Bangkok - June 24

Floating Market

06.24.2019 - 06.24.2019 93 °F
View Much to Celebrate 2019 on Rowlandfamily's travel map.

This morning we got up early and ate a quick breakfast in the hotel before meeting our tour guide to go to the floating market. We rode in a van for a couple hours (it was supposed to be shorter but we took a longer route to avoid a traffic jam). On the way, it rained so hard that the roads flooded in places - when we drove through, water sprayed up to the windows, and people walking were in water a few inches above their ankles! It didn’t stop the motorbikes, though - they were still everywhere! Here, as in Croatia (but more so here), motorbikes zip all over and often go between cars/lanes - it’s kind of scary to watch!

When we arrived, we got on a long-tail boat that took us to the floating market called Damnoen Saduak. There, we opted to pay extra to get in another boat and be paddled around the channels, where you can shop for goods or food right from the boat - if you’re interested in something, or even look remotely interested, the vendors hook your boat and pull it over to them.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

After that, we walked around the ‘land’ part of the market, and ate lunch there. For Thailand, the food was expensive - $30 for the 5 of us, not including drinks.

We then got back in the van and stopped at an elephant and tiger “farm?” where you could pay to ride the elephants, and pet or feed the tigers. It looked a little inhumane, so we didn’t really participate, but I couldn’t resist taking pics of the elephants being fed. We weren’t allowed to take pics of the baby elephant or either the adult or baby tiger (both chained so they had about 2 feet of movement) without paying, so I declined.

We got back to the hotel in the afternoon and used the hotel pool for awhile before getting ready and heading out again. This time, we took 2 sky trains then an antique river boat on the Chao Phraya River, to get to a place called Asianique. It’s kind of a cross between a carnival, an outlet mall, and a food fair! We had dinner at one of the many “real” restaurants (as opposed to the vendors), walked around the shopping area, and took a ride on the Ferris wheel gondola. While we were riding it, there were fireworks going off - pretty cool. Then Terri and Nick had their feet chewed on by fish ($5 each for 15 minutes) - it really tickled! No one else wanted to do it.

It was starting to sprinkle and lightening just as we were getting back to the hotel after reversing our path, and I hear thunder now. We really got lucky with the weather today - when we were out, it was nice. It was around 94 degrees, Natalie’s weather app this afternoon said it was a “feels like” 111!

Posted by Rowlandfamily 08:13 Archived in Thailand