The Reason We Were Off Early,

was that we decided to go to Bangkok,

and we are off early again today as we are seeing Nick and Maureen, so straight on to today's post, we are going to the Chatachuck flower and plant market that is there every Wednesday and Thursday, so in to the taxi and we were off,

parking on the third floor in JJ Mart, 

it was surprising to see the development on what was once a part of the live ornamental fish market,

I am not sure what it is going to be but it will be huge,

but first stop breakfast, it was delicious, one of the best breakfasts I have ever had, and at such a reasonable price, pity I can not tell you where as photographs are forbidden, actually the food was remarkably average, I just wondered why no picture taking is allowed, it is not as if the inside of a fast food burger outlet is not well known,

then out into the market past the ornamental porcelain stalls,

and past the outdoor fish pools,

typically in them there are Koi carp for outdoor pools,

but we were soon indoors for the aquarium fish that we were looking for,

with outdoor fish just an aisle away,

we made our way along to the indoor fish section,

passing this beauty,

for just a measly 580,000 bath, the price of a small, well medium priced family car, this Arowana could be yours, they are supposed to bring good luck to the owner, but try as I might I have never been able to track down this myth, everyone says it is so, but there is not an original source for the statement,

one of the great things about going around markets like this,

is that you can see traditional craftsmen at work like this chap making and varnishing bird cages,

I have to say there were so many birds available today, ducks chickens, etc,

far more than the last time we were here,

though I am not sure that they would want to see their ancestors without clothes and cooked!

but here was one that was allowed to roam free,

and who was going to argue if it wanted some free food?

certainly not Diana as she reversed into my camera as the goose made it's way towards her,

not sure what they are but they are coming our way,

we now made our way into the aquatic section,

I am not sure what they were,

but Diana liked looking at them,

we were looking at fish for our aquarium,

we had moved all of the large ones into one of them, but it meant the other one was a little bit light on stock,

but before buying any,

as we did not want to carry the weight of the water,

we made our way past the fancy goods section,

to where the plants were sold,

now this is so annoying, we give our orange trees vitamins every so often,

but despite all of our TLC we never get as many oranges as this,

back to the market,

it was huge, the shrine that is inside of the market,

lots of water lilies,

this one especially nice,

there were so many pants to look at,

and just when you thought you had seen them all,

you walked into another aisle,

theses bromiliads especially good looking,

and then even more plants,

of course eventually I weakened,

as did Diana and bought a few,

we both liked the flowering cactus,

but as the flowers do not last very long we resisted,

apart from anything else if you want to buy flowers grown from bulbs this is the place to go, 

did I mention orchids?,

so many beauties,

going back in time,

as we left this morning,

one of our air plants had put out a flower,

with that success in mind we just had to buy a couple more, 

but there were so many to chose from,

decision made we were on our way,

walking along the stalls,

I have to say I was well impressed, with this,

a huge cascade of micro orchids,

one small but important point, drink plenty of liquids if you are here, we chose pomegranate crush, delicious it was too,

then even more orchids,

I am not sure how much they were,

but like these hibiscus,

about half the cost of Pattaya if previous purchases we made today are anything to go by,

there were a few wind novelties for sale,

we bought a wind chime for a friend,

I nearly weaken and bought this bowl of purple orchids,

but my track record with them is not particularly good,

we then found ourselves in the bamboo section,

these Buddha bamboos looking especially nice,

also here were the red stemmed palms I like so much,

as I said the stems are really red,

the great thing about these markets is that you are never far away from something to eat!

for me seventh heaven,

more orchids,

we now walked along the last aisle,

to the fish section,

where Diana waited patiently for me to make a selection,

I mentioned before that we had moved all of the big fish to one aquarium,

so this one,

was a bit light in numbers,

but no worries, 

50 cardinal tetras,

for 400 baht,

should make the place,

 look a little busier, we also bought some black neon's, rosy tetras, black phantom tetras and some glow-light tetras,

then a salad outside with a medicinal glass of red wine, next inside for a couple from Cheers and we were off to bed.