Floating Market

After Phuket it's hard to do anything else but Sherena wanted to go see the floating market and this tour and tomorrow's tour was already booked so we had to attend... 

This floating market tour was booked through Travel Hub Bangkok, they picked us up at a local hotel and we had a van all to ourselves! 

The floating market area is about 2 hours outside of Bangkok, you must get there early as it can get packed and they close at about 2pm... First stop though is Mae Klong train station... Theis train station is famous for its market as well... The market start off to the side of the train station but now it stretches out all around the station and the tracks! When the train comes, bells chime and the train whistles, all the vendors must move their wares out of the way or risk getting them crushed!

Various types and qualities of shrimp paste... Delicous tasting but funky smelling!

This is a normal fresh market for the local people and even restaurants! Think of it as farmer's market back in the day!

This is what honeycomb tripe looks like before it's bleached!

There are the train tracks, you can see how close the vendors are to getting there stuff trampled

It was raining so vendors up up tents 

This lady was boss! She was taking live catfish, smashing them in the face, cutting their head off, gutting them and crosscutting them in under a minute!

Chillin' marlin.. You can see cleanliness is most important here 

You can see how hard it was raining at one point, where the tracks are and how close the display tables are 

Our tour guide knew a good waiting spot cause he's been doing this for a while and he knows the vendors where we were standing well. We heard the chimes at close to 9am and all the vendors started moving... We saw that they put their tables on tracks so it's easier to pull the tables back, they pulled their rain tents in and waited for the train the come 

This vendor didn't even put her fruit on a table, just left it on thr floor cause she knows the train won't touch it! Look at how close the wheels get to the apples! Like I said, cleanliness is their biggest concern here! 

After that we were taken to a palm sugar refinery where Sherena and Chris were able to climb palm trees 

This is the palm flower, where seeds are used to used to make the sugar... I always thought it was from the fruit but apparently not

When I say refinery, I don't mean that the place is refined... This is all old fashion technique. Coal fire used to boil down the seed in to a mash and reduced to the desired consistency 

Then cooled down with a giant honey whisk 

This contraption grates mature coconuts

Chris and Sherena enjoying their welcome coconut water

Our snack of sour orange curry with shrimp and herb omelet, shrimp paste chili, fresh veggies and bamboo shoots, and steamed salted mackerel fish - the shrimp paste chili is made from the mound of shrimp paste I took a photo of at the train market... It's one of my favorite dishes cause it's spicy and funky! It's normally eaten with the mackerel and the raw fresh veggies to help dissipate the spiciness. The fresh bamboo tastes soapy so I didn't like that much, the soup wasn't my favorite but I did pick out the shrimp, vegfies and omelet

Now the floating market! As you may remember I've already been here earlier in my trip with my sister so this was more for Sherena...Unfortunately it was a rainy day so they didn't get to experience it much as it started pouring when we were in the river... I was soaked! We all were... 

Oh these poor people didn't want to shell out a couple more hundred Baht for a covered motorboat... They were as soaked as we were I guess but at least our boat was capable of quick getaway

Rain!!

Conveniently once it stopped raining we were dropped off around the covered area of the floating market... We didn't shop for anything, just took pictures 

We found a snake! It's real... We paid 200B ($6.19) to take a bunch of pictures with it

After the market we had lunch at a local restaurant.... No pics again but the food was pretty good! There were other tours also taking their break there and they seemed to hold their own while accomodating large groups... There was also a wedding going on downstairs! We attempted to crash it but our tour guide was not a fan of the idea

Now for another boat ride to the mangroves to see monkeys and oyster farming 

The monkeys knew we were coming so the skipped town... All we saw were dogs, mud skippers and TONS of crabs

The oyster farms were really peaceful and beautiful

The water was about chest deep and we saw people crawling around in the mud, apparently they're picking cockles!

These were rest/guard spots... There were dozens of these of different sizes and quality

The oyster farm... These are line oysters brought in to raise to a certain age and then taken elsewhere for finishing 

There were dozens of these contraptions as far as the eye can see. These are currently hanging out of the water cause it's low tide. Green lip mussels are a by-product of this type of farming so they started harvesting those as well... Unfortunately they wouldn't let us eat any... I don't think I would anyways, the water is too warm here and that makes me nervous about parasites, also I noticed the rest/guard spots had bathroom pipes the lead into the mangroves (keep your mouth shut when the boat is driving) yuck! 

We had bought a couple bunches of bananas for the monkeys but we didn't see any.... Until we headed back... This guy was hanging out by himself 50 ft away... We called to him and he wouldn't come so we threw a banana and he came skipping!

He got so close and kept making sucking noises through his teeth...  He ate so many bananas that day! He hid 2 in his cheeks and was still trying to shove more in! We were afraid he was going to jump on the boat but he didn't hahaha I think I would've tried to push Sherena into him and she would've tried to jump off the boat!

When the tour was over, our driver took us straight back to the house as a kind gesture so we don't have to get a taxi as he lived close by and knew the area... We tipped our tour guide and the driver... The tour was 2550B ($79) per person for 3 person party . If there are more in your party, the cost goes down

I thought the tour, the driver and the guide were all great but I can't say that it was worth $79... I think $50 would've been a reasonable price... We didn't stay at either market very long, it didn't help that it was raining, there were no monkeys and we didn't get offered any oysters.... Oh well, such is a learning experience... Even the driver gave me some advice for our next trip about how to save money on tours, hire a driver! Duh! So easily said... 

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