Spent a lovely day today in town with Marcus. We have been wanting to get out and do some market shopping without the kids for quite some time now and I finally got around to arranging to have them stay with the nanny so we could wander around and shop at our leisure.
It was nice, we started our day with breakfast at one of the many beach side restaurants then jumped onto a baht bus that took us a bit further up Beach road to a set of markets and Marcus hit the ground running buying some lovely Calvin Klein underwear and aftershave and bartering with the girl until she gave in with frustration. He loves to haggle and it drives the Thais crazy because he has no problem walking away if they don't bring the price down enough. I have been doing a bit (well actually alot) of shopping since we arrived so I am over all of the tourist junk that these markets sell, sometimes you can find something nice and of value but alot of it is just mass production tourist junk that devalues the real genuine crafts and gifts that the fine hands of Thailand make. Their hands are so nimble, especially the ladies, and some of the hand made crafts are just wonderful to look at, but you have to be able to find a stall or shop that sells them to be able to see the fine difference there can be in comparison to the copies. For instance there is a lovely little alley that is called Artist Street which I have mentioned before, and today I wandered along watching the artists work on their portraits and landscapes with such fine detail, it was fascinating. I have decided that I want to buy one of these pieces however Marcus wants to choose one for my Christmas present, but the problem with buying someone else art is that they can never be 100% sure that the receiver of the gift is going to like it. I showed him the one I liked, it was a scene from up country Thailand of a small river flowing over rocks, some traditional Thai houses perched along next to it and a wonderful mountain skyline above, it is a piece that I could just sit in front of and stare at for hours. I then walked along and compared this to the many reproduction pieces that the other shops sell alongside their own original work and portraits and they all seemed the same. I mean I could walk into any westerners house here in Thailand and I could bet money that 99% of these homes would have something similar hanging on their walls. I don't want that, I want a piece of art, it has to mean something and it has to look and feel real. I am sure Marcus will choose well (at least I hope so) but our tastes are really quite different.
After the markets we jumped a baht bus down to Pattaya Tai and visited Tech Com, a big I.T Super store selling thousands and thousands of copy and real phones, computers, movies, music and anything else that requires electricity. We are looking at getting another lap top for me as this one I use now is so slow, it almost doesn't work. But there are so many stalls and choices that I get dizzy and cant concentrate let alone choose a new computer that will set us back a heap of money, so we wandered back up to Beach Road after a lovely Japanese lunch of noodles, soup and dumplings and we treated ourselves to a foot massage each. Before we knew it it was time to head home to give the kids their dinners and bed times. A day like today doesn't come along very often and I think we made the most of it and got to have some special "couple time" that was sorely needed.
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