02 August 2008 - OTOP Market

Saturday 02 August 2008 - OTOP Market

Tonight we had dinner at Nobi's Restaurant as is our custom lately. Nobi's is owned by a German guy and his Thai wife. They serve good Thai as well as falang (foreigner) food. They even sell cheese which is difficult to find around here.
Naturally Duang ordered falang food (Sausage and fries) and I ordered Thai food (Ratna).

After dinner we walked over to the Night Market and then took a somlaw to the OTOP Market. The King of Thailand has established a program entitled "One Tambon One Product". A Tambon is a village. The program is to assist the local people in developing and serving markets for their local products. Local products include handmade clothing, fabrics, furniture, jewelry, sausages, rice, food, wine, leather goods, wood products ...

This week there is a large exposition to sell these products in Udon. The site of the market is about 5 blocks from where we are staying. We had walked over to the market on Thursday in the afternoon but it was much too hot to really check things out. We did end up buying a case of wine coolers (strawberry and lychee flavored) from an award winery in Chiang Mai. The wine coolers are flavored rice wine. The winery is Goldwinery and their website is www.goldwinery.com. The samples were very tasty - far superior to Annie Greenspring's Apple Valley and Strawberry Hill (for those of you old enough to remember ). The cost of a case of 12 12oz bottles was 350 baht ($10.60 USD).

We intended to return Thursday night but ended up at the maternity ward as previously blogged. Friday night was raining so we stayed home. Today the rain was earlier in the day so a night visit was possible.

The reason for returning at night, in addition to avoiding the heat, was to watch the entertainment. As is typical for these events in NE Thailand a large stage and sound system was erected for a free show. With this being Isaan, there was no doubt that the show would be mahlam loam lao (Low Lao music), luk thung, and mahlam morlam. This music genres are extremely popular here and actually are an identifier for the local people wherever they are. It is analogous to striking up "Dixie" for Southerners in the USA (or has political correctness eliminated this in the USA now?). Back to Isaan - These music genres start off with a very lilting slow melody carried by a mandolin sounding stringed instrument often with an almost yodeling type of vocals by a single singer. After several bars of this, the entire band, normally 6 to 10 musicians, kicks in with a hard rapid driving beat that is extremely difficult to resist dancing to or swaying to - even if you have not been drinking. Because this is Isaan, there are often people who have drunk too much. Last night was no exception. There were three women who were basically falling down drunk. One woman actually fell down three times but boy could she dance!!! Her problem was standing up!

The show comprised of 10 musicians, 8 dancers, one singer, and an MC. Duang informed me that tonight's show was in Lao but that tomorrow's show will be in Thai. The show, like most shows, is comprised of music, music with classical Thai dancing, comedy routines, and kathoey (lady boy) acts.

The comedy routines are very slapstick and from what I can gather somewhat crude. The audience always loves it.

Lady Boys come on stage and dance and prance. Tonight they were the integral part of the comedy routine. One part was so funny that I even understood it. After performing their classic Thai dance the lady boys were interviewed by the MC. Each one of the lady boys initially forgot who they were trying to be and replied to the first question in a masculine voice. The last one was fat and when he/she replied in a deep baritone voice, he/she quickly grabbed another microphone and continued in a very sultry feminine voice. It was quite funny - and "No, I had not been drinking". The other part of their comedy routine was to show how jealous they were of each other.

The dancing was very good - onstage, the drunken women, and off to the side - a small 3 year old girl with vertical pig tails.

Early into the show, Duang asked why I did not have my camera gear. We decided then that we would return tomorrow night. Duang spoke to a woman associated with the show and determined that there would no problem.

After a pleasant walk, we were back home by 10:00 PM.