“That’s a strange-looking fish!”

After walking through the nightly tourist market in Pai yet again, we stumbled upon the locals market.  Here, there we no T-shirts or hats emblazoned with nonsensical slogans like “Let’s Go Pai” or “I Try… Pai”.   Along both sides of this street were stall after stall of vendors selling mostly fresh food, and some prepared food.  These were locals who must’ve pulled the vegetables out of the ground that day and trekked them over to the market.  We would call the food “organic.”  Surely, they just call it food.

As we were nearing the end of the street, I spotted some kind of strange-looking fish in a bag as I walked by.  Ten steps later, I felt the need to go back and get a better look.  Just to satisfy my curiosity.

I peered into the bag and realized that it wasn’t a fish at all.  It was cylindrical, but didn’t look like a fish.  Hmm.  Then I looked at the bag next to it… It was a RAT!  A big, fat RAT with big buck teeth and a long tail.  Dead.  In a bag.  For sale.  As food.  EWWWWW!!!!

I didn’t have a camera on me, but I don’t think it would’ve been appropriate to whip out a camera and take pictures of the rat selection, anyway.  Maybe I’ll go back tonight and ask how much it costs (is it by the kilo or a  per rat price?), and if they have any recipes they can recommend (although I’m positive they don’t speak any English).  Fahrin has threatened me with divorce if I bring it back to our bungalow…

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