Floating markets

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Day 3: Day tour of Floating Market and Rose Garden

Our next day was a big one. We booked a full day tour that kicked off at 6am with a one-and-a-half hour drive to the Damnern Saduak Floating Market, located 110km from Bangkok. It was neat to get out of the city to see rice paddies, salt fields and farms. On the way we also stopped at a coconut farm where we saw (and more importantly for me, tasted) sugar being made.

Once we arrived at the jetty our tour group boarded a motorised long boat which took us down a myriad of canals, which housed the local community on the outskirts of the market. It was quite amazing to see the stilt houses perched along the river, with people's washing out and their dogs sitting by as if they wouldn't live any other way. At the market we boarded a smaller boat that manoeuvered us through the Thai style canoes which took up the whole width of the river and were laden with colourful and exotic fruits, vegetables and meats. If we got too close to the edge canal-side sellers would literally hook your boat towards them, to try to action a sale! It was a great opportunity to get a glance of how daily life must have been in earlier times.

About midday we departed for the second stage of our tour. On the way to the Rose Garden we stopped off at a wood turning factory, and unfortunately my camera ran out of juice so I don't have any pics of the rest of the day, but this was an amazing factory that turned out intricately carved artwork of scenes like a field of elephants or an entire Thai village, complete with people. A lot of it was commissioned from the other side of the world.

After about another hour of driving, during which our tour guide fell asleep, we arrived at the Rose Garden for a big buffet lunch overlooking a lake. This was a welcome relief to the American tourists on our trip, as for about four hours our guide talked contantly and very repetitively about our surrounds. Joel and I thought he was hilarious and still take the piss out of him! In the afternoon, we were free to look around the Rose Garden, which doesn't actually have any roses - it's a big private park with lakes and animals. For NZD$4 we fed and then had our first elephant ride, before being treated to a one hour cultural show that featured everything from an elephant show to traditional music and dance to a Thai wedding and boxing.

In the evening we walked to our favourite restaurant just down the road then taxied to the infamous Khao San Road, which is a well-frequented hangout for tourists and backpackers, with its bars and night market. We got farely happy in an Irish bar that had a great Thai rock band, and the lead singer was quite amusing with his G and R covers!

Day 4: Open Air Markets

Not wanting to waste any of our time in Bangkok, on our final day we headed to the world's biggest open air markets before our 6pm departure. These were truly impressive and we only managed to cover a tiny bit of one section of hundreds in two hours! Sparing our stomachs we decided to pass by the food and pet sections and headed straight to clothing. It was so tempting to buy things, but with little room in our packs we could only buy a t-shirt or so each. Next time I'm coming with an empty case! It was so unbelievably hot in such a tightly crammed environment.

It was great that we had booked a late checkout from the hotel, which allowed us to have a much needed swim, poolside curry, and shower before Willy took us to the airport for the second part of our South-East Asian exploration. Plus there was no way we could have done anything with packs in 40 degree heat all day. Apparently in the two weeks before we arrived in Bangkok there was a typhoon, and they were predicting torrential rain and storms when we where there...so much for that!

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