Unfortunately, we didn't know which types of shops we would find in the market, and so we soldiered on until neither of us could remain standing or walking for another minute. Since the market didn't have what I wanted to buy - some nice wooden bowls and utensils - I only bought two re-usable shopping bags that can be folded into tiny bags.
After the frustrating chinatown disaster, I went back to my hostel with the intention of spending the evening putting up my legs and writing my blog. However, I made the mistake of asking where in Bangkok I might find wooden bowls. The answer came promptly and without hesitation: at the Phat Pong night market in Silom. When I got there, I found that the market didn't have my bowls either. Instead, there was a variety of bars and locations with 'adult entertainment' - almost-naked girls dancing on poles could be seen through the open doors of most of these venues. I didn't count how many advertisers tried to get me to come to their "Pussy Ping-Pong" show. I was really frustrated after a while - but at least I found a hairdresser on the way back to get a final cheap haircut ;-)
The next morning, I gave up on buying bowls and went grocery shopping instead. And what do my sore eyes see on the way from the BTS station to the supermarket? A wood-carving shop that has bowls! Chance made my day, and I happily proceeded to buying kilo after kilo of Thai groceries.
In the afternoon, I had the monumental task of repacking my backpack. Somehow, I had to put all the groceries in there, while paying attention that all the glass bottles were stowed away safely. Surprisingly, I managed to fit everything in. Granted, I had to use all of the 10-liter addition my backpack has, but: everything was in there. Lovely! The downside, of course, was the resulting weight. I can now speak from experience when I say that carrying a 25 kg backpack is no fun. For the first time ever, I was really happy about the luggage carts at the airport ;-)
