Bangkok Day Three

We were up early again to be picked up at 7:30. Seems like the major sites around Bangkok are about 2 hours out, so a lot of driving. Our first stop was at a special market in a small town. They built the market ON the train tracks! It was on both sides also, but as we walked along the tracks, there was food right on the track. We were told that a train would be there any minute, so slowly all the food carts were pulled back, the awnings were folded up, along came a full size, BIG train, just 2' from where I was standing! After it passed, all the food came back out, the awnings back up, and it looked just like a market again. It was odd and amazing all in one. I guess a train passes twice a day, so they do that a lot. We looked around a bit, bought some socks (I love buying unusual socks in different countries around the world!) then got on the van to continue on to the floating market.

Anyone we talked to about Thailand said we had to make a visit to the floating market. I had no idea what to expect, except for maybe boats full of goods for sale? We boarded a boat at a boat rental location. The boats were all long, with maybe 4 or 5 seats, and with shade. That was a good thing because it was very hot. We traveled along a number of channels before starting to see any markets. There were a lot of shops set up along the shore as well as boats carrying food and/or goods. There was a lot of souvenier type items, big tourist attraction! Our guide took us to her favorite painter.

I bought a beautiful painting of the floating market, very nice. We finally arrived at the main location. There were markets on either side of the canal plus vendor boats and GRIDLOCK! We didn't move for at least 20 minutes. I noticed a couple in the boat next to us taking pictures of each other. I offered to take a pic then handed them my camera so they could take a picture of us. We weren't going anywhere anytime soon, that was for sure! Once out of the gridlock and past the bridge, we got off the boat to walk thru the market. Someone had a baby elephant there for pictures. Poor thing, it was standing in the hot sun, on hot pavement, very sad. We saw 2 guys with huge snakes for picture taking. I immediately hauled out some $$ and took the largest snake to wrap around my neck. It must have weighed 25 pounds, it was big. I was a tourist after all! We looked around the market for a bit then headed back to the van and back to Bangkok.

Back in the city we went to the weekend market. We'd heard a lot about it, that you could find anything there and that it is very inexpensive. We weren't really looking for anything so just wandered around. We didn't see any knock offs that we've enjoyed looking at in other countries. We bought some grilled meat on sticks that were pretty good. I had coconut ice cream served in a fresh coconut shell, it was very good. We then walked thru an upscale market that had A/C and bright lights. The fruit was individually wrapped and looked top quality. I saw some durian. I'd seen it in China also, but had never tried it. They say it tastes like heaven, smells like hell. I didn't get a chance to smell it, but did buy a small one to try. It was pretty good, not wonderful. Glad that I had the opportunity to try it.

We arrived at our hotel earlier than usual so headed right back out to the department store we'd discovered the first night there. We had seen a jewelry area, but hadn't thought to look for a tiger, that was our mission. They only had silly looking tigers, or tiny ones, not what I wanted. While the clerks were talking to Mel (more sign language than talking, no English) I looked thru the case. There was a gorgeous tiger on a tie...a tie tack! I'm sure my jeweler can make it into a pendant or I'll just wear it as a pin. VERY nice, and 24k Chinese gold.

Back at the hotel we took much needed showers then went to dinner in the concierge lounge. I'm not very fond of Thai food, so ate a lot of desserts while there. At least they were delicious!