PL - Phuket Marketplace (First Assignment Part 8)

Posted on Mon Feb 13th, 2023 @ 11:51pm by Ensign Kato Reon

951 words; about a 5 minute read

PL - Phuket Marketplace (First Assignment Part 8)
By Ensign Kato Reon

((NOTE: By the way, I was going to add a little tidbit about Federation Credits in the sim but I didn't have enough time. I'll mention it here. -Reon))

It was Monday. Reon decided after all the training and all the reading he had done for the past few weeks since he basically had been sequestered on Earth after graduation, he would try some more traveling. He had just gone to Nepal so he thought he would try another location in the world. He considered a few places including Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, Cairo in Egypt, the Von Klosk Research Center in Antarctica, Canberra in Australia, and the Duren Astro Complex in Yellowknife, Canada. After looking into all of those, he decided to try Bangkok, Thailand. He saw that there were great temples and marketplaces he can check out. The Buddhist Philosopy was similar in approach to the traditional Bajoran religion, even though many of the actual ideals were different. For example, Buddhists believe in reincarnation after death. The Bajorans believe that the pah leaves the empty shell of the body and joins the afterlife.
      He had to admit, he did not like the humidity combined with the heat there. It was like a worse version of what he remembered of the Lonar Province when his family would take outings there while he was a child. Also the vegetation was way more exotic and tropical. There were mosquitoes that would try to latch themselves onto his skin, despite the inoculation that Dr. Mathik gave him to repel them before he headed there. He found himself smacking his neck, face, or even any of his extremities at different points throughout his journey. The natives were pretty interesting, unlike any he had ever seen before. Upon his arrival at what was called the "Phuket Marketplace", he encountered a couple of vendors who tried to get latinum out of him, when he thought if anything, they'd ask for Federation Credits, but what did he know. He didn't even keep Bajoran Litas on him. Never did. In fact, no one he knew even kept that on themselves at home.
      Reon walked further down the courtyard of vendors towards the middle of it where there was some sort of musician playing a very interesting instrument. It was stringed and long and tall. The old may playing it was sitting down with his legs folded and the instrument's base was nestled in the pit where his legs crossed and the top part of it was resting against his shoulder. Whatever he was playing seemed nice and the musician was really playing passionately with his eyes closed and moving along with whatever his fingers were doing. It gave out some sort of melodic version of how a baby Legorian Mammoth sounds. He couldn't help but stand there and watch and listen, trying to really feel the music since he had a moment before checking out the rest of the Marketplace.
      "I see that you like the music!" came a voice from outside his peripheral view.
      He looked to his far right and saw that it was a man about half the old man's age. Human, and once again with tanned and oily skin that one could tell had been exposed to the heat and humidity for long periods of time. He was a little shorter than him and had hair pulled into a ponytail with a pointy mustache and thin drop of a beard about an inch wide by three or four inches long, hanging from his chin, "Oh yeah, it's... Interesting."
      "Well, you're not going to get anyone better than my Uncle playing that thing."
      "Oh yeah? Who is he?"
      The younger man gave a wide-eyed look of shock, "Surely you have heard of my Uncle. Pornthip Sitwat. The most famous musician in all of Thailand since Bird Thongchai! He's played with the Ankaran Symphony three times and has been offered to play at mansions owned by the richest individuals all throughout three sectors!"
      "Ah," Reon said, "That's really, impressive...." then he continued to watch.
      "So... If you really enjoy it, you'd want to pay for his talent, right?" said the man from outside his peripheral view again.
      He turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, "What?"
      The man smiled, "Two slips of gold-pressed latinum?"
      Now Reon's expression went from puzzlement to almost spite, "Wait, what is it with vendors here trying to get latinum? I thought Humans would want something like Federation Credits."
      "Ay," the man's face went flat with wide eyes, "Federation Credits are good and fine if you stay on Earth and only use it there... but latinum is used everywhere," he leaned closer to him and started to speak in a very quiet tone, "Know what I mean?" then he winked.
      Reon shook his head, "No. I don't. I don't carry any money anyway."
      "Ay yay yay... tourists who come here and just watch and don't give anything to such a great performer such as my Uncle show him a deep disrespect with this. You know, that earring looks nice and shiny. What is it made of?"
      He bent both his eyebrows now, "Why?"
      "No... Just... admiring it," the man stepped back, then gave a very half-hearted smile, "Good day, young visitor." then he bowed to him, turned around and started walking towards another group of people who were standing by and watching.
      Reon couldn't help but stand there in shock and wonder. Then he shook his head and decided to continue going about his business throughout the rest of the day.

TBC

 

RSS Feed