The Floating Tourist Trap

---

We also got up early to go on to the Floating Market half-day tour, which we had booked. Most of the time was spent in the Bangkok traffic. The market itself was also not at all as I remembered it (see An Incident in Bangkok). Seventeen years ago it was a fruit and vegetable market; now it had been totally taken over by the tourists. There was not a banana in sight.

When I went to the Floating Market last time, all our pictures were lost thanks to Andy. On the way there this time, I managed to split water on the camera and it stopped working. There must be some kind of jinx that is stopping me from getting any pictures of it. That said, we did get one of those single use film cameras and we took some pictures on our phones, so at least I had something.

We stopped at a craft shop on the way back, although at USD24,000 for a table, it was a bit out of our budget.

Another addition to the Bangkok of old (well seventeen years ago) was the sky train. This was an excellent way of avoiding the traffic, however it did only cover the more modern part of the city. This included the Patpong area, which had to be visited for the Night Market. The other side of Patpong was on full display, but luckily didn’t prompt any awkward questions from the children.

Our son had been dying to get some football shirts whilst we were in Bangkok and he came away with the France, Brazil and new Arsenal kits. I got the obligatory fake watch - a very bling Breitling (which we bartered down from 3000B to 1400B). Our daughter got a load of jewellery.

---