To eat or not to eat

The setting is farangland. It is 10 o'clock in the evening. You are watching tv in your cosy appartment and suddenly you feel peckish. You don't want to get out al your utensils and start cooking seen the late hour. You think about going outside and grab something quick to eat. But what? You could go to the nearest night shop and get a bag of crisps. But that's too unhealthy. You could go out for chips. But seen you are supposed to go to bed in about an hour or two, this is certainly not the healthiest way to go. The streets are empty. A truck passes you, a truck running publicity for fresh fruit. But where can you find that now? Back to home and fight that hunger in the morning with some breakfast.

The setting is Bangkok. It is 10 o'clock in the evening. You are watching tv in your cosy appartment and suddenly you feel peckish. You don't want to get out al your utensils and start cooking seen the late hour. You think about going outside and grab something quick to eat. But what? Just walk 20 meters and the first stall comes in sight. And this goes on for the next 20 streets. If you ever get that far that is. You can find everything you desire. My favourite is the guy selling fruit. A nice big slice of watermelon for 10 baht or a nice chopped up guava for 15 baht. For you people loving seafood you can find baked fish, dried squid or used-to-be marine animals on a stick. Fried duck or noodles with pork are also on the menu of the streets. This all goes on until about 2 in the morning, and if you are lucky to live closeby a market, you might find your favourite dish until 4 or 5 in the morning. And did you miss it, or they are out of ingredients, just come back the next day when it all repeats itself.
Luckily you actually don't even need to know Thai to order all of this, just point and smile.

Just smile.