Was up at the crack of dawn today to accompany my wife to our local market for foodstuffs and also for fresh paraphernalia (food, flowers) for our spirit house.
Rangsit market, on the northern outskirts of Bangkok, is not particularly famous, but it hit the news about 9 months ago when one government soldier was killed and several people injured during fierce clashes between anti-government red shirt protesters and armed security forces who were attempting to halt a large convoy of red shirts using the market as a rally point.
At 6:30 this morning things were much more serene, although the market was busy with stallholders and shoppers going about their business. The market sells flowers, fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, and adjacent to it is a separate market of the "flea" type, selling clothes, shoes, flipflops, household & decorative items, all at low prices.
Thai people are superstitious and believe that every place has a spirit (or more) residing in the area, or in their house, and the spirit house or Sanpraphum (Thai: ศาลพระภูมิ) is an offering to the spirits as their "home" to keep them peaceful and happy to watch over the inhabitants. Regularly Thais will place fresh foods, drink, and flowers in the spirit house as offerings to ask the spirits for protections and to bring good luck to those living in the area. This is what we were buying, to allow our spirits to "celebrate" Chinese New Year.
My wife did most of the shopping, allowing me to have a wander round the market with my camera, although I did have to find her every 10 minutes or so to carry the heavy bags back to the car.
With the fresh fruit and flowers collected it was time to move on to the food side of things, and fresh vegetables and meats as well as cooked AND live food (and certain animals) were in a different area of the market. But those images are for part 2.
