Back to Bangkok

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We have a COVID test first thing tomorrow morning in Bangkok. We found one that's only ridiculously expensive, so we booked a hotel within walking distance of it, and we'll stay there for our last two nights in Thailand.

But we have the whole day to go before that! And no hurry. So we started our morning with a nice breakfast at the hotel and then went for a walk on the beach. The Cha-Am beach isn't nearly as picturesque as Thai beaches appear in the brochures, it's a narrow strip of sand lined with tamarisk, not the wide white sand lined with coconut trees, but it's ok.

After a short walk we checked out the hotel pool and had a nice relaxing swim. A quick shower later and with our bags all packed we checked out and headed north. Our plan was to stop along the way at the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. But before we got there we started passing coconut plantations. Lots and lots of them! And small warehouses and sheds with piles of coconuts next to them, piles of husks along the roadside, and every now and then families working with them. We managed to stop by the roadside to take some pictures, and found ourselves close to a family working on their coconuts. They let us take pictures and ask questions (in general we found the Thai people very friendly and open). Each person in the family had a job - one held a coconut between his feet and tore off the husks. Others used hand axes to break off the hard shells, another couple used peelers to peel off the thin brown peel.

We noticed a basket of smaller, white fig-shaped objects and asked about them. Turns out these were the coconut's sprouts - where the new tree grew from. Cool, I'd never seen that before!

And before you ask, we also wondered about the coconut water. That had already been emptied - each coconut had a hole drilled in it.

Each member of the family had a pile of coconuts ready for them, and another of nuts they'd finished their step with. Next to the shed was a pickup truck piled high with coconuts ready for processing. No rest for the wicked!

They also had several whole nuts that had sprouted leaves. I guess these were being saved for the next planting season.

We thanked the family and let them get on with their work. We stopped again to take some pictures in the plantation. Their watering system is interesting. The entire region is crisscrossed with a huge network of canals that connect the Mae Klong and Chao Phraya rivers (about 65 km from each other), and beyond over a vast flat plain. Water from these canals is channeled into the rows between the coconut trees, so there are alternate rows of trees and water channels. Further on we saw the same system being used for grapes and citrus as well.

On the way we got stuck behind two overloaded pickup trucks carrying green coconuts. One of the trucks had a couple of people riding on top of the coconut piles. Safety isn't much of a concern here!

Eventually we arrived at the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, only to find it closed due to COVID. There was a guy there who spoke excellent English. Turns out he spent a few years in the US in the past. He helped negotiate with a local woman to take us on a boat ride of the market even though it was closed. We decided hell, why not! While most of the market was closed, a few shops were open. The strange thing was that these few were souvenir shops. Yet there were no tourists! So who's gonna buy their stuff?

We did get a nice Thai silk tablecloth from one shop, and some coconut ice cream from, um, I guess you could call it a stall? The ice cream lady was on another boat. She docked to ours and prepared the ice cream - she took half a small coconut, husk and all, and scraped the meat off the shell inside, and left the scrapings there. Then she added ice cream, some pink sweet rice on top, and a type of tapioca gel stuff, some peanuts on top and voila! It was pretty good, too.

Our tour guide returned us to the dock and we said our goodbyes. Next stop - our hotel in Bangkok. We stopped at a local market as we neared the city to get something to eat. We got some Tom Yam soup and some fried eggrolls, both delicious, and then the by now standard iced green tea, except this time it came in a bag! That's a new one!

Here's a bit of advice about driving in Bangkok - don't! It's a nightmare! And here I thought Tel Aviv was crammed and congested. Tel Aviv in rush hour is like a kibbutz compared to Bangkok traffic in the middle of the night! The streets are confusing as hell, with several levels, like a three-dimensional braid, the traffic lights are extremely badly timed, trucks, taxis, cars, tuktuks, pickups cram together, missing each other by bare millimeters. And then comes the worst - the motorcyclists. Mostly mopeds but in their millions! Cutting you off, disregarding your existence, driving at right-angles to the traffic, or even against the flow, going through red traffic lights when you have a green, and trying to keep you from making that turn you need to take! I will say one thing in favor of Thai drivers, they are patient and they don't beep!

And Google Maps wasn't up to the job. Not entirely their fault - when it says "In 200 meters, continue straight" and up ahead there's a fork with one way going just slightly right and the other just slightly left, and no markings on the road, I just guessed. Somehow I guessed right (both direction and correctly). Pure luck.

We eventually made it to the hotel. I put the car in the hotel's parking and don't intend to go near it until we leave for the airport! After that drive, I'm exhausted!

But, as I said before, no rest for the wicked. After a shower we went out shopping. This is a business area of the city, it's a business hotel with small rooms and large conference halls, and the area serves the upper echelons of Bangkok. There are a few shopping malls within short walking distance, all decorated for the Christmas shopping season (turns out the Bangkokians are more Shoppist than Buddhist), and all full of names like Ralf Lauren, Versace and Cartier, with prices to match. We didn't buy much! We made it back to the hotel for a good, much needed night's sleep.

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