This weekend was the overnight trip to the Floating Market (Amphawa) as well as several other sites in the area. The Floating Market runs along a small river where small shops are set up inside buildings on either side. There's a few merchants on boats as well, however they're usually selling the same thing as the stores on the 'boardwalk'. The market is really crowded and it's mostly a matter of waiting for everyone in front of you to move before you can get anywhere. The riverside parts starts with crossing a bridge to and then leads to a bridge back to the other side. There's a lot of different foods and things on sale but here's one of the places that really had a big emphasis on t-shirts.
To get to Amphawa we took longtail boats.
Amphawa market from one of the bridges:
People everywhere:
You can buy these candies which are green pea stuff covered in a candy layer. It kind of feels like a chick pea with the mushy stuff surrounded by a rubbery coating. Like a lot of Thai desserts, these were really sweet. They come in a variety of shapes and many times they're made to imitate fruits (which are very realistic).
You can get three good sized dragonfruit (1 kg) for 25 baht. There's a white kind and a red kind. The red kind is the one with the meaner looking skin but it has a weaker flavor.
We visited something like an Asian Hall of Fame.
On the overnight trip, we stayed in a traditional Thai house. Because the weather is always warm there aren't many walls separating the rooms. It's very open and exposed to the elements with a roof to keep it from getting rained on. The bedrooms were crowded, but air-conditioned, and we had something like twenty people on the trip.
We also went to Khaobin Cave.
There was a monkey hanging out outside. Haven't seen any elephants yet.
Food:
It's been interesting going to the markets or to get food. Usually if you need to speak with someone then they know whatever English you'd need to know for that transaction. I've been trying to learn bits of the Thai language but it's tonal (the same letters can be said differently to make different words) as well as written in a completely different script. This makes it difficult to order from a menu. The IT Mall has lots of pictures in its food courts which makes this easier but at the Mahidol canteen/cafeteria there's no pictures and everything is in the Thai script. However there are times when no one is speaking English and all you can do is smile. Smiling is important as most people around here are very friendly and willing to help. Getting frustrated and acting out would just be a display of one's lack of self-discipline which isn't going to get you anywhere. Smiles are almost understood universally across cultures.
Sweet Bus:
Feeding a millipede old fruit:
Amphawa Trip Photos
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