Bangkok, Thailand Day 4

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This is how we go to work. Yikes!  Tons of overloaded vehicles--standing room only.

All kinds of fruit farms.  Mangos, bananas, pineapple, coconut--amazing!

 Houses on stilts with electrical wires running everywhere from them.

 Sun shining on the salt farms.  I did not know they had salt farms but there were stands all along the highway where you could purchase a bag of freshly harvested salt!

motorcylces going whichever way

We rose before the sun for our trip to the Floating Market.  Rick arranged for a driver (Do is a taxi driver that attends the Caynor’s church) and Tik had a day off from school (she teaches at a local international school) so they both joined us for the day.  We drove an hour and a half out of town to the Floating Market.  The Floating Market phenomenon is a bazaar on the water with people cruising along in longboats – most driven by an oarsman, but some were powered by outboard motors well past their prime.  The water canals were lined with merchants selling trinkets, figurines, artwork, spices and most anything you can imagine.  Longboats were floating kitchens with woks filled with culinary magic.  We ate fresh mangos with sticky rice as we cruised along negotiating the boat traffic.  The traffic was as bad as the city; right of way goes to the most aggressive and the deftest navigator.  Our boat driver shouted, “Keep your fingers in the boat!” the entire voyage.  Tik haggled with the merchants in Thai for the items we wanted.  The purchase was as much fun as the prize itself.

After the Floating Market, we went back into the city to the Rose Garden Cultural Center.  The main attraction was the elephant show where they performed an assortment of feats ranging from dancing, playing soccer and reenacting ancient battles.  The highlight for JP and Emma was petting and feeding the elephants after the show, especially the baby elephants.  Alexis complained of elephant snot on her after an elephant wrapped its trunk around her leg.  Elephants have always been Emma’s favorite so she couldn’t get enough of the elephants.  She left asking when we are going to see more elephants.

Alligator show!  They stuck their head in but I could not watch!

Girls spinning the boys!

It took and hour and a half to get across the city to our flat – we were told traffic was light so we made it in an hour less the expected!