Arroyo's Fishing Village

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Hi Everyone,

What an awesome and amazing day we had today. I think it was one of the best days I have ever had. We woke up this morning feeling pretty good. Tong picked us up at 10:30am to go to a Thai fishing village. I wasn't sure what to expect and honestly, wasn't that excited about going. Boy, was I so glad we did it.

We drove about 30 minutes outside of Bangkok. We are finding that there isn't much to do in Bangkok accept shop, which isn't bad for me, but Eddie and the girls are getting kind of bored with it. Anyhoo, we drove to this quiet little fishing village. The banks were lined with these very modest little fisherman houses. We get loaded into the long tail boat and away we go. We start by cruising in and out of the waterways, very exciting and loud and amazing. Our first adventure was running into I think it is called a monitor lizard. At first Tong was like, look look on the banks and I am like what I don't see it, I don't see it, what am I looking for. Then she said the lizard, so of course I look towards the ground. I looked just about everywhere accept the lizard because the big old thing looked like a log. Then I saw it and oh my God, it was awesome. The thing was huge, probably 6 feet long, totally knew we were there and was totally posing.

Next we went in and out of some more small waterways and then Tong told us that we were about to hit the ocean and then BOOM the waterways opened up and it was the most amazing view I have ever seen. I felt like I was looking at a painting it was so gorgeous. It was misty and serene water with these little fishing huts scattered about the water. Breathtaking... From there, we turned right away into another water canal and we were on our way to feed wild monkeys!!!

So, we are cruising down this waterway and all of a sudden the banks start moving and as you look closer, they are hundreds of monkeys. They all look ticked off, but they are revving up to fight for food. The fisherman boat driver takes us about 3 feet from the bank and all monkey hell breaks loose. We are throwing bananas, watermelon and mandarins to them and they are fighting and biting and clawing to get more. Their teeth were ferocious too; they could rip your hand off. Soon, the fisherman thinks we are getting too close to the bank and well the monkeys so he moves us a bit further out, but under a tree. All of a sudden they start climbing the tree and are literally above Sophia’s head and the only thing keeping them from jumping on her is a fabric top to the boat. I started freaking out screaming, Sophia started screaming, all the while, the fisherman was yelling at the monkey’s trying to get them away. Finally, he moves the boat away and then they hit the water. It was like a mass exodus of monkeys from one side of the bank to the other. One monkey came really close to the boat so Sophia threw him a banana. He then proceeded to jump on the side of the boat, right next to her, we proceeded to scream again, we probably scared him, so he jump to the front of the boat. At that point the fisherman started the boat and he jumped back in the water.

Even though they scared us a few times, it was so exciting!! There were pregnant monkeys and mama monkeys with babies hanging on their bellies and the backs. The poor little babies got dunked when they jumped in the water after the bananas. Don’t know how they didn’t drown. Of course, I tried to feed them most of all. There was one monkey that climbed this bamboo pole that was randomly in the water that Eddie liked. He tried was must have been 30 times to throw a banana to him so that he would catch it in mid-air. Never happened but Eddie had a great time trying.

From the monkey’s we left and went back out to the ocean. We are cruising along and then I hear Tong in the back say, keep your hands in and stay in the center of the boat. I thought to myself, that is weird, but ok, so I pass the message along to Sophia. The next thing I notice is we are heading for land and we aren’t slowing down. BAM, all of a sudden we are cruising in the boat, full speed in the mud. We are crashing through trees and big sprays of mud are following behind us. It was so exhilarating!!!

Once we get through the mud, we are in the open sea again and the fisherman takes us to his farm. He slows the boat down and takes out this net, dips it into the sea and pulls out these tiny little crabs. He gives one to me to play with and then I give it to Sophia. So fun!!!

From there we head to the oyster farm. It was pretty cool too. We learned how they harvest them and then they pulled the biggest oyster I have ever seen out of its shell and gave it to Eddie. It took him three big bites to eat it all.

From there we head to the fisherman’s house, which is a hut in the middle of the water. It really was beautiful. The fisherman’s wife put together a full spread of fish and chicken dishes for us. It was really yummy!!! From there, they said it was naptime. Imagine Eddie and I looking at them like the RCA dog (our heads cocked to one side) saying naps? While we were eating they put beds out for all of us to rest on. Eddie took a nap, while I sat on the bamboo floor and played with the girls. Oh, when I say bamboo floor, I mean bamboo floor. The floor is literally; rows of bamboo laid side-by-side about 15 feet above the water.

After a rest time, we hopped back in the boat and went to shore again and drove back to Bangkok. As we were riding home I was trying to think of better days I have had. I couldn’t think of more then a couple.

Once we got back to the hotel, the girls and I headed out while Eddie rested to the Night Bizarre. Bought lots of cheap stuff and loved every minute of it. It’s about 9:30pm now and we need to turn it. We have to leave at 6:30am tomorrow to head to the floating markets and Tiger Temple.

Have a great day everyone!!! Love you!!!

Angela

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