The Basket Island
Amidst the vast galaxy that resembles pure milk scattered across the expanse, there stands a solitary star called 'Basket Island.'
But no matter how desolate the location of this star may be, this place has never been lonely, because merchants of various species from all corners of the universe regularly flock here.
Basket Island is a giant marketplace community along the Milky Way. The entire planet is filled with shops and trading posts, lined with floating stalls and shophouses. It's a place where every race can rent space to open their own business.
With the abundance of goods from across the galaxy gathered here, most customers who travel here by spaceship are those who buy wholesale or purchase to resell on their home planets. Few are customers who come to buy trinkets for themselves, because traveling here isn't easy—if you don't have enough money, it's not worth coming just to browse.
The atmosphere seen daily is countless alien beings bustling about with intelligent shopping baskets—the source of this planet's name.
In the heart of one trading district on the planet, there's a shop in a row of buildings that isn't as crowded as others. The storefront is a deep brown color, looking mysterious, with a shop sign above the door reading 'Pink's Shop.'
There, a small woman with strawberry cream-colored skin is sitting behind the counter, reading a holographic newspaper.
The shop interior is surrounded by various display items: stones and sand, fruits and vegetables, food ingredients, materials and equipment, and even model animals of various species. Beneath these items are running status displays reading either 'Accepting Orders' or 'Closed for Orders.'
Except for one animal model that looks like an emperor penguin, underneath which the status reads 'Discontinued.'
Suddenly, the sounds of price negotiations from various shops outside drift in as someone opens the door and enters the shop.
The small pink woman, owner of curly brown hair, spins around in her chair toward the sound.
"Hello, Pink. Why aren't you selling emperor penguins anymore?" asks a customer with a green body and tangled tentacles, speaking up as soon as they stop at the counter.
The shop owner closes her newspaper before responding.
"Can't find them anymore. They're probably extinct. But I'm still trying to search other planetary systems," Pink continues.
"But what are you looking for this time? You're not a zoo owner, so you probably don't want to buy penguins, right?"
"You guessed right, Pink. I thought I'd come order some hot trending items for my shop."
"Sticky rice with Nam Dok Mai mango again?"
As they finish speaking, both their gazes turn toward the trading plaza outside. There, a large advertising screen is playing a video about the food and culture of a country located on Earth in the solar system.
"Not quite, but I do want something from Thailand," he pauses before continuing.
"Think about it, Pink. Just the Siam vinyl record that reached our market four years ago—my customers are still caught up in Thai fever. It's lasted longer than the golden record craze [1]back then."
"Well, back then people only liked Beethoven and Mozart songs, so the trend passed quickly," she analyzes.
"But in the record, it was just images of Earth creatures sitting and eating sticky rice with mango and tom yum goong, wasn't it? How could you not order sticky rice and mango?"
"That's exactly the point. My customers are getting bored with it. They want to try new Thai lifestyle things... the kind that Thai people actually eat."
Pink sits cross-legged, playing with her hair while pondering something, then finally speaks up.
"So what do you want me to buy? Send me a list of items you want."
"Uh... from what little research I've done... I see Thai people really like grilled food, so I thought you could buy some meat for me. Get the kind that Thai people eat, don't forget," the customer emphasizes.
Hearing this, the shop owner quickly records the order into the system before doing a brief search for additional information about types of beef.
"Got it. What else?"
"I actually want a lot more, but I only researched this much, so I thought I'd hire Pink to survey for me too..." he finishes speaking while nervously stroking his tentacles.
"Oh, you hired me once and got completely hooked," she teases.
"Well, Pink went to all the trouble of surveying and even bought those elephant pants back for me. They sold like hotcakes. I really have to thank you."
"Alright, I'll look into more for you. But this time I'm charging more for the survey," she warns.
The negotiation goes well. They agree on additional order details, and it doesn't take long to finish.
Then the green customer stands there awkwardly while checking the money remaining in their account, before waving goodbye and leaving to shop at other stores.
After traveling by spaceship for nearly six months, the small pink procurement specialist finally arrives at the Earth visitor inspection office gate.
"How do you pronounce your name?" the human speaks through a language translator microphone clipped to his shirt collar.
On the screen beside him, the text he just spoke appears in English, along with a translation in Pink's home planet language.
Although she had studied some English after hearing the sounds in the golden record decades ago, she wasn't confident she could communicate clearly in real situations.
Encountering this, she suddenly feels annoyed. Compared to Basket Island, there's no problem like this there because everyone speaks the Basket Island language.
"It's pronounced Pink, like the color pink in your language," she responds into her own language translator microphone.
Unlike the official's microphone that needs the screen beside his body, her translated voice comes out clearly through the speaker attached to Pink's microphone.
