Thursday 22 September 2011

Floating Markets and Nellie the Elephant!!!

My addition to Dan's post - Today was a GREAT day!  The floating markets in Damnernsaduak were totally awesome - what an experience.  We took a small(ish) boat with a driver and were sped down narrow waterways teeming with wildlife and vegetation and passed wee shanty houses and shacks along the way to the markets.  If only this blog had scratch and sniff - it was amazing - and not always in a good way.  We fought, literally, our way through narrow boat ways along the most amazing market stalls selling every kind of Thai tat going (yes we did make a couple of purchases!)  There were other tiny little boats on the river selling everything from fruit to noodles to beer (we didn't purchase any of these wares - Bangkok belly is already bad enough with the hotel food and drink let alone what they are selling alone the river!).  It was like Piccadilly Circus on water!  A one-way system wouldn't have gone amiss - it was bloody chaos - and bloody brilliant at the same time.  We spent about an hour going through the markets, stopping off at the Coconut Sugar factory on the way and sampling the coconut drinks - very sweet and not all that pleasant - but they were given as a gift so this really was an occasion when it would have been rude to say No!  When we were coming out of the main drag of the markets, our boat driver saw, what we can only gather was a mate, and decided to have a race with him up the river - thankfully, we won - of course!

If that wasn't enough of an experience, we hopped back into our air-conditioned Merc (what a life!) and went on round to the elephant sanctuary where we spent about 45 minutes on a beautiful 1 1/2 year elephant call Veet something (we nicknamed her Banyan) and were walked through forest and jungle and through a very deep ravine whilst on her back.  What an amazing experience.

The Grand Palace was awesome as Dan described except he missed the bloody Emerald Budda when we were in the Royal Monastry - shoulders and legs covered, shoes off and no photos ensures that he will never see it again!

The heat in central Bangkok was unbearable so we were extremely grateful for the AC in our car - Vinai, our driver, took us back to our hotel whereby we sat by the pool, after a fantastic Thai massage, necked a bottle of wine and a couple of coffees and swam in the rain (well Dan did!)  Sorry, I've been asked to mention that it was highly dangerous to him as there was a massive thunder and lightning storm at the time!  Off now to Patpong, to see the real Bangkok!  Can't wait. M&D x

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