Yesterday morning, we got up early and rushed through getting showered and ready. We condensed our purses and backpacks as much as we could since we knew we would be carrying them all day and didn't want them to be super heavy. We got breakfast in the Lounge so it wasn't so crowded and it was great as usual. After breakfast, we hurried to the lobby and changed our cash for smaller bills. We met our tour guide in front of the Concierge desk. Her name was Chenya, and we were so glad to find that she was a young, fun, English speaking (mostly), clean girl. She escorted us out front to a little car, and there was an nice little gray haired man driving.
They loaded us in the car and we took off, heading West out of the city, before we would evenutally turn South. She informed us that we would pass through 3 Provinces on our way to the Floating Market.
As we passed through traffic, we learned that Bangkok is home to 12 Million People and about 8 million cars. In just the city. Thailand itself is home to about 68 Million people and that the word Thailand means "land of the free." Until about 30-ish years ago this was the Kingdom of Siam. We also learned that public school in this country is free- for a Primary education. Secondary Education and Private... {Pause- Eric just had a seizure. I will tell more about that in a minute} Educatoion have to be paid for separately, which means that very few kids get private or secondary education. English is now the 2nd national language for Thailand, and is currently required in all schools. The previous Prime Minister did not believe it was important for the children to learn English, so he didn't support the programs being pushed through schools. Now tourism is one of the largest industries for Thailand, and the older generations that do not know English are at a huge disadvantage.
Chenya also told us that Thailand is divided into 77 Provinces, and those 77 are divided into 4 sections, like counties in states. 77 counties/4 states.
The largest industry for the first province we drove through (I wish I knew the name), was Sea Salt production, or Slat Flats. They basically dug large shallow rectangle "pools" and laid pipe from the Andamans Sea into each "salt flat". Each piping system was powered somehow by being connected to a large industrial sized windmill, which would pump the water from the sea into the pits. Once the water evaporated from each pit, they gleen the salt from the pits, bag it, and sell it on road stands, or export it to neighboring countries. i.e. Malaysia.
The next province's industries were Fishing hubs, honeycomb production and crab catchers (very technical term huh?) lol. We passed lots of stands on the road sides with Sea Salt and Mackerel fish for sale.
Once we drove into the village that we thought we were going to the floating market in, we were driving very slowly through what looked like a large market. We passed a cart full of little brooms- which the street sweepers use, and I have thought are so cute, so I wanted to stop and buy one. We asked Chenya if we could get out of the car and just walk to where we were going, and she said yes. She did the negotiating for us, which was very cool, and we bought some brooms. Maybe weird- but I think they're cool.
As we kept walking, Chenya explained that it was a "locals market" that was over 100 years old. Each vendor would come each day and sell their foods/goods to the other locals, and it had originaly been like a trading post. People used to come and exchange goods or food with other villagers, I thought that was awesome.
We found one sweet old lady whose eyes didn't track together, who was selling really cute little wooden carved spoons out of different kinds of wood- coconut wood, bamboo and pineapple tree wood. I wanted to buy some, so I got a few medium sized ones, and Melanie decided to buy some from her too. She bent down and told her that she was a beautiful lady, and I pointed to show Melanie how cute some of her tiny tiny spoons were. She saw that we liked them so she gave one to Melanie "free for you madame" and we laughed and told her "Thank You!" and everyone around us laughed (it was very crowded) and she thought it was funny when we laughed, so she handed me a "free spoon" too, and this went on a few different times. About 4 spoons later- we handed her the change from our pockets and moved on. It was funny and sweet.
After we came out of the locals market, Chenya took us over to some train tracks, and told us that there was a train that came every day, and the vendors usually sat right on or next to the tracks, until they heard the train, then some would move back, and move their stuff out of the way, and others would sit right still and move their stuff. Chenya said "they not scared of train, it could touch their noses, they sit so close and they no care."
So- apparently this was quite the touristy place to be because a large group of people gathered right on the tracks, and the railworkers came and hand-lowered the crossing guards and had to 'shoo' the dumb tourists off the tracks.