"What will you be doing in Thailand?"
"I'm here to buy things to sell on Basket Island."
"Are you from the Sampheng[2] Star?"
Sampheng Star? Oh, this young man must be a Thai official. I see that Thailand calls Basket Island that.
The small woman thinks to herself.
She answers a few more questions, then waits for the inspection of her ship and various documents before finally being able to escape the checkpoint and enter the alien guest reception zone.
The alien guest reception zone is similar to duty-free shop zones found at airports around the world, except that the goods here don't consider taxes at all, because tax systems on other planets are so diverse that it's difficult to manage comprehensively.
She docks her ship at the floating airport building, connecting the ship's door to the building's entrance channel.
Time is money. Pink doesn't want to leave her shop for long. She walks briskly to the Thailand floor without delay, with her beloved intelligent shopping basket.
The service here is fast and efficient. She barely steps off the escalator when a floor assistant robot approaches to greet her.
["Hello, welcome to the Thailand floor. I wonder if you're looking for anything?"] The AI robot in a traditional Thai outfit with a wrapped lower garment and breast cloth performs a wai greeting.
"I'm looking to buy popular food that Thai people like to eat," Pink responds.
"Popular food for Thai people, is that correct? Please follow me!"
The Thai girl robot moves forward quickly and enthusiastically, making Pink excited too.
But the excitement lasts only a moment. Pink's face shows disappointment that's hard to hide.
In front of Pink is a display area for 'Thai Delicacies' with many products from Thailand, both food and household items, such as: sticky rice with mango sets, tom yum goong making kits, pad thai sets, and tuk-tuk spaceship stickers.
Seeing this, Pink immediately complains to herself.
I don't think these are things Thai people are that crazy about. I mean, they probably eat these signature dishes sometimes, but I think these menus are more popular among foreigners.
She hurriedly walks away from here with immediate irritation.
["Found what you need yet? Please rate our service,"] the simulated employee robot follows Pink and repeats the same sentence over and over.
"Excuse me, I'm not sure if there's any problem? I noticed you haven't completed the service evaluation for our robot yet," a Thai woman with flesh and blood approaches with a worried expression.
"I won't do the evaluation because I haven't found what I'm looking for," the small woman crosses her arms and complains.
"I must apologize on behalf of our simulated staff. May I ask what kind of product you're looking for?"
"Food that Thai people like to eat. The kind that real Thai people like to go out and eat, not Thai food that's popular in foreign eyes or anything like that." Having finished speaking, she lifts her chin and looks toward the Thai Delicacies zone she just walked away from.
"Do you happen to have any examples in mind? I'll help you look."
"I heard Thai people like to eat grilled food. Something like that."
"I understand. If you want something like that... I recommend visiting Thailand below rather than here," she suggests sincerely.
"However, I'd like to offer you a complimentary ticket to participate in the Sacred Cow worship activity. Right now, the world is entering the Cow Worship festival period. This event might not be purely Thai culture, but there's meat that Thai people like to eat on sale at discounted prices in this event."
The Thai staff member offers the complimentary ticket respectfully.
Sacred Cow worship? Is that the holiday [3]where royal cows choose to taste whisky almost every year?
Although confused, Pink accepts the ticket without saying anything.
When she reaches the activity plaza on the lowest floor of the building, the light pink-skinned woman is slightly startled to see people and alien guests prostrating all over the ceremonial ground.
There are many cows of various breeds from around the world standing in rows in the center of the event.
These cows are adorned with headdresses and ceremonial decorations all over their bodies.
Pink doesn't understand the situation in front of her at all. She decides to quickly find the activity information service point.
["The Sacred Cow Worship ceremony or Cow worship ceremony is a ritual that was first held not long ago, organized both on Earth in various cities and at alien guest reception airports, to worship and apologize to dairy cows and beef cattle who are facing a crisis of producing less milk, less meat, or declining quality of milk and meat. The worship is held every six months, and within the event, products and goods from world cattle are discounted."]
The AI robot's voice explains the information smoothly, but Pink stands with her mouth agape as if she can't believe what she's hearing.
How did this planet reach this point? she thinks.
But she doesn't take long to pull herself together before preparing to head straight to the meat booth.
Suddenly, a robot approaches to block her way.
["Excuse me, please participate in the worship for at least ten minutes before entering the Sacred Cow market zone."]
Pink sighs loudly but finally agrees to sit and kneel in apology like the others, albeit reluctantly.
After finishing the worship, Pink hurriedly goes to shop and select meat for her main mission, only to be stunned by new information that, in reality, Thai people don't prefer Thai breed beef as much as imported meat from Japan.
