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Last month I was in Bangkok, Thailand to attend CITES CoP 16. One free afternoon (my only free afternoon) I took the skytrain out to the Chatuchak (weekend) market—the biggest weekend market in the world. This market is incredible: it is HUGE (according to Wikipedia it covers over 35 acres and contains more than 5,000 stalls); it’s CROWDED. It’s a vast labyrinth of stalls, tiny shops and carts selling absolutely everything. It’s chaotic, confusing and utterly fascinating. I spent a couple of hours going through the live animals and tropical fish area.

The afternoon I was there the temperature was 35°C (95°F) and 100% humidity (or so it felt) and in the market there wasn’t a breath of air. After a couple hours I was absolutely dying—I desperately needed air conditioning, a shower and a gallon of water to drink. When I exited the market I came across a cheerful vendor who was selling a variety of fried insects as tasty snacks! I took the opportunity to take a few photos for my blog before I dashed back to the hotel to cool off...

Below is a nice photo of the vendor and a couple of examples of what he had to offer. If anyone has any idea as to the identification of the bugs in the last 2 photos, please let me know!

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com


vender close copyright ernie cooper 2013_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

grasshoppers 3 copyright ernie cooper 2013_filtered sm by ernie.cooper, on Flickr


pupae copyright ernie cooper 2013_filtered sm by ernie.cooper, on Flickr