Thailand Life

The humble hawker is a traditional and characteristic figure all over Thailand, offering home-made specialities at prices below those in air-conditioned dining halls and major restaurants.

The hawker may be stationary during the course of his serving hours or he may ramble along, pushing his cart or shouldering his baskets of paraphemalia. He may also be hawking his wares in a sole basket rested on a shoulder; or he may look as if he is moving house.

Hawkers are easily found at street junctions on the walkways, around place of entertainment, along sois or lanes and practically everywhere else where there is space and crowd, like around office blocks, department stores, leisure parks and even in hospital ground. Put another way, for the enthusiastic visitor, Thailand is a Hawkers' Paradise.

Information from: "Thai Hawker Food" published by Book Promotion and Service Ltd. You can buy this at my BuyThaiBooks.com website.

I took the following pictures of roadside hawkers around my city.

Fresh fruit selling in the glass cabinet. For example: pineapple, mango, watermelon etc. They keep them cool and fresh with blocks of ice.

They are cooking sausages. These are made with beef or pork, together with rice, ginger, pepper and salt

The Roti comes from India. The fried pastry is spread with butter and sprinkled with sweet milk and sugar. And in the right picture she is walking around selling hard boiled eggs and boiled nuts.

She is selling spicy Thai salad made with grated green papaya in a mortar with lime juice, garlic, fish sauce, fresh chilies, cherry tomatoes, green beans, small dried shrimp, and roasted peanuts. And in the right picture he is selling drinks, snacks and cigarrettes. In Thailand, they serve the bottled drinks in a plastic bag with crushed ice. They tie up the corner of the bag with a rubber band to make it easier to hold.