Markets and Monkeys

Day 3 – June 16, 2016

Thursday

We were up early this morning. Like 4 am early. Still trying to adjust to the time change! So we were ready to go when Niwat picked us up at 7am to head to the Railway Market. It’s outside of Bangkok and we stopped the car on this random street, piled out and cut down a little alley and it opened up onto this bustling little train market. I felt like we were in the Hob in the Hunger Games. We walked through the market for maybe 5 or 10 minutes when we heard an announcement over a loud speaker saying the train was coming. Niwat told us all to move out of the way. The vendors quickly folded up their awnings. A shopkeeper swept up a little boy at the last minute before the train whistled and hummed through the market, narrowly missing the fruits and vegetables laying low by the train tracks. As soon as the train swept by, the shopkeepers put their awnings back down and it was business as usual. It was definitely a sight to see!

Next stop was the Damneon Sudeok Floating Market. I know it’s a bit of a tourist trap but it was still interesting. We ate noodles for breakfast on the side of the canal. There were flies everywhere as soon as the food arrived. You had to basically swat the flies continuously while you ate to keep dozens of flies from landing on your food. Yep, we’re livin’ the dream people.  We paddled the long tail boat through the floating market, buying little samples of food. The coconut ice cream was amazing, so was the mango and sticky rice. We tried some little coconut pancakes. Meh. They were just ok. We Americans are used to a pretty sweet diet, and they were not sweet at all. The boys tried to buy trinkets and hats but Niwat told them it is 10 x more expensive if you buy it from the boat. He said just wait and do your shopping in Chiang Mai.

We made a quick stop at a temple from the Ayutthaya period, overgrown with trees. Very cool. We had shorts on so the girls and I had to put a sarong over our shorts to go in. I actually thought the sarongs were pretty cute. I might need to get one before we leave.

We stocked up on bags of jicama, watermelon and bananas and headed to the clam farms for a canal boat ride to feed the monkeys. We saw a giant monitor lizard on the other side of the canal and before we were ten minutes into the ride we saw monkeys out on the mud eating little mud crabs. The boat driver started whooping and calling to the monkeys and they starting following us down the edge of the water. They knew what that call meant. We spent the next 30 or 45 minutes driving up the canal feeding hordes of monkeys. It was so cool and a little freaky at the same time. When the monkeys were on the shore, it was great. But as the canal got narrower and narrower and the monkeys starting swimming to the boat and climbing on and as the numbers grew and grew and we had dozens of monkeys chasing the boat like wild dogs, I got a little freaked out. One large monkey swam over by me in the boat and screamed and bared his teeth. I might have screamed a little.

We tried a little burger place for dinner but it ended up being a bit of a disaster. The first burgers they brought us were completely raw on the inside. Cold even. It was seriously like taking a bit into cold ground beef. So we politely asked them to cook them more. They brought us a second burger and while I was chewing my first bite, I looked down to see a small green worm crawling on my lettuce. So we politely showed it to them and they were mortified and apologized profusely and told us not to pay. I felt so bad but I’m really hoping we don’t get sick!!

The railway market.

Making way for the train. 

Look how close the train comes to everything!

And as soon as the train passes, they set everything back up and it's back to business as usual.

Fresh fish for sale.

Niwat, our guide, helping the kids climb on the train for a picture.

Noodle bowl for breakfast.

Buying some mangoes and sticky rice.

Eating our way through the floating market: coconut ice cream was delicious!

Thai people are so friendly.

Um, that was embarrassing! Calvin was posing for a picture with the snake when the snake guy snuck another snake into the picture. Awkward!

Kate posing with a lemur.

Traditional houses over the water.

I didn't know monkeys could swim!

This is the real jungle cruise!

The boat driver was a riot! He called the monkeys with a fierce yell and wanted to give us a good ride through the canal.