First stop was at Samut Songkhram to have a look at the Railway Market. SS province is 75k south west of Bangkok, right near the ocean, and sitting at the Mouth of the Mae Klong River. There are a lot of things to see here, but we're going to see perhaps the most unique of them. The railway market is a very busy market that sits right on top of an operational railway track. 8 times a day the train rumbles through here so the vendors madly pack up their stalls and move their wares out of reach of the train - some stalls actually just let the train run over the top of their produce. When the train is not there the laneway is covered with canvas awnings - when the train toots it becomes an empty railway track. We all agreed it was something we will never forget and worth the trip there alone. I captured some good video which Ill share here later.
So pre train it looks like this.
During the train pass it looks like this:
And then immediately after its business as usual :
Back on board the bus and we were off towards Damnoen Saduak floating market which is in Ratchaburi about 109 kilometres south of Bangkok. Most people here live densely along both sides of the canals - more than 200 canals were built here by the locals. The people that live here often grow several different kinds of fruits and vegetables for sale at the floating market. We boarded a long tail boat and took off for a lookie.
The boat ride was great because it was quite cool at the river and in some parts we were travelling at speeds that allowed us too feel a nice breeze.
Once at the markets we left the boat and had a look around by foot. Of course there was the usual souvenir shops, but in one section there was still alot of the fruit and vegetables and food. The boats selling food are really quite ingenious, although I dont think Id like to sit there for hours cooking noodle soups for hours at a time.
On the last little long-tail boat sitting at the dock was this gorgeous little 84 year old Chinese lady selling chinese pancakes.
We finished wandering through the market and found our way back to our mini van waiting for us to take us to lunch. I managed to find a snack of fried bananas on the way which were completely delish. We had an hours drive back towards Bangkok for the Rose Garden Village. By the time we arrived we were hungry so enjoyed a lunchtime buffet in the air conditioned restaurant.
After lunch was a two part show. Before I get to that though I have to point out that something has happened to our son on this trip. His confidence and bravery has really amazed us. Today's example was with a great big yellow python. He so wanted to have his photo taken with it, and showed absolutely no fear of it at all - hes growing up before our eyes.
The first part of the show was a very short little program with a couple of elephants. Kinda cute, but we'd had a much bigger meet and greet with elephants before. Still, I love watching them and am still amazed at their mobility considering their size.
We then moved over into the pavilion for the main part of the show. It really was a cultural show in that it did highlight a fair part of the ceremonial aspects of Traditional Thai life. They did some dances, they did some mock Muay Thai boxing and they even showed what a Thai wedding was like (took particular note of that).
Once the show was done we climbed back on board the bus for the hour journey back to the hotel. The traffic was really heavy as it is still a public holiday here. I did a bit of a giggle because I think Don and Anna hadnt really thought the traffic was too bad here at all - I knew that sometime we'd get stuck in bumper to bumper.
Back at the hotel we joined up with the rest of our tour party who had just arrived here after their visit to Khon Kaen. Mum and Dad had a great time there and Ill add some of their pics as soon as I can get access to them. Today was certainly a very long day, but I think we got to see a lot of different facets to life here.
