He picked us up in his fancy 2-month old car and our first stop was the floating market. We got to the market after about an hour of driving and boarded a gondola-type boat with a guide.
The market was like nothing any of us had ever experienced (Nath told us he'd never been!) Along the sides of the canal were shops on land, but in addition, there were floating shops on their own gondolas that passed between the boats of tourists. It was SO cool! You could tell your guide to stop at any stalls you wanted to barter prices, shop, and just take in the beauty on the water. It was pretty mesmerizing. You could even have Pad Thai or Tom Yum Soup (fish soup) made for you right in the next boat over!
While it was awesome to see the whole concept of the floating market, it was also quite overwhelming in terms of actually BUYING things. For those of you who don't know, I'm quite the bargainer and haggler when it comes to markets - something I pride myself on. But much of my technique derives from being able to move away freely (a concept I hadn't considered when I began to barter for a pair of elephant pants! (basically PJ pants with elephant designs on them)) I couldn't get away from the stall - I was literally stuck...in a boat! This made it QUITE difficult to figure out the best price for my pants from multiple vendors, and pretty much impossible to go back to different stalls. In the end, I ended up purchasing 2 pairs of elephant pants for about $8 (which I later learned was WAYYY too much). Oh well - they're comfy and have elephants on them - I win :).
When we had arrived, the canals had been pretty empty of other boats, just a few others floating along with us. By the time an hour had passed, we were caught in a HUGE traffic jam of boats and were VERY glad that it was time to debark for dry land!
Once on land, we stopped at a few more stalls (and I purchased an elephant shirt and a pair of elephant shorts...I'm not sure I had/have enough elephant gear...) before heading off to...the train market!
Nath had told us he wanted to take us to the infamous train market. The market itself is less of a tourist location and more an actual market where locals buy their groceries, daily necessities, and clothing. It is called the train market because it is built along a train track and every day, twice a day, a train comes through. This means that EVERY vendor that is located ON the tracks, picks up ALL their goods and moves them far enough aside so that the train can pass.
TWICE A DAY. EVERY DAY.
We arrived just in time for the 11 am train to pass through. We started walking towards the market and Nath asked for directions...and then was told that they were making repairs to the track...and that no trains were coming through! BUMMER! Regardless, it was still awesome to see the market and to think about the fact that these stalls would all have to be moved twice a day when the train starts rolling back through the city in about a month! We wandered the stalls, with Nath pointing out the various types of fruits, vegetables, and fish (most that we don't have in the US) and enjoying the glimpse at local life before heading back to the city for the rest of the day.
We got to Bangkok around noon and took a quick detour to the train station to purchase our tickets to Chiang Mai (we had tried to purchase them online but to no avail - their website didn't seem to like our credit card...). Nath was able to sort everything out in about 10 seconds (yay for being with someone who speaks the language!) and we were off!
And what was the train station next to? WAT TRAIMIT! AKA the temple we'd been trying to go to the day before!
We joked that we were actually taking Nath on a tour of the city instead of the other way around, since he had never been to ANY of the places we had visited (including the train station!) After Wat Traimit we took a small detour around the city so that Jon could purchase some Liverpool jerseys for himself...because apparently he doesn't own enough already? Well now he has three more...
After picking up the jerseys we stopped to get lunch at a small restaurant next to the market. Nath ordered for us yet again (it really is amazing having someone with you who knows exactly what to order!) and got an excellent mix of spicy and sweet (although mostly spicy - THAI FOOD IS SUPER SPICY!!!!!!!) with fish noodle soup, pork strips, Thai salad, and spring rolls. Everything was more delicious than the last - definitely our favorite meal in Thailand so far!
At lunch we asked Nath if there was any special drink we needed to try while in Thailand and he told us that Thailand has "Thai tea" which it is known for. We asked if we could get some somewhere and so after lunch we stopped at a roadside stand to pick some up. Nath handed us the cup and we were both SOOOOOOOO excited. It was DELICIOUS!!! It is basically tea made from Thai tea bags with LOTS of sugar and coconut milk. It tastes surprisingly similar to sweet tea in the South, but the coconut milk adds a nice texture to it. SUPER delicious. We were definitely already excited to have more the next time we saw it!
Our next stop was Wat Pho, a beautiful temple in the middle of the city known for its "reclining Buddha". Words can't begin to describe the size of this Buddha...only a picture will do...
Hi Nath!
Buddha was MASSIVE. SO BIG! We wandered down and around inside the temple which housed the reclining Buddha before heading outside to explore the rest of Wat Pho, which has beautifully ornate rooftops and stupas (burial monuments).
Wat Pho was really beautiful - I could have stayed there for another 3 hours, but we didn't have the time! We wanted to get to Wat Arun before it closed at 6 pm. We quickly exited Wat Pho and took the ferry (for a total of 5 Thai Baht (about 15 cents) across the river to Wat Arun. When we got there, we saw that much of the temple is currently being renovated, so we were only able to ascend 2 of the 4 levels of the temple. Either way, the temple was quite beautiful and we wandered around, with me taking more pictures than is necessary (but seriously, what else is new?)
After taking the ferry back over to the middle of the city, we got back in Nath's car and headed to a new riverfront mall that recently opened. We sat at a rooftop bar as we watched the sunset over the river and ate another delicious dinner (ordered by Nath, of course) that consisted of more spring rolls, quesadillas, lemongrass soup, pork tenderloin, Pad Thai, and beer.
After dinner, we wandered downstairs in the mall and decided to get crepes for dessert (blueberry for Nath, nutella for me - what else?) and Jon found a Thai tea stand - so we were all pretty gosh darn excited!!
We ate our goodies as we caught a tuk tuk which carried us to Khao San Road, basically the crazy, touristy section of Bangkok that we had been warned about by pretty much every person we know that's been to Bangkok. It's not that it's a bad place to be - it's actually rather a fun street. It's more that it's just A LOT.
The whole street is lined with bars and night markets (where I, of course, bought another pair of elephant pants...because two is not enough), and sellers hawking different wares. It is also lined with massage parlors (where you can literally get a 1-hour full body massage for $12!!!) and vendors selling foods that aren't actually traditional to Thailand, but are more meant for the tourist crowd (read: scorpions on a stick, lots of different kinds of bugs, etc.). While I would normally be tempted to try one of these disgusting things, Nath made it sound like no one in Thailand actually eats them and they are really just there for tourists. That said, I didn't really feel the need as it's not really a "Thai experience", if you will. We wandered around the street for about 20 minutes, enough time to appreciate its craziness while not going crazy ourselves. I was REALLY glad that Nath took us there so we could experience it, while not actually staying anywhere around it!
From there, we wandered back to Nath's car and he drove us the 40 minutes back to our hotel. Today DEFINITELY made up for yesterday (or at least just all around it was a much better day...). We are quite grateful for Nath and looking forward to more adventures with him in Cambodia!
Jess' highlight of the day: beautiful Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha
Jon's highlight of the day: dinner at P-Hight on the river
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