Flea market and Thai food

Chris, Yeow Tong, Angie, Beth

Today we were fortunate - the remodelers took the day off and we got to sleep in peace.  At least I did.  Angie and Beth both got up early for church and Angie went to a service in Taipa.  Later in the morning, Beth and I joined her there to check out the weekly flea market in Old Taipa Village - my mom told me she'd read about it on a Macau tourism site.

The flea market was quite small, but cute.  Angie had met two other people from U Macau at her service - Chris, who interviewed all of us and works at the ELC; and Yeow Tong, who's a postdoc in the English Department and lives a few floors below us.  We all wandered around for a while and Chris pointed out a few good restaurants for us to try.  He's been here a year already.  We stopped at a cafe for a treat and then wandered some more.  At one point I tried to check out a massage place but they didn't speak enough English for me to feel like I wanted to commit.  Sometimes it's worth the extra cash to be able to communicate what you want - or don't want, as the case may be.

Here is a short video of one area we saw in our wanderings.  The green area directly in front is a huge lotus pond, the large buildings in the background are casinos, and the voices you hear are the guys talking about where to get a good hamburger.

After that we came home, rested a bit and got cleaned up and then went out for dinner with Carol and her friend Karen.  We'd offered to treat Carol to a meal in gratitude for all the help she's given us our first few weeks.  We went to a Thai restaurant, but it was not like any of the Thai food I'm used to eating in the states.  They did not, for instance, have Thai iced tea, which is my fav.  Luckily they did have fresh coconut which is also delicious.  Carol ordered a bunch of stuff for us to share - the first dish that arrived though, was the one pictured below.  Can you tell what it is?  Pig's foot.  Or Pig's hand, here in Macau.  This provoked a long discussion about why we don't call it the hand and why they do.  In the end it seems that only the pig gets this distinction because the feet are eaten.  Not so with the cow.  And when I asked whether they can tell the "hands" from the "feet" when dining, I was told a good mother and housewife can.  Guys, now you know the test.

Karen, Beth, Angie, Carol

Rod Po, it isn't too late.  :)  We also had some delicious soup, shrimp cakes, greens, noodles and several different kinds of meat.

After dinner we all came back to 12A for some Rocky Road.  Both Carol and Karen gave it the thumbs up.  Also, they found mosquitoes breeding in the water trays for our newly acquired plants and so we were running around trying to kill them all to avoid dengue fever.  Sorry plants, it's dry bottoms for you from now on.  In all, a lovely evening.