We made a "rat stop" on our way to Phitsanuloke today. Country rat - not it's more sinister urban cousin - is prized as a tasty meal in Thailand. It was a good photo op. We also stopped at a ceramic factory where we watched artisans hand painting vases, cups and other porcelain dishes. Their work was gorgeous, so I ended up buying a few things. Maybe it's all a cross-marketing scheme. They get you grossed out by the rat, so you'll be excited to buy when you see the lovely porcelain tableware. Near lunch time, we stopped at the Uthai Thani market. Ole gave each of us a slip of paper with a Thai grocery item listed on it. We then had to take our paper and find the item in the market. I thought ... read more

Today we traveled from Bangkok to the Kanchanaburi province, where the Bridge over the River Kwai is located. We stopped by the village of Samutsongkram, where the Siamese Twins were born in 1811. This is the kind of information you get from a guided tour that you would never discover on your own. Our tour guide, Ole, is a wonderful host - full of historical information and great anecdotes about Thai culture. We got into longboats and toured the "back alleys" to the River Market area. There were a lot of interesting sights along the way - kids swimming in the river, houses hanging onto the banks by a thread, a HUGE spider, spirit houses, and colorful birds. After visiting the River Market, essentially an over-priced tourist mall, we took the bus to a wood carving ... read more

Today we had our trip briefing, where Ole (pronounced "Olay") gave us an overview of our itinerary and we introduced ourselves to each other. In our group, we have 3 couples and the rest singles, mostly adventursome women like me :). I'm the youngster in the group, which is just fine by me. We visited a beautiful flower market where flower dealers made gorgeous arrangements for sale to local shops. For price comparison - a huge bouquet of exotic flowers in Bangkok will cost about $25, compared to $100 or more in the U.S. We took a longboat ride on the Chaophraya river, and saw many river homes, temples and other buildings along the way. The boat was a loud, diesel-motored contraption. We stopped for a cooking demonstration at the home of Mrs. Toom. She was ... read more