After a couple of easy days, we have a full one planned with an early start at 6:30. The hotel provided a breakfast box for us to take along. It’s already laundry day so we dropped our washing on our way out of the villa.
Even in the early morning it’s warm. The heat and humidity here are about what we see in central Florida in the summer with temperatures in the high 80’s, a heat index over 100, and humidity in the 80% range. I have given up on my hair and just put it in a ponytail as it will just be wet in 15 minutes anyway.
Mr. Ed and a driver collected us for the hour-long drive to the stop where we boarded the train to take us to the ‘train market’. At a track-side shack we enjoyed a traditional Thai coffee, brewed one cup at a time the old-fashioned way through a strainer and served with a spoonful of condensed milk in the bottom of the cup. Adjacent to the ‘coffee stand’ are salt flats, during the winter months they pump sea water into fields and let it evaporate and harvest the salt. There’s not much to see now as we’re in the rainy season.
It was a short ride on the train to the market which is set up alongside the train tracks. When the train comes through the vendors move their offerings away from the tracks until the train passes and then move them back out. This means that the shoppers need to move out of the way as well. It’s an interesting process as there’s not much room to move. After the train passed we took a short walk through the open market (they sell everything here) before our driver picked us up for the ride to the ‘Floating Market’.
The ’Floating Market’ is quite an experience. Vendors are situated along the banks of the canals and the shoppers are in boats. You cruise through the canals looking for something interesting. There are 3 canals, Mr. Ed suggests we avoid shopping at the stalls in the first canal, there are better bargains to be had. Midway through canal 2, Mr. Ed reminds us that there are only 3 canals and it’s one way. By the 3rd canal we got serious. I had been looking for the typical tourist purchase of elephant pants (you need to google it) and also wanted to add to my fabric collection with some silk fabric. One of the fun aspects of the markets is that vendors will bargain on prices. By the time we got to canal 3 they are very willing to bargain on prices. I scored both the pants and fabrics at half the original price. Dick picked up some very cool leather sandals.
Two markets in one day isn’t enough. Once back in the city we headed to the ‘Export Market’ which is much like Pittsburgh’s Strip District on steroids. Everything here is a higher quality than the normal local markets. Fruits, vegetables, flowers, clothing, fish, meat – it’s all here. Mr. Ed introduces us to the national dessert of mango with sticky rice – very good. We had a snack of pork satay and a passion fruit smoothie. I’m really starting to like passion fruit. Another popular fruit here is durian; our hotel does not allow it on the premises due to the horrible smell. The saying is “it smells like Hell but tastes like Heaven”. We did not try it. After returning to the hotel, the sun, heat and humidity have taken a toll. It’s nap time.
Later we left the hotel in search of a nice bar. The weather forecast says there is a 2% chance of rain, so we left the umbrellas home. Ten minutes after leaving the hotel the rain starts. In Thailand alcohol can only be sold from 11:00a – 2:00p, then 5:00 – midnight. Except for a few ‘zones’ set up for tourists where sales are permitted around the clock. Guess where we headed!
It was a crazy scene with lots of people out looking for nightlife. We ducked into a local bar and watched a pretty serious pool game. Nothing special so we moved on. We wound up at ‘SUAD’, a local craft beer joint. The name stands for ‘Shut Up and Drink’. The owner was a super nice guy. Dick ranked the beer (lot’s of local stuff) pretty good. They had wine so I was ok. We splurged on French Fries for dinner.
After a few rounds, it was back to the hotel and down for the count. Did I mention it is hot here?
Mary