On the weekend we rode around the neighbourhood, past the USA Ambassador’s residence, past the Brunei Embassy, past the North Korean embassy (you get the picture) until we found a number of stalls being set up just along from the Russian embassy compound.
It wasn’t very busy but we took a short walk about just to see what was being sold.
Having made it to the end of the stalls and starting to retrace our steps back up we spotted a local drinking establishment – outdoor tables, under a bit of a canopy. Being that the temperature was mid-30s at least, and it was about half past four, a nice cold beer seemed appealing.
The locals were friendly and they were having a lovely time. When we buy a bottle of beer at the shop around the corner, it costs 7,000 kip (NZD 1.17), here it cost us…9,000 kip (NZD 1.50) – not a lot of margin was being made.
We sat down and started to observe the locals wandering by.
The numbers of people started to increase rapidly and we realised it was due to all the workers finishing at the nearby garment factory.
This was Saturday afternoon at 5pm. There are three garment factories in this area and the number of workers coming out of the one at the end of the lane we were on was in the hundreds. We made the assumption that they had been paid today, as more than a few were walking along with money in their hands. Even though it is a market area, people don’t usually shop like that, so presumably it was a week’s pay.
The quiet little night market had turned into a bustling area with workers buying nibbles, clothes, cosmetics….from our unobtrusive spot we had a good glimpse of local life