Every Thursday from 6.00 p.m to about 10.00 p.m, a night market is set up on
the road in front of a row of shop houses near where I live. There are many
vendors plying their wares at the night market, and it has become a regular
thing for me to visit the night market. One Thursday evening at about 7.00 p.m,
my sister and I paid a visit to the night market. It was not completely dark yet
but the vendors had already lit their portable fluorescent lamps. From a
distance the lamps seemed to add brilliance to the living sea of human bodies
that had congregated at the market. We
stepped into the market carefully as there were many people there. In fact, we
had to be careful not to knock into the other shoppers. Our first stop was the
food stalls. There were vendors selling cakes, biscuits, buns, dumplings, dim
sum, noodles and many other local tidbits and delicacies. we bought some buns
and dumplings for my parents and other siblings at home. We then walked over
to the fruit stall to buy some fruits. Next to the fruit stall, a medicine
seller had set up shop and was talking himself hoarse
extolling the efficacy of his medicine to half-interested shoppers.
Poor man, if he went on like that, he might need the medicine himself, whatever
it was good for. Next, we stopped and bought some vegetables at our regular
vegetable stall. That was the last thing we needed to buy. As it was still only
7.30 p.m. we decided to walk around a bit and look at the things on sale.
There were people selling toys, pirated video CDs, clothes, belts, books,
posters, mobile phone casings, balloons, crockery and all sorts of goods.
Business seemed to be good for most of the vendors. There was no shortage of
buyers. Everyone seemed to have something to sell or to buy. The sight, sound
and smell of the market were really quite intense. So after spending another ten
minutes or so in the market, I yearned for the peace and quiet of home. So I
motioned to my sister to go home. Together
we walked carefully out of the night market and headed home. |