Bangkok Day 3 - Train and Floating Market / Fishing Village/ Night Tour

Wow what an amazing Day.  The owner of the tour company, Tong was our tour guide today and every review I read is true and then some.  She is full of energy, knowledge and will do her best to make your day one of the best days you have ever had.  We started the day at 7:00 am when she picked us up.  We travelled to a fresh food market which is called the train market.  Simply because it is located directly on the train tracks, literally.  All of the merchants have their products on tables that have wheels and canopies that they lower.  When the train whistles (which it does 8 times a day), they have 3 minutes to pull their tables in and lower their canopy's just enough for the train to go by, they put products that are low to the ground about 2 inches from the tracks and tier the rest of their stuff so they don't have to move too much. People scramble into any small opening they can find to get out of the way of the train, I was standing within inches of the train watching it go by.  It is only about 5 cars long and is a passenger train so it only takes a few minutes and then everything is put back and the market continues.  It was completely wild.  I asked Tong why they set up on the tracks and she said it was because they didn't have to pay rent for their stalls.  We saw all kinds of different strange live fish in shallow pans with just enough water to keep them wet, raw and cooked frogs, and other food we did not know.  We did however purchase some of our spices such as shrimp paste and chilies. We had the sweetest pineapple I have ever tasted.  It was about the size of an apple on a stick.

We then jumped back into the car and continued to the Floating Market.  This is one of the only authentic markets on the water canals that is left.  It is more of a show for the tourists and a reminder of the the Thai heritage. it is not a practical way to market their goods thus prices are a little higher than other markets but the Thai people want to keep it alive as it was a way of life for them. Tong hired us a boat which was paddled by her regular boat driver.  (some boats have engines but they are loud and smelling)  The entrance was very crowed but as we made our way through the boats started to disperse.  Tong has many friends on the water selling their wares and asked if we could help support the market by buying a few things. We found some really cool things that we bought for the kids and we found spices that are very expensive at home but are really cheap here [saffron and anise]. We stopped constantly to sample all the food.  It was incredible.  We told her she should rename her tour the eating tour.  She laughed and said not all her clients are willing to eat like we were.  We said bring it on, and so she did, we ate until we could eat no more.  The deep fried bananas wrapped with coconut flour were to die for, we also had plain fried bananas, pork satay, chicken wings, two different kinds of soup, one sweet, one hot and spicy.  Both soups had small pork balls covered in batter which Tong told Bill were pork testicles.  The guy in the boat next to us just about choked on his soup. Our fancy ice coffee in a bag with a straw was our next favorite, we drank and ate and Tong fed her favorite dogs the food that we could not finish [she's such a humanitarian and animal lover] as we meandered through canals that the large tour companies don't take their patrons through.  We finished the tour with coconut pancakes that were awesome too.




We hopped back into the car and headed for our next tour to the Fishing Village.  We stopped at a roadside fruit stand where Tong bought over ripe bananas to feed the monkeys we were going to see in the mangrove forest. Once we arrived we jumped into a longboat and headed into the mangrove forest, the government is working to rehab the estuary because over the years the forest had been slowly destroyed, the monkeys food supply is very low so they are starving.  Our driver cut the engine and started to whoop and within minutes the monkeys started to descend on us.  We broke the bananas in half so more monkeys had a chance to eat.  They were a little aggressive at first but as we kept feeding them they settled down.  If they got up on the boat the driver used a slingshot with no amo to scare them off.  We went to four different areas to feed different groups.  We then headed out to the sea and were toured around the fish farms.  Each farm had a little hut on stilts that the fisherman used.  Tong took us to see an oyster farm.  It was a series of bamboo sticks criss crossed to form a box, row by row.  They had strings with rocks tied to them that the oyster attaches to and grows for a year before they are harvested.  They also fish clams and mud crabs.  We passed a woman covered from head to toe in a blue suit.  Only her eyes were showing.  She was submerged in the water digging in the mud for clams.  Tong said she would do this for approximately 5 hours a day.  We then continued on until we came to Tong's stilted hut.  We climbed aboard and were served a delicious seafood lunch, consisting of prawns, crab, a fish cooked with lemon grass, ginger and garlic, sticky rice and mango, cold beer.  We sat out in the middle of the sea and enjoyed the sites and sounds. It was very peaceful and relaxing.

On our way home, I had mentioned to Tong I was looking for some silver jewelery.  She said no problem, one of her friends was a wholesaler.  She would give her a call and see if her shop was open.  We stopped on our way back and I got the deal of my life on silver jewelery.  Bill was getting a little nervous until I showed him I was spending less than $75.Cnd, then he even started shopping! Bill thought we should be importing and going into the silver business at home. From there, Tong wanted us to try one more thing, a fried banana pancake, Bill was hesitant until she told him it had chocolate on top.  He was in and away we went down to the street vendors.  Again it was to die for.  I'm having trouble picking my favorite.

We jumped in the car again and were on our way to the Tailors for our first suit fitting.  They had been working approximately 24 hours on our suits and were ready for a fitting.  By now it was rush hour and the traffic was incredible like I've never seen before.  However Tong is a pro and she weaved in and out and we made it in record time.  That was the end of our day with Tong and I have to say she was amazing, we had a super day taking in many sights and experiences we will never forget.  She is a wonderful lady who knows and loves to take care of her clients.  Once we were done with our fitting, the tailor's sent us home in their van.  We had about 45 minutes to shower change and then Tong's employee, Ben, was picking us up to do Bangkok by night.
We were off again by Sky train to Pat Pong, the red light district.  Ben warned us to stay together, keep ours eyes open, my hand on my purse which should be in front, and to watch out for pick pockets and girly boys [boys dressed as girls, you really had to look to tell them apart].  He also told us that the people at the doors of the show would be most interested in Bill and would try and entice him into their bars, they were showing him menu's of any type of sex favorites that you could imagine. The entrances to the brothel type bars were flanked by a huge night market. As you walked through the market you could see into the shows and I decided it wasn't something I wanted no part of.  So once we got through the market we headed out to China town for a bite to eat and a drink.  This time we took the subway.  After that we went to the Flower market which was just setting up for the night.  It normally starts at 3:30 am and runs all night.  We had to be careful not to get in the way of the vendors bringing in their product by the dolly full.  The flowers were incredible.  I have never seen so many varieties in one place.  We spent a short time walking around but by this time we were getting rather tired.  So we jump in a cab and headed back to the hotel.

Well what a day, we went hard for 17 hours, we were exhausted and had seen alot.  The next day we had our final suit fitting and then we had a flight to Chiang Mai.

Cheers from  Bangkok!