Pigs, roaches, and other tasty morsels from Phitsanulok

After bidding a tearful goodbye with the accommodating monkeys of Lopburi, Thailand, I got on a hot third-class train bound northward, for the city of Phitsanulok (พิษณุโลก – pronounced “pizza ‘n’ look”). Ensconced in the Lithai Guesthouse, with its modern and square glass front and very cheap, basic, clean rooms, I spent nine days wandering around Phitsanulok, trying different types of food from the many street vendors and strolling beside the muddy brown Nan River (แม่น้ำน่าน).

Phitsanulok is one of Thailand’s oldest cities, established 600 years ago. Now it’s a university town with a buzzing and prosperous feel – but, as always in Thailand, a haze of heat hangs in the air and tends to relax the pace somewhat. Phitsanulok’s yearly average high temperature is 92ºF (33ºC) and that’s pretty much every month. Heat affects blood sugar, as does relaxing at the end of a succession of hot, sweaty days with a large bottle of beer. I’d have my work cut out for me here.

Near my guesthouse was a large-ish night market, full of food vendors who sold an impressive variety of things in little styrofoam containers for cheap. A lot of it was noodles and rice with various toppings available, but then a lot of them were pieces of delicious-looking fried things that I couldn’t identify but would sample anyway.

There were also some more unusual options in the Phitsanulok market – one woman had bought a little pizza machine and was selling tiny individual-sized pizzas for a low price. There were four varieties; I liked the “mixed” one with the most toppings.

One vendor, inside a larger covered area where people sold items in bulk, one display had pig faces on ice. Pig faces – just the skin, snout intact, holes for eyes. It startled me when I first turned a corner and all these sepulchral bovines were grinning at me with hollow stares.

Most impressively, perhaps, was a vendor selling a large variety of insects as snacks. And these were some interesting-looking specimens: gigantic cockroaches, beetles, and other things, in individual little clear plastic containers. I’d pass by the vendor often, stop to gawk and try to talk myself into buying something and eating it. Unfortunately, I never did: maybe if I wasn’t traveling alone I could have asked my travel partner to talk me into it.

But in the end, I didn’t have the nerve. An opportunity wasted. In fact, so taken was I with the vendor’s apparently edible creepy crawlies that I didn’t even remember to take a photo. So you’ll just have to trust me – it was a heart-stopping site.

Super Bowl in Phitsanulok

Super Bowl Sunday had rolled around while I was in town, and I decided to get up to watch it. I set my alarm clock for 4:00 am. I wasn’t actually sure how I was even going to watch it.

I got lucky with the internet at Lithai Guesthouse: groggy but gradually excited, I found some weird little website streaming the game and was able to watch the whole thing. (My team is the Atlanta Falcons; since they weren’t in it I was cheering for the NFC team, the Green Bay Packers.)

As the sun began to rise, the game continued and the sunlight started streaming in through my east-facing window, lighting up the orange wall over my bed. I sipped that old Super Bowl beverage of choice, flat water, and watched the Packers win an exciting game. The live stream cut out at times but always caught up again.

I have learned that this was the most-watched broadcast in American television history. I did my part from over here in Phitsanulok, Thailand!

Around Phitsanulok

On days I was feeling adventurous I’d go out into the heavy heat and enjoy the cheerful quietness of the town. Walking along the Nan River was nice; bridges span the bright tan muddiness of the waterway and golden statues and plaques abound.

There is a creative impulse to the people of Phitsanulok that expresses itself in these plaques, and in the statues and figures that are scattered around town. One intersection near my guesthouse had several brightly colored animals made of wire frames and translucent paper. Red lanterns hung on strings and lit up at night. Restaurants and cafes were everywhere; in one that I stopped into for a chocolate shake and fruit plate one day, a TV was playing Glenn Beck’s Fox News show. I injected insulin into my stomach for this difficult snack as Beck wrote his conspiracy theories on a chalkboard.

Another day I got a haircut from a woman who seemed to find my short, sparse hair easy to handle; on another day I found a little shop selling kids’ shirts and I bought one with English and Thai writing on it to send to my nephew for his first birthday.

Another day, the young Burmese girl who cleaned my room showed me how to write my name in Burmese. It looked really cool – to me, just a bunch of impenetrable circles. Not useful, but nice to know I suppose.

After nine days in Phitsanulok, my team having won the Super Bowl and my gut having experienced just about everything it could from the local market (except the three-inch insects and the rubbery pig faces) it was time to leave. I am planning something that is a rarity for many travelers like me – returning to a place I’d already visited before although there was no specific reason to. In my case, it’s Surin in eastern Thailand.

To the bus station, yet again!

What’s the strangest food you’ve ever seen for sale while traveling?

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