She hesitates for a long time about which type of meat to buy back: the fattened ox meat that seems to be Thailand's specialty, or the Wagyu beef that Thai people popular queue up to eat at buffets.
"Excuse me, the meat that they like to grill—doesn't it need to have beautiful marbling?" the pink-skinned woman asks, having just noticed that the meat in front of her doesn't have much fat and the marbling isn't very attractive like what she saw in the review threads she studied.
"This is already the most beautiful marbling and highest fat content, ma'am."
"Excuse me? I'm not stupid. The marbling isn't as clear as it should be at all." Pink says while showing the staff a picture of A5 Wagyu she saw in an Earthling's thread.
"Oh... I really must apologize. The thread you read might be outdated. The picture shows premium-grade meat. Five or six years ago, the meat marbling was indeed this beautiful, but now the most beautiful marbling available is what you see on the display."
She explains sadly before continuing.
"Nowadays, beef cattle grow up with stress amid hot weather, causing meat quality to drop. That's why we hold the Sacred Cow worship ceremony for this reason."
The small woman is slightly disappointed. She didn't think that in less than ten years, Earth would change this much.
But in the end, Pink decides to buy the premium meat that Thai people like to eat, along with using the discount from the complimentary ticket she just received.
After finishing buying tons of meat, she has her purple intelligent basket open its mouth to swallow all the meat for refrigeration.
While she leaves the intelligent basket to swallow the remaining meat, Pink decides to stop by and buy cow's milk just in case, thinking it would be good if her customer wants to make desserts with it.
Pink asks the shop staff to recommend cow's milk that Thai people like to drink.
"I want the kind where, when it comes to milk, whether you use it to make ice cream, cakes, or any desserts, Thai people will definitely be willing to pay for it."
But then Pink can only laugh dryly to herself at the sales staff's answer, because the saleswoman recommends fresh Hokkaido milk to her.
Now she keeps reminding herself that whatever the customer wants, she should buy exactly that. Therefore, if the customer wants what Thai people like to eat, even if those things don't seem very Thai, she has to buy them back.
Don't overthink it.
After spending a fortune, Pink pushes a shopping cart full of over five hundred tanks of Hokkaido milk, gradually transporting them up to her ship.
She carries all of this herself with her small but mighty strength, just as her intelligent basket floats back to find her at the ship.
"Today was very tiring. Let's go rest in Thailand."
The pink-skinned woman speaks to the basket that is her traveling companion, then ties up her hair messily and pilots the ship out of the floating airport, pointing the ship's nose down toward Earth.
After sleeping well and living in Thailand for a full day, Pink finally realizes the harsh truth that the world has become much hotter than when she first visited Earth three or four years ago.
Originally, Pink's species has skin that can withstand heat very well. When she came to Earth before, she even laughed at humans who complained about the scorching heat.
But now she has to surrender to the weather conditions, turning to join Thai people in stopping by cafes to enjoy air conditioning for cool relief.
She orders iced cocoa, her favorite menu item that she became addicted to from her previous visit to Earth.
Back then, she tried this drink because she saw that almost everyone in the world likes to eat chocolate or drink cocoa, and Pink was one of those who fell in love with iced cocoa.
"Iced cocoa, twelve-ounce glass, six hundred baht," the cashier says.
The small woman hears the staff speaking in her language through the Thai language translation earphones she specifically bought yesterday.
Pink isn't very good with Earth measurements. She's more used to ordering things by the ton.
But she doesn't think anything of it because right now she feels very thirsty.
After paying, Pink sits waiting for her drink at a table by the window.
She secretly looks across to the other side, seeing a green shop where people are starting to queue up densely.
What kind of shop is that? Why are there so many people? The shop isn't even open yet.
I should sneak over to check it out once I get my cocoa. If it's good, I might get something for the shop. The fact that Thai people are standing in such a long queue must guarantee the popularity of that shop's products, Pink analyzes.
"Your drink is ready."
Not as long a wait as expected, the shop staff comes to serve the drink she's been thinking about.
But when Pink sees the drink glass, her face immediately shows displeasure and frowning.
"Wait a minute. Why is the glass so small?"
"Huh? This is a normal twelve-ounce glass, customer."
"Are you crazy? A glass this size for six hundred baht? Don't be ridiculous." Pink starts raising her voice in complaint.
"Uh, you might have misunderstood the glass size you wanted to order a bit? But this is definitely twelve ounces. You can check for yourself," the young staff member argues back.
Eyes in the shop start looking at her as if she's a freak causing a disturbance.
[1] refers to the Voyager Golden Record
[2] Sampheng is a historic neighbourhood and market in Bangkok's Chinatown, in Samphanthawong District.
[3] refers to Royal Ploughing Ceremony (แรกนาขวัญ)