The hotel which we are staying at offers a free shuttle service to MBK every week day and to JJ market (chatuchak) on a weekend. It was Saturday today and yesterday we booked our places on the bus. We had breakfast and got a bag ready to get downstairs for 10.30am when the bus would be coming. We got taken in the bus to the market. We got dropped off outside the market which is attached to a shopping mall, at first we went in the shopping mall thinking that was it. It was quite quiet and nothing much going on. We then walked outside and saw some stalls selling koi carp for ponds. The more we walked around this part the bigger we knew the actual market was going to be. There were so many stalls in this part, just selling fish! The koi went from babies to massive fish! The rules seemed to be catch your own with a net provided then they would put them in a bag for you. Some stalls though were unloading plastic bags of fish in water all ready to be sold. It can't have been good for the fish to be in there for the whole day just laid on the floor! We walked on further and found ourselves in the animal section, I don't even know how to describe what we saw. It was all inside and there were numerous shops/stalls selling the same sort of animals or a shop selling a few different types. The easiest way to say what was being sold is a list of what you could buy. There were; A few full sized dogs, loads of puppies, lots of kittens, full sized rabbits, the most bunnies I've ever seen, hamsters, chinchillas, guinea pigs, mice, rats, HEDGEHOGS, small animals which looked like squirrels, snakes, lizards, iguanas, full sized ducks, ducklings, chickens, thousands of chicks, massive turkeys, geese, small birds for cages, more fish, baby sharks, rays, turtles, terrapins, baby lobsters, baby crabs, Tortoises, all kinds of parrots, maggots and grubs!!! What a list! Half of them I can't believe we saw them for sale, some of the squirrel looking animals were out of their cages on the tops with strings around their necks to keep them there, they looked so scared! They also did this with some bunnies, who also had on bunny outfits?! Some of the animals didn't look too bad, they were being cared for, or looked as though they were but others did not look good and they were obviously overcrowded in their cages. It took a while to work our way through the animal section but we came out into all sorts of stalls. We found a monument in the middle of the market which was offering shade from the 38 degree heat. There was a woman close by making ice lollies for really cheap so we got a couple of those each to keep us cool. We walked round the place for a few hours, indoor and out, the indoor was so hot though! I don't think we walked around the same part if the market twice, it was that huge. When we decided to leave we walked back through the animal section, it was worse this time. Most of the animals were just laid out with the heat and really didn't look good, I have no idea what happens to them through the week as this market is only on a weekend, poor things!
James had wanted to go to a place called Pantip Plaza, this sold electronics. We have been thinking that if a tiny netbook is a cheap enough price we might invest in one, it would certainly help organise as we're going along, plus James' phone battery is terrible so it may be that he needs a cheap new phone. To get to Pantip Plaza we have to go on the sky train, which we were quite looking forward to actually. It was really busy getting to the sky train and there were a few more stalls before getting there. One that made us laugh though was a singing (very obvious) ladyboy, very loud and out of tune. S/he had a sash on which read 'Miss Thailand 2012'. Tickets were pretty easy and cheap for the sky train and it's very much like the London Underground system apart from you are above and the train is a lot wider. The views were awesome from up there. After getting off it was a little walk to Pantip Plaza, the place was so full of phones, laptops and tablets! We spent a little while here as we saw something we both liked but would rather research it a bit more before buying. We're hardly going to be able to bring it back if its not right! We left empty handed at 8.00pm and decided to think about it overnight. We got a taxi on meter to take us back to the hotel. He was the craziest taxi driver we've had so far, he seemed normal and then he burst into song. Singing along with the radio but very much out of tune, I daren't look at James because if I did I would burst out laughing. The taxi driver was so happy, maybe we were his last fare and he was heading home. Getting close to the hotel he did a funny little laugh which made James laugh then the taxi driver, they seemed to be taking it in turns. We left the taxi giving him a tip laughing so much, what a strange day!