Saturday, March 16, 2019

Floating Market

We had an early morning wake up call after our massage on Friday night. This is going to sound weird – sorry Mom – but our massage therapist came to our hotel room. This tends to be pretty standard in Bangkok. (At least that’s what we were told!)

Instead of you traveling to the massage therapist – they travel to you. We met her in the lobby, and Andy went first. I had no idea what to expect with a Thai massage, but it was amazing. I’m hoping that I can find someone who does them back in the USA.

(Attaching a cartoon version I found online – the only difference between this cartoon and me… is my face was contorted in pain/relief. I think that’s why they left her face blank!)

We had to be on the bus by 7:00 AM – I think having such a strict schedule has helped us adjust to the time difference. I really haven’t felt much jet lag, which was something that I was concerned about.

We got on the bus and started heading to the first floating market in Thailand. I had briefly read a little bit about the market, but didn’t know much about it until we got there. The formal name of the market is – Damnoen Saduak.

We stopped at a pier and boarded another rickety long-tail boat that would take us to the floating market. It was very important that there was balance in the boat, otherwise it would lean more on one side. Despite this warning, our boat ended up being unbalanced.

(Those men on the end are taking pictures of the group in the boat and trying to sell them to you. I didn’t want to purchase the picture, but I can tell you this much – Andy’s face was priceless).

The boat was a lot of fun – and it was great to get to see the canal and how the Thai people live.

We were directly in front of our driver – he either didn’t care that I took a selfie with him – or he just didn’t notice. You can be the judge of that.

I knew I had two missions I needed to accomplish while we were there. I needed to try mango sticky rice and coconut ice cream. Yui gave us directions and told us to head to the bridge and look down – and we should be able to spot a vendor selling it.

Before we even got to the bridge we saw that there were quite a few police officers, and then we noticed a man lying on the ground. This has been something that I always pay attention to when traveling – crossing roads and truly watching traffic. The area we were in was not a very populated one. The floating market is not in Bangkok – it probably took us 2 hours to get there – but this man was definitely hurt. We hope he’s okay.

Once we were able to cross the road, we parted from the crowd. The best way to describe the floating market is that it’s a flea market, but with a canal – and boats in the middle.

Very cool.

Here are some pictures of the mango sticky rice and the coconut ice cream. Both were exceptional.

The vendors are very forceful, and I tired of them trying to get me to buy things. I’m terrible at bartering, which is likely the reason I didn’t want to be there anymore. When I had found a bench to sit at – a woman came up trying to sell my citronella lotion, tiger balm, and something else. When I say trying to sell – I mean, she had pulled out a small amount and started rubbing it on my sweaty temples. I thought she would stop there – but instead she took more of a different balm and rubbed it all over my right arm. I needed to get out of there!

We had lunch at a local restaurant after the market. It was traditional Thai food, and most of it was pretty good. Although, they fried an entire fish and somehow when it was placed on the table it kept looking at me. (Thankfully they had chicken and lots of veggies/fruit to provide nourishment).

At this point we started the drive back to the hotel – it seemed like it went by a little quicker, but I think it may have been because I took a cat nap on the bus.

We had about an hour before we would go to another Thai restaurant and watch a traditional Thai dance show.

The restaurant was called, Calypso Thai Restaurant. The show itself was good and we were only with Yui and one other couple.

We had a good time – and got to experience a night market after the show had ended. We got back to the hotel and needed to start packing up – tomorrow is another early morning!

Logistics:

Floating Market – Damnoen Saduak

Asiatique Riverfront Night Market

Calypso Thai Restaurant

Tomorrow:

Leave Bangkok

River Kwai – Death Railway from World War II

War Cemetery

Elephant World Sanctuary (!!!!)