A Peaceful Escape From Bangkok

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In the evening the bus dropped us off on the side of the highway in Damnoen Saduak. There was a tuk tuk driver, Mr. Aree, waiting for us. Mr. Aree was a classic and he soon had renamed Capri and Vic Momma and Poppa respectively. He took us to a lovely hotel that had rooms on stilts over the river canals and kittens on the premises. We struck a deal with Mr. Aree that he would take us on a boat tour the next morning to see the floating market.

So bright and early the next day, Mr. Aree was waiting at our hotel and took us in his tuk tuk to his home on the canals where his boat was. We did a round trip from Mr. Aree’s home and stopped only at one commission place, a coconut sugar making place. After Vic bought some coconut sugar we loaded back into the boat to the main canal with the floating market. Along the way we passed a lady parked in a boat outside of her home cooking up some fabulous smelling noodle soup. Our tummies grumbling, we stopped, boat beside boat, as she prepared four bowls of steaming hot noodle and pork ball soup. We slurped up our soup sitting in the boat with the morning sun reflecting off the river water. It was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had! From there we slowly rowed through the floating market, a maze of venders in wooden boats displaying their goods of fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers, snacks and sweets and, of course, souvenirs. We passed a vender selling wooden string Pinocchio puppets and Capri casually pointed to them. As soon as Capri’s finger was out the vender had a long wood stick with a hook latched on the side of our boat pulling us sideways towards her stall. Five minutes later the vender had dropped her original asking price to less than half but we were able to make an escape with no puppet purchase. Capri is learning not to point and ask questions, primarily regarding the price, unless she is actually interested in buying it. Day by day she gets better.

After the market we took the long way home to stop by the local temple that Mr. Aree visits every day. He explained to us the Buddhist rituals, most of them being for good luck. I lit incense sticks and a yellow candle and added them to the collection laid by previous visitors in front of the Buddha. In between two small pieces of paper the size of a gum wrapper was thin gold leafs and we pressed them onto the Buddha statue for good luck. And lastly we walked the perimeter of the temple ringing each and every one of the bells. I’d say after all that I collected enough good luck to last at least a week! Just off of the temple are steps down to a small dock on the canal and we got bags of fish food to feed the temple fish. Hundreds of fish showed up out of no where and were flipping over each other and splashing about to get at each morsel of food. It looked like they created a carpet of shiny silver fish - I bet you could have walked on water! But I didn’t try - I was scared they’d eat my toes since they ate the fish food with such ferocity…maybe next time.

From the temple we cruised at high speed down the canal. I was a bit nervous at first (just cause boats flip once and a while) but no one else seemed nerved. We arrived back at Mr. Arees and he gave us a tour of his home. Well, it wasn’t really a tour to see two open rooms (living/sleeping room and kitchen/eating room). It was built out of teak wood on stilts and he added a balcony/dock that lead down to the water. The teak floors were super smooth and in really good condition even after years and years of wear. His home had been in his family for four generations, he told us it was over 150 years old. He lived there with his son and sister, his wife passed away 10 years ago. We had a lovely time with Mr. Aree and he dropped us back at the hotel in his tuk tuk and then helped us catch the bus from the side of the highway to our next destination: Kanchanaburi.

We arrived in Kanchanaburi around dinner time and found an excellent street vender selling pad thai. After dinner we all treated ourselves to a Thai foot massage to relax before heading to bed.

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