Day #17 March 27th: Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

This would be the last of our tour days.  Fourteen of our 28 tour friends left the hotel at 7:15.  The other half would spend it shopping, getting a Thai massage and having a more relaxed and enjoyable day near the hotel.

Bangkok is a very modern, thriving city.












Our first stop was at a salt flat.

We saw salt being extracted from ocean water.

Another stop brought us to a place where coconut and palm flowers were used to to make candy, soap, oil, etc.

Art tried his hand at making some coconut candy patties.

Ummm...

They had to be reshaped.  He'll have to leave candy making to the professionals.






Yes, I did buy some scented soap.

We boarded these speed boats to go to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.





I was rather surprised at the speed at which we were traveling through the canals.

It felt like a James Bond movie at times.

People along the river waved at us.










We passed by this boatsman.  I'm glad we didn't topple him over.

Damnoen Saduak is a district in central Thailand in the province Ratchaburi. The central town is most famous because of its floating market held every day till noon on a khlong not far from the district office. However as it has become a prime tourist attraction of the Bangkok vicinity the market has lost its authenticity.
             --Wikipedia


There was some kind of beauty pageant going on and this procession of boats were filled with beautiful women.

You could feel the energy and excitement of everyone around us.

There was a restaurant at the floating market area that had a huge sign displaying several dishes.  One of them caught my eye and I'm sorry, but I had to laugh.  Noodles & Congealed Pork Blood!  Actually, it's not the blood part that caught my attention because I remember my Filipino neighbor making something with pork blood.  It's the "congealed" wording that made me raise my eyebrows.

I'm happy to say that the restaurant we did go to for lunch was a lot more sensitive to our western palates.

We went to the Vanda Restaurant.

Ms. Lucky advised us not to fill our plates with everything from the buffet, but to select one thing and savor it before moving on to something else.

We tried the pad Thai and added cilantro, lime juice and other condiments to really experience it.  It was the BEST pad Thai we've ever had.  YUM!

The pho was so wonderful that no matter how full she was, one of our tour members went back to get another bowl.  I would have joined her, but the dessert bar called to me.

After lunch, we saw the elephant act which was OK...

There was a Thai boxing, wedding and dance show next which gave us a nice flavor of Thailand's culture.

This was our last evening together and we were feeling sad about parting after spending so much time together.





The hot pot dinner at M & K Restaurant was excellent.  You got to order whatever ingredient you wanted to add to your shared hot pot.  We put a whole bunch of stuff in ours and it was absolutely scrumptious!!!

We had some of our best food that day.

We loved seeing Ronald McDonald wishing us Sawadeekrup with his hands together in Thai fashion.

Was he wishing our tour a Thai goodbye or an American welcome home?

Art and I would not be going home yet.  We would now embark on the most important part of our trip.  We were going to visit our son and I could hardly wait!