Disclaimer-Seriously, I don't own this series. I'm serious. Seriously.
Thailand, Part 3-The Floating Market and Other (mis)Adventures
Toris stretched and yawned as he got out of bed. He was the first one up as it was still quite early, so he decided to look at the view out the window. He saw a small temple, some houses... and at least five stray dogs running around.
"Wow; it's like Greece but with dogs."
"Hey Liet, like, what are you, like, looking at?" Feliks said sleepily as he walked over to the window.
"Look, there are a lot of dogs." He pointed to the streets.
Feliks looked out the window. "Whoa! There's, like, a bazillion dogs! Can I, like, take one home with me?"
"I don't think you should; they're strays. We don't know if they're dangerous or have rabies or something like that."
Feliks pouted. "You're, like, no fun."
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After breakfast the nations met Petie and Richie in the lobby and once everyone was all settled (more difficult then it sounds), they drove out of Bangkok into a nearby province. They first stopped at an open-air place with many small shops, which was CROWDED. It didn't take long for everyone to become separated.
"Peter, stay close to me." Tino held the little boy's hand. "I don't want you to get lost."
"Stay close t' me too." Berwald held Tino's hand. "I don' wanna lose my ch'ld an' m' wife."
"I'm not your wife." Tino mumbled.
"Alfred! Alfred! Where did you run off to you git?!" Arthur called out over the crowd.
All of a sudden, he heard someone behind him shout, "BOO!"
He screamed.
"Ha ha ha!" Alfred laughed. "Gotcha!"
Arthur frowned. "You bloody idiot! I was actually worr…"
"What was that?"
"N…nothing."
"LUDWIIIIIIIIG!" Feliciano shouted. "We can't find you!"
"Shut up." Lovino nudged his shoulder. "We don't need that Potato Bastard or even that Tomato Bastard to help us." Just then, as he turned his head, he noticed that Francis was eying the two of them.
"I've finally got you two alone…" He whispered creepily, just loud enough that Lovino could hear him.
"Gaah! Ludwig! Antonio! Anyone who isn't Francis, HEEEEELP!" Lovino started screaming and running threw the crowd.
"Ve! Wait for me Onii-chan!" Feliciano ran after him as well.
Soon enough, the group was reunited.
"Aww, you called for me to save you!" Antonio hugged Lovino tightly.
"Let go of me!" He pushed him off.
A few nations found a small shop, which sold coconut sugar.
"This stuff is AWESOME!!!" Gilbert exclaimed. "Though not as awesome as me." Within the same area they got to tour a traditional Thai home. Inside, there was a squirrel in a cage that flipped in circles, kind of like a somersault.
"That is like, so cool!" Feliks said. "Liet, I like, want a squirrel that can, like, do gymnastics too!"
Toris sighed. "Where am I supposed to find something like that?"
Feliks pouted. "You are, like, totally no fun!"
Before leaving a few nations needed to use the bathroom.
"But I don't have to go." Peter said.
"We might as well go while the going's good." Tino said.
Iceland opened one of the toilet stalls and there was a snake on the floor. He closed that thing as soon as she opened it and looked around before going into any of the others.
"Wow, you handled that pretty calmly." Denmark said. "I would have screamed like a little girl."
"That's because that's what you are on the inside: a little girl." Norway said.
"Oh ha ha!" Denmark mussed his hair up. "Norge made a joke!"
Afterwards, they left and drove for a good while, seeing a lot of jungle along the road with the occasional rice paddy until they reached the Floating Market - or rather the dock where they boarded a motor-operated longtail boat to go down the canal to the market. They were on the boat for a good half hour before finally reaching the market, seeing some huts along the canal.
"Hey look!" Belgium said. "I see something in the water! I think it's a crocodile or a water snake or some kind of reptile."
Feliks looked at Toris. Toris shook his head. Feliks pouted.
Upon arriving, they got off the boat and shopped around. Some "shops" were just rowboats along the canal. There was lots of bargaining, which Yao was very good at. One example:
"What do you want for this aru?"
"One thousand baht."
"That's too much aru. 500."
"800."
"Still too much aru."
"Okay then, name your price."
"I told you, 500 aru."
"I won't go any lower than 700."
"Then I'll look elsewhere aru." He walked off. A few minutes later...
"Okay okay, I'll sell it to you for 500!"
One time a woman chased him across part of the market finally agreeing to the price he wanted for a small vase. It was to the point where Petie just waited at the end of the market for us because the merchants didn't want him telling them how to bargain.
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After the market they went to a fancy buffet called the Rose Garden for lunch, where Lovino tried two other new fruits: lychee and dragon fruit.
"Lychee looks almost like a strawberry but pinker and with a harder outer shell. It tastes just like rambutan The dragonfruit tasted kind of like kiwi even though it's not green. It's kinda fuchsia colored."
"What are you a food critic?" Ludwig asked him.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I am, Potato Bastard." He replied firmly. "And now that you mention it, I'd like to review some more foods: Your potatoes are gross and Vash, so is your cheese."
"Watch what you say…" he replied in a threatening tone.
"Matthew's pancakes are delicious however."
"Ah, thank you very much." Matthew smiled and blushed.
"Who?" everyone else said.
The rest of the buffet itself had curry and other Thai favorites in addition to international foods – sushi included. Kiku gobbled that right up. Once they had finished eating they went to another part of the garden for an elephant show…
"Liet!"
"You've got to be kidding me…"
…and then later to an auditorium where they saw a show featuring various Thai customs - a staged Muai Thai match, a parade trailing a soon-to-be-ordained monk, various Thai martial arts, and a Thai-style wedding.
"Nii-san, look how happy that couple is." Natalia said to Ivan. "We could be that happy…"
"Hey look something's happening over there!" Ivan pointed to the stage frantically.
Then at the end of the show the people running it invited everyone in the audience to come down and dance.
"Yeah boy!" Alfred jumped up. "Let's get down!"
"There's no way I'm going to make a fool of myself in a public place like this…"
Alfred completely ignored him, grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the stage.
Every other nation joined as well. After dancing their asses off, they left the Rose Garden and went back to the hotel. Many passed out from exhaustion.
Later that night
"Liet?" whispered as he lay in the hotel bed.
"Yes Feliks?"
"I miss my pony."
"Oh, I get it now." Toris hugged his friend. "We'll be home soon enough."
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