Thailand - Tuesday April 10, 2007

There are lots of street dogs, but I did not see even a single cat so far. And that is disappointing. Cat is considered lucky here in Thailand. There are lots of cat idols available for sale and they said it would bring good luck. I am yet to buy one.

Here also many people believe in charms and talismans, like Indians. There was a sale of ‘special edition’ amulet in one place and people waited from midnight to get one. Finally, it resulted in a stampede and one 51 year old woman died. This resulted in protests and many came out with the opinion that Buddhist Temples should not be used to sell such things. And this was the opinion of the editor of ‘The Nation’.

Today I paid my second visit to Tesco Lotus and bought some stationary for my son and a pair of Jeans for me, since I was badly in need of one. The personal advantage of me buying it from Thailand is that I don’t have to alter the length I can get the exact waist size.

Lunch was the same and for dinner I decided to visit a Thai restaurant. This was better priced than that Indian restaurant and thus provided some health to my wallet. Eating was the major item that ate most of my money.

Pork is part of most of the Thai items. (Even in egg omelet, they put small pork pieces (without this also available). Though I saw some Indians in these restaurants, I did not see any Indian Muslim. Even for them, there are restaurants which use only halal meat, like some Egyptian restaurants, so they can also survive here). But they had so many veg items. Here the restaurants are a lil smelly. Road side ones are more smelly. In some areas, the whole street smells. This ‘smelly’ aspect is relative. So I better say they are smelly for me. But still I was comfortable with the veg stuffs I got. And I ended it with one ice cream, which tasted just like ice cream….ha ha ha