Uhm – I think I’m suffering jet lag. Last night I must have woken up about 6 times and then fell into a proper sleep at about 6am, after the cockerel stopped it’s early morning get up call. Next thing I know its 10am and I could have so easily kept on sleeping but needs must and with 2 cups of coffee now down the hatch I should try to do something constructive before its bedtime again.

Later… I went for a walk around the block – ok, so it doesn’t sound exciting and to be honest it wasn’t, but the truth be told I was too scared to cross the road. The traffic here is manic: yes, they drive on the same side of the road as us but that appears to be about the only similarity. I tried standing at what looked like a zebra crossing, but no car or ped or truck stopped so I continued my walk around the block. I also came across an overhead crossing (bridge) but it wasn’t crossing the road I wanted to cross, so again I continued my walk around the block.

Crossing the road will not defeat me – so I reached for the internet and did a search ‘how to cross the road in Thailand’ – hysterical but you’ll be surprised how many sites there are that cover this topic. Thailand is the second most dangerous country in the world for crossing the road – so my fears were not unjust. There are 5 safe ways to cross the road:

• At a signal-controlled Intersection
• Elevated Walkways
• Metro Stations (MRT)
• Skytrain Stations (BTS)
• Traffic Islands

One site even advised looking for a crowd gathering to cross and join them – safety in numbers! Other tips included being patient as a gap in the traffic large enough for you to run through just might appear. And make sure you look both ways – sound obvious – but Thai drivers, especially ped drivers do not understand the meaning of a one-way street and will happily drive the wrong way down one, they are also known to drive down the wrong side of a busy road as well as on pavements. And unlike like at home, where being flashed by a driver basically means ‘I’ll slow down so you can cross’, here it means ‘get out of the fucking way before I knock you down’. So, make sure you look both ways.

With my new road safety knowledge at hand, I ventured out again for a stroll around the market which is across the road. What method did I use – patience the first time and it paid off, after about 5 minutes of traffic watching a gap large enough for me cross appeared and to the market I went. However, on the way home I waited 5 minutes in one spot, got bored, ventured a bit further down the road, waited another 5 minutes then ventured a little further and finally after another 5 minutes I found a zebra crossing – not that the traffic stopped for me, but finally a gap large enough for me to run through appeared and so I ran.

The market – I got there at about 3:30 and some stalls were still setting up but what an awesome site – the strangest of foods everywhere, including chicken foot soup! Some things looked very delicious even though it was hard to tell what they were, such as these balls things on sticks, but others, such as squid on sticks, not quite to my taste. And so many different varieties of fish and shellfish, and most was cooked and ready to eat. The raw meat stalls did not look appetizing especially with the flies gathering. And the smells were quite amazing and so varied, some divine and mouth-watering but one or two smelt of sewage waste. I only took a couple of pictures as I felt very self-conscious – obviously this needs to change, and I am sure it will as I develop my confidence over the next few days / weeks. I didn’t stay long. But guess what, I went back again later, this time with Si, who, as you would expect had no issues with crossing the road. He basically waited for a small gap in the traffic on the same side of us and headed out into the middle (with me tucked up safely behind him) once in the middle the cars going the other way actually slowed down to let him cross the rest of the way – brilliant – although I don’t recommend standing in the middle of busy road hoping for cars to stop – Si said as long as they can see you, you should be fine!

So, this time I had a market tour guide, and learnt a lot. Did you know that most Thai homes don’t have proper kitchens, so Thai people tend to visit markets such as these every day to purchase their pre-cooked dinner to take home and eat – hence the billions of street food stalls, and with squid sticks at 10 Bhat a go (less than 50p) it’s not expensive to eat good food all the time. Si also informed me that the ball things are made from either chicken or pork. Anyway, he bought a lettuce and a fish that had been cooked with lemon grass stuffed in its belly – so delicious. I’m going to have to take the strange food goggles off and start trying some of the Thai cuisine, everything that I read about it tells me it’s delicious and worth trying – can you imagine how boring my adventure will be if I don’t give these things a go? PS the fish Si bought was delicious, shame he didn’t know its name.