Name a price (1)

At my new eating place in the Klong Toey fresh market, I have exchanged the sickening smell of drain water for the bracing odour of raw meat.

Sound unappealing? It's not all bad.

A few weeks ago, I left the smelly noodle place close to open drains where I was grabbing a quick meal before work for a covered shop further inside the Klong Toey fresh market.

The smell coming from the drains was unbearable. I hope the owner and his wife, who support four children, don't mind that I have moved camp.

The place where I eat now, a two-storey shophouse, is further inside the same street. If I kept walking, eventually I would reach the heart of the fresh market.

Trucks carrying pig carcasses and green produce compete for space in the narrow street with residents, traders and customers getting about on wobbly bikes, motorbikes and on foot.

My bus stops around the bend. I follow a large group of passengers as we head down the street, past the streetside stall with the open drains where I ate before, and down towards my new place in the shophouse. Some drop into the shophouse eatery with me for a meal; others carry on their way further into the market.

I bow my head and try to look busy when I walk past the streetside stall, which sits just inside the corner.

Every night at my new place, runn by a local family, I order the same dish from the menu of fried rice with pork.

"Don't you get sick of that? You should try one of our dishes with basil and chilli - we're famous for them," a Thai man told me.

Aged in his early 50s, he introduced himself as Gai. His mother owns the place. I had seen him in the shop before, serving a group of middle-aged men who come nightly for a meal and a whisky.

Thais are a friendly lot, but this was the first time I had met anyone. Gai invited his wife over, and his aunt. They introduced me to their children.

Gai's aunt runs a food cart outside. The shop itself has been open 30 years.

It is on the ground floor of a shophouse, with a living area upstairs. The sides open onto the street. When the shop closes on weekends, the owners pull down metal slide doors to shut it off from the outside world.

"In years gone past, we were located closer to the street. The alcohol laws were not as strict. We could open at all hours, and the place was full of customers," said Gai.

He asked me what I did. I told him.

"I would like my daughter to improve her English, and my aunt wants her son to study more, too."

I met the girl, aged 10.

Almost all Thais have nicknames in addition to their formal names. The girl was named after the English word "Nurse".

"She was born at Bangkok Christian Hospital. We thought it looked clean, tidy and proper, so we called her Nurse," said Dad.

now, see part 2