This morning I got up early and went to the big local morning market in Krabi Town (which is the main town and therefore market of the area).  I was invited and accompanied by the owner and the main cook.  They were going to do there weekly shopping for the hotel restaurants.  The market is huge.



This picture only shows about 1/3 of the market.  The market has everything you could possible need to cook and more.  It is like a giant grocery store, but the individual products are not owned and sold by the store, but by individual vendors.  Each vendor sells something slightly different from the other vendors so there is a great variety of items to be found here.  You can find basics like fresh made noodles and tofu.



To local produce such as these peppers.



But you can also find what I would call the exotic (which might not be so exotic over here) like these huge gross looking bugs.



Besides the produce and noodle/rice areas there was a flower department, an herb area, a meat area, a seafood area, a hot food area, a prepackaged food area, and a clothing/supply area.  The meat area had all the usual meets, but it was a lot more intense than your normal butcher shop.  For example, there was a table with whole chickens (including the head) and some of them were cut in half with the inside still there.  Something we don't see in the US.  The seafood area had all kinds of fish and shrimp/prawns and other seafood items.  The most unusual was this stingray.



I have been to a few Asian markets before so this was really nothing new to me.  As I walked around I was thinking to myself I would never eat that or that is gross, but then I remembered that a lot of these things I have eaten on this trip.  It is hard for me to believe I have eaten some of these things that I saw here in the market, like the stingray.  After the market we went to have a traditional Chinese breakfast.  The way you order here is a bit different than what I am used to.  You go up to the refrigerator and pick out all the stuff you want.



They then take the food you chose and steam it for you.  Finally they bring it to your table for you to eat.



Since I didn't know what anything was I let the ladies order all the food.  We had about a dozen of the small steamer bowls filled with different types of dumplings and food.  I can't even begin to tell you what I ate.  I know there was some fish, seafood dumplings, meat dumplings, vegetable dumplings, and I had some spare rib soup.



All the food was very good.  The weirdest item I ate was some type of meatball with a jello like substance on top.  After breakfast we made our way back to the hotel.  I was told that they go shopping about once a week and they always stop and have breakfast while in town.  I was very honored that they had invited me to come along.  They even said they would bring me back next week and we would try a traditional muslim breakfast.  What I enjoyed most was observing the local lifestyle.  I watched the ladies shop, talk, laugh, and eat a local breakfast.  Watching them interact it is hard to believe that one lady works for the other.  They get along so well  They seem more like friends or even family members.  From what I understand the cook has been working for the owner for a long time and now even the cook's husband works at the hotel.  The owner really likes her so she takes care of her.  I believe the cook and her husband live at the hotel along with the owner.  I think that the front restaurant is the cook's restaurant, but the owner helped her open it up as either a partner or as a gift to the cook (but I am not sure).  I have also noticed that everyone is truely happy and content here.  They may not be rich (except fot the owner), but they are happy with what they have.  I wouldn't say they are struggling to survive, but I wouldn't say they have a lot either.  They live comfortable and they are content with it.  For me seeing this is what my trip is all about.  I wanted to see and learn how people in other parts of the world live.  I wanted to get a better understanding of life and what it is all about.  One thing I have reinforced on this trip is that family and friends are very important.  Being surrounded by those that care about you and that you care about makes everything better.  The only bad part about today was having to walk through the wet market floor with a huge open sore on my foot.  Luckily I had a band-aid on, but I don't even want to think about what bacteria could be in the dirty floor water.  I made sure I cleaned my sore and disinfected it as soon as I got back to the hotel.  All in all it was a good morning.  One that I will not forget anytime soon.