This afternoon, a dozen of us piled in a truck and drove outside the city limits to pick snails in some marshy lakes there. If eating pond snails doesn't appeal to you, neither will our impromptu stop en route. We were bouncing along to the banjo-like folk tunes one of the guys was picking out on a traditional thai instrument, when i heard a thud and we abruptly pulled to a halt beside the road. There was a commotion as all my thai friends began to give their opinions about something... and i looked back to see a dead dog lying in the road. I couldn't tell for sure what the debate was, but i had a good idea what it could be, and i cast my vote with the handful of people motioning to go on. We apparently lost the vote, and one of the guys leaped out of the truck with a bucket and collected our victim. Just what i was afraid of. So the dead dog came along with us, and sat stuffed in a pail for an hour and a half while we waded in the marsh in the late afternoon heat. Yeah, pretty sure they are totally outside right now preparing it for use at one of tomorrow's meals. And no i am not jumping to conclusions. While its not part of normal popular Thai cuisine, people from the outer provinces are always ready and willing to make the best of a spare dog. And several of our friends here are from those provinces and couldn't bear to see our road mishap go to waste.
The sweltering day is cooling into a hot evening, and by this time tomorrow there is a chance i will have eaten roadkill. I love my life.
