Thailand, Friday: the Floating Market

 We went to the Floating Market. It is on a small river and there are vendor stalls along the bank and then vendors in boats, all hawking their wares. You float down in a boat and if you see something you are interested in, your boat person skillfully maneuvers the boat over to that spot so you can check it out. It was kind of crazy.  There were tons of boats in the market area and sometimes you got all jammed in there.  They are packed in so closely you could literally walk across the river by stepping on the boats.

Vendors on the banks of the river. 

Vendors in boats selling freshly cooked food!!

Here is a better view of the cooking. Impressive on a long wooden boat!

 Me in my boat. Cruising through the craziness.

This guy is selling coconut ice cream.

I was trying to show the crowded river, but this does it no justice.

We paddled through the  market for a bit and then it got less congested. 

 This lady was on the bank with this adorable lemur, and I needed to get a photo for Rylee (who loves Lemurs!)

 That's me in my boat!  We circled around the river and went to quieter waters.

I was impressed with how pretty the houses and everything were. 

 We floated by the places they lived- these houses on stilts, and much more impressive than I'd have expected.

 It was nice and tranquil to meander by the houses and interesting to see.

This guy was out washing his laundry.  Apparently I missed seeing the lady washing her dishes in the river!

 We eventually paddled back into the chaotic fray before docking and leaving our boat. It was a fun experience, although the chief complaint from the other ladies was that if your boat paddler didn't cooperate, you couldn't get away from aggressive sellers!

Thailand, Friday: The Train Market

Friday we had a tour scheduled with an awesome gal named Pookie. She picked us up at the hotel in a 12 passenger van and took us off to do fun things.  

I documented breakfast. They had the most delicious pastries.  The fruit was adequate, and the steamed bun was tasty.

But.... back to our tour!  The first stop was the Train Market.

There is a maze of stalls and vendors inside this warehouse and all kinds of fresh food is sold in here.

Fresh fish, veggies, spices, whatever you may want for dinner is available here! Frogs, chickens... seriously... anything.

 The lack of sanitation was kind of a dealbreaker for us.  But it was fascinating.

 Apparently, years ago, the warehouse closed for renovations or repairs or some such thing.  So the vendors moved outside to the train tracks.  When the building opened again, people did not move off the tracks. Their stalls back up against the building and the train tracks are the walkway between the two sides.  So you meander down the actual train tracks and try not to trip and fall while you purées the offerings.

 If you look closely, you can see the railroad tracks in the photo.  And the canopies on either side touch over the center.  So they are serious about their selling here.

And 8 times a day, a train goes through.  There is a 5 minute warning whistle and the vendors wait about 3 minutes before calmly pulling their tables back and dropping the canopies.

Here is our group, along the tracks! The whistle has blown and we are squeezing back into the stall. The canopies above us have been pulled down but the ones behind us have not yet. 

Here comes the train! 

Yeah, it moved slowly enough for folks to get out of the way.  But you can see there is only about a foot of clearance on either side.  It was crazy!!

And it was a fun visit.  Pookie, the tour guide bought us a bunch of different fruits and snacks and we sampled them in the van on our way to the next stop.  It was awesome!

Thailand: The rest of Thursday

 We went to see a giant reclining Buddha.  I mostly don't know where we went, I just followed the ladies, and they took me where I needed to be.

The giant Buddha was enclosed in a wooden house.  He barely fit.

And it made it very difficult to take photos! 

 We took the water taxi and walked a lot.  I just followed along.  And I saw a kitty!  The cats were very lean and long there.

We saw fun vendor fare along the way.

And we saw this.  It is Wat Arun.

And it was glorious and amazing and I'm a little bitter that the photos look so much less glorious than it was in real life.

The spires were much cooler too.

I'm in the back on the right.  But this is 8 of our group of 10. 

 Anna, me and Brook. So much fun with these ladies!

8 of us, plus a random stranger on the far right.  She snuck in just for fun!

We then went out to dinner and I ate delicious green curry with chicken.  And as we were waiting for the rest of the group that ate elsewhere, I saw the cutest kitties!

And I peered them and took a photo. I'm totally distracted here because everyone else is screaming at me not to touch the animals or I'll die of some awful disease.

We went back to the water taxi and got this lovely photo of Wat Arun at night before we headed back to the hotel.

My fitbit says I had a great day!

I went to Thailand!

I always take selfies with the kids before I go on a trip, so just in case something happens, I have one last picture with them.  Morbid? Perhaps. This time I almost didn't take a photo.  I had to leave at 6pm (for a 9:30pm flight) Wednesday night, and the kids demanded a photo as I walked out the door.  This little gem is the result.  I did get on my late flight and with the two hour time change, landed in Bangkok at 1am-ish.  I was traveling with 8 other women from church and it was pretty awesome. 

 Thursday morning we split into two groups of 5 and my group took tuktuks to get to the Grand Palace.  Except our tuktuk drivers were less than honest.  

We did have a spectacularly fun ride, but they took us to their friend's boat tour place, not where we had asked to go.  So we had to walk away and then walk another few blocks to get to the pier for a water taxi.  It was annoying being scammed (or only half scammed, since we refused to go along?), but it was a fun ride and we didn't entirely regret it. 

 We took the water taxi up the river and it also was a lot of fun!

 We did make it to the Grand Palace.  And it was quite grand!

Selfie with my new friend.

 Photo of the chicken man for Callie.

 We roamed around and admired everything.  But it was so incredibly crowded and so incredibly hot. I think it was 95 degrees and I was sweating non-stop.  Being that hot and sweaty and fighting crowds are two of my least favorite things.  So that took a little away from the experience for me.

But the buildings were amazing. 

And the pictures really do not do them justice.  They were so beautiful! 

And so full of fun stuff like this. 

And so many bright colors and shiny things.   

It really was so much more amazing in real life. 

And you can see that I may be  roasting in the sun, but I am having a good time!

See, shiny and sparkly and colorful and pretty! 

I may be shiny from sweat, but I'm loving it!

Selfie with the golden statue. 

This was the official palace place.  We were disappointed that you couldn't actually go inside.  Merely admire it from outside.

And it was guarded by this guy!