Bangkok Day II
Day II in Bangkok, my sister and I were up and ready to go early. We hired a car to take us to the Dumnoen Saduak floating markets outside of Bangkok. We knew ahead of time that these markets cater to tourists but we also heard that it was a must see. I definitely wanted to check it out since I remember my mother telling me about bartering on the river by boat for goods when she lived there some 34 years ago. I wanted to see it firsthand even if tourism had made its changes to its authenticity. When we arrived we hired a boat to take us to the center of all the action. The market consists of numerous channels that dump into each other. On the way to the center you can see wooden walkways on each side of the river and people’s huts that they live in. The terrain in this area is lush and green. When you enter the center you have shop fronts on each side of the river selling souvenirs while the people in the boats are selling mostly food and drink items. Soon we were surrounded by boats offering numerous things for sale. I started with a fresh coconut to drink. I eventually bought spring rolls, peeled grapefruit, candied bananas, and I even landed myself a beer. Each boat that passed you by offered something different to try. I enjoyed trying everything that looked interesting which was made possible by the small portions. After finishing the markets my sister and I headed back to Bangkok and walked around the city until we were easily persuaded to experience Thai massage. Believe me that it didn’t take much persuasion to get us to agree to have a go at it. I love massages and you can’t beat it with an hour and a half massage costing somewhere between 12-15 dollars. From that point on we were hooked and pretty much had a Thai massage every chance we could. We finished our day by having an early evening to get ready to catch our flight to the north the next morning. Experiencing the floating market earlier that day was a lot of fun and if given the chance I would definitely do it again.
On the way to the market center
Dumnoen Saduak floating market
Spring Rolls
My sister and I
Trying the local grapefruit
Thai woman selling coconuts and onions
Mangosteen…I wish I could find these in the states
How excited am I to have fried rice again?
You can find more photos from this trip at www.ariagiovanni.com
Tags: 2008, Bangkok, floating markets, Thailand
November 13th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
OMG ! Stop eating like this !
Anyway, here is the good way to travel : enjoying local food (if you have a strong stomach), people, means of transport, habits and atmosphere !
November 19th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
You can sometimes find fresh mangosteens at the Hawaii Supermarket at the corner of Del Mar and Valley Blvds. in San Gabriel. (It’s one of the greatest Asian supermarkets anywhere - where else can you find whole, frozen armadillos. Not that I’d have much of an idea about what to do with one.) Also at some of the Vietnamese markets in Orange County. Unfortunately you can’t find the fresh ones year round, but the frozen ones (which I’ve got to admit I don’t bother with) are almost always available.