We convinced our guide that leaving at 7:30, a half hour later than our scheduled departure would be ok, so we were able to sleep in!!! I think we need to think of another name for what we are doing because it's not a vacation in the traditional sense of the word.
The hour+ ride through the countryside was made especially interesting by passing through the salt fields once we were near the ocean. They flood fields that look similar to large rice fields with ocean water, then when the water evaporates, they remove the salt layer by layer with the top layer being the cleanest.
This area about 100 km southwest of Bangkok is a plantation area where bananas and coconuts are grown. We went to a local place where they process sap collected from palm tree flowers into palm sugar...really delish and sweet with a coconut underflavor. I was afraid to bring it back partly because it might not make it through customs and partly because I would eat it all.
Another market...the train market, so called because a few times a day the train runs right through the market to deliver products; at those times, the stalls that are on the tracks have to be moved out of the way. This market has everything, but with a concentration of fish and seafood, and is huge, but still much smaller than the one in Bangkok. And there are motorcyclists riding up and down the aisles, besides delivery carts, to add to the confusion and chaos of the atmosphere.
We took another boat ride through the canals to see the country version of water homes. They are much the same but with more space between some of them and more foliage from the plantations behind them. We also saw more human activity, children swimming and jumping into the canal, women standing on the front steps waist deep in water doing the laundry, men and boys repairing broken boards on the houses, as well as a few water monitors, the local alligators, which they say are not dangerous to humans.
The floating market of Damnoen Saduak was crazy...I think I would have appreciated it more had we merely observed from the land side rather than from a boat in the water, but I must say it was a unique experience to be a part of that many boats maneuvering in the small space of a few canals. I don't know if it's called "grid lock" when it involves boats, but it was crazy!!! Another, "ya had to be there" way of explaining the madness.
What was really the most incredible though was that no one got frustrated or angry. If a person on one boat wanted to buy something from a vendor in another boat selling Phad Thai, all the traffic around had to basically stop while the vendor finished with her other customers, then made the boat person's Phad Thai, which could take 5-10 minutes...and EVERYONE was doing the same thing so it was a case of pretty much nothing moving, but a lot of jostling. I think Andy and I were the only impatient ones in the whole market.
On the way back we visited yet another floating market, this time, for locals.
We also stopped at the Jim Thompson house which was lovely and had a nice story to go with it, but we bypassed the official tour and just wandered the lovely grounds of the early 1900's local style mansion which is now a museum with well preserved artifacts.
By the time we got back to Bangkok it was almost 3:00 but Sara wasn't done with "marketing" us yet! Now it was time to see the Chinatown markets and temples (thank goodness you don't have to take shoes off for Hindu temples because I don't think we could have). Here the aromas were distinctly Chinese as opposed to the Thai herb smells we had become used to. AND I tried the disgusting smelling fruit, durian, from a street cart!!! I was so proud of myself...the flavor was sweet and delicious but I wasn't crazy about the texture and stringy parts.
Today we had even less time to shower and change for the hour+ cab ride to our restaurant, Nahm. It was amazing and I once again had tears streaming down my cheeks and blisters on the inside of my lips but I loved every bite...I had larb...thanks to Heidi and Javier in MV I knew what it was and that it would be spicy. I was sad to be eating my last meal in Thailand, but it was a special one with the most delicious dessert.
It was only a 1/2 hour ride back to the hotel where we fell into bed for our 5:00 AM wake up to fly to Bali. Sad to be leaving Thailand.
