Thailand Trip Post 6

January 3, 2015

              We were up at 6am for our tour to the Floating Market. We had fruit for breakfast while we waited for our pickup which was over an hour late. I had a bad case of motion sickness all during the drive out to the market. The bumpy, twisty road, and hot day didn`t help at all. I felt better as soon as we got off the bus and walked around a bit. Oddly enough, being in the boat didn`t bother me a bit.

              All the vendors at the market were very pushy. Which makes sense, since the whole reason we were there was to buy things. There was lots of physical touching and grabbing to get your attention, though, which was not welcome at all. And if you showed the least bit of interest in something, you were immediately entered into some sort of haggling conversations. The more you professed disinterest, the lower the price and the more insistent the vendor.

A look at the boats we were in

Here's what the shops looked like.

We're having a great time!

Some of the houses we saw on our short boat tour

              We picked up several trinkets here, magnets, little jade elephants, scarves, and finally got to eat some dragon fruit. Victoria and I checked out some of the shops on land and got to practice our haggling skills for some clothes. I ended up with a scarf that I talked down from 700 baht to 300 and a skirt that I got for a few hundred less than she first asked for. Having exact change really helps the whole process. The only reason we were able to leave at all was because our boat tour was starting and we had to run off. Literally. We had to run out of there and she was still calling bargains after us. The boat tour was run in a long tailed, motorized boat and we got to see some of the houses along/on top of the river.

              When we got back to the city (no motion sickness this time), we hiked over to the Grand Palace. After borrowing some skirts to cover up better, we got to walk around inside the complex and look at all the pretty sparkling buildings. Among the many structures and important things they held was the Emerald Buddha. Even though the place was huge, it was hard to move around because of the crowd.

This is one side of the complex. The place is massive!

Some guardians

Me, in front of some shiny building. It's probably important, but mostly it's pretty.

A diligent guard in front of the actual place.

              We napped in our rooms for the rest of the afternoon. When we woke up, we went out for a dinner of stir fry and pina coladas. The food was good, but didn`t have as much of a kick as usual. Or maybe, I was finally adjusting to the level of spice. Not likely! Our laundry was still drying, but looked like it would be done by tomorrow. Tomorrow`s plans included getting to the other side of town, exploring the Jim Thompson House, and shopping..