order
Fruit, including rose apples (up front)
Our local train station, which marked the end of the market
BBQ baby squid on a stick
More BBQ baby squid on a stick
Rice paper rolls
As the signs says - Eggs on a stick. Quail eggs.
BBQ pork ribs
Jack fruit. It seemed to be most popular with the ladies
BBQ prawns, on a stick ..... of course
Deep fried chicken
Thais must be in some sort of culinary battle with Scots
as they too will fry the living bejesus out of almost anything
Deep fried balls .... of unknown content
Sweets
Cooked duck bits, like head and feet and everything else
most westerners would never consider edible
Knock-offs
... and more knock offs. This place, and almost all of Thailand from what I can tell, is rife with knocks. They range from so badly done they are laughable to the so well done that they display a sense of irony which stills make you laugh
A sweet old ute, driven by a cute young girl with the biggest smile.
She looked stoked about me taking her pic.
This thing was one of the oldest utes I've seen in Thailand, so far, but one of the nicest.
This place redefines "love of utes and pickups",
although most are soulless new Rangers and Isuzus and Tritons and Hiluxs
No we did not come across any deep fried insects, but we only covers ~20% of what was on offer.
We will go back many times and on one of those visits bugs will be eaten.
We stopped off at Makro and bought some frozen gyoza and steamed pork buns, to cook at home and have with a salad, and a big bottle of Baileys gin. Dinner was great and was guaranteed not to upset our already tender stomachs.
We started watching After Life and was every bit as good as my friend Adrian suggested.
Take care, and I'll be back with more guff tomorrow.
