Beijing Night Markets
The night market: it’s hard to think of a more budget travel-friendly institution for the backpacker in Asia. And few are as rich in sights, sounds and smells as those you get in Beijing.
Turning to Hobotraveler.com (a glorious mess of a budget travel storehouse) to elaborate the point, we stumbled on this Beijing Night Markets post. There are some great images of what is, when you get down to it, a pretty unique sensory phenomenon.
The silkworm, the starfish, the scorpions - it brought it all back… And, just as when HostelBloggers were actually there, we tried to be interested and consider it a unique cultural experience and blah, blah, blah… we really did. After a while of gazing at these increasingly weird and wonderful foodstuffs, though, we were driven into fits of immature giggling by one thing: goat cock (see below).
But ’political correctness’ aside, when we thought about it, it struck us that perhaps the right response to anything you experience on your travels is normally always the natural response - even if it is a childish one!
After all, it’s essentially the differences between cultures that make travel so worthwhile. And if you stifle your response to something then, well, what’s the point? You can take it as a given that Chinese travelers in London have been bemused and amused in equal measure by elements of British cuisine. (Like, say, a tasteless, dry ‘traditional roast dinner’…)
Who’s to say that amusement isn’t a perfectly reasonable and healthy cultural response?
[...] Starfish on a Stick. It’s hard to pick a favorite from the legendary Beijing night markets as they’re stuffed so full of ‘unusual’ delicacies. But amongst the goat [...]