Here I am expecting this loud, roaring, fast moving train to come by? And here comes a 5-6 car, going 20 mph- maybe, little blue and orange passenger train. Pppft?? What?
It was fascinating to see how the vendors just flocked back to their original positions though- as if nothing had ever happened.
Life went on.
After we witnessed "the train," we walked to the car where Chenya told us we were going to visit an Elephant village. A What!!!?? I had no idea we were going to an Elephant village. I instantly got my hopes up. Once we got to the village, you could see the "stalls" on the East side of the road, and the actual "park" on the West side of the road. We pulled in and they said we could buy an Elephant ride for 600 Baht, and we could buy a basket of bananas to feed the elephant for an extra 100 Baht. Of course, it didn't take long for us to shill out our money, and climb up what largely resembled an oversided tree house, to "load up" on our elephant.
They called to him over a large microphone in the tree, and here they came, out of his stall, crossed the road, and up to our 'tree house'.
Can you imagine if a car drove by. There should be a sign that says "Elephant x-ing"!!!
So cool.
They had built a seat for us, that was just a bench mounted to a saddle that looped around his tail, around his sides and back around his legs. The lady loading us into our seat told us that we were extra lucky because our Elephant had Ivory tusks, and not many of them did anymore. Chinya told us the only condition to riding an elephant was that we had to make a wish. So cute.
His name was Bou Bam, and he was 10 years old. His "driver" said he eats over 700 lbs a day, and all he does is "eat, toilet, eat, toilet" haha..
We rode around the swampy park area for about 25 minutes. We stopped at one point and the "driver" climbed off and asked for our cameras- he took some pictures for us, and Bou Bam put his trunk up on his head, between his ears- right in front of us, and we fed him the basket of bananas we had brought. He was funny and when the man came over to climb back up, he said something in Thai, and Bou Bam bent down so the man could climb back up. He balanced by keeping his toes behind Bou Bam's ears, and he steered him with his heels. Like a really big, leathery horse, lol. Right before we were about out of the park, our "driver" stopped Bou Bam on some quiet little corner and brought out a little tin of hand carved little ornaments- elephants, beaded necklades- all very white and "ivory looking". Melanie asked him and he said "No Ivory Madame" and was really pushy about us buying some so we got the smallest cheapest trinket, and moved on. The driver kept saying "To feed Bou Bam- to feed," I'm not sure if I believed him or not, but it was interesting. They wanted it to look like ivory-- just capitalizing on the appeal.
After our Elephant ride was over, Chenya had cold waters waiting for us, which were just little plastic bags full of water, with what resembled a canning lid on the top and a straw poked through the top. Very interesting. Our driver took us to the loading dock for a Canal Tour on a motorized long boat. We asked why the canal tour- we thought we were going to the floating market- and Chenya told us we would take the canal for 35 minutes, and it would take us to the floating market. Awesome! We got more than we bargained for. Our long boat ride through the canal was interesting. All the little shanties along the canal were neat to see. They were built in the original Thai style out of Teak and painted all sorts of funky colors. There were some that were beautifully kept, and some in terrible disrepair.
The water in the canal was filthy- and it was hard to think that the people that lived along that canal used that water for everything- cooking, cleaning, bathing, drinking, sewer- everything. I just don't know how everyone that lives there isn't dead or very sick. It was pretty gross. We even passed a lady hanging her (maybe) 1 year old boy off the side of the Canal in the water to bath him. He loved it and was playing in the water. He just doesn't know any different, and I had to remind myself of that. These people are resourceful and use what they have, and are grateful for it. It helps me to appreciate the ugly things- because they are what help us to seek out the beautiful things- and appreciate them even more when we find them.
About half way through our long boat ride, we stopped to see a very large bronze/gold looking statue along the canal, and there was some sort of large lizzard- a cross between a snake and an iguana, sitting on the sidewalk in front of our boat, just staring at us. Chenya said we must have really really good luck to ride an elephant and see a lizzard all in the same day. Go us!
We finally got to the floating market and they unloaded us from the long boats, and we walked through the many markets set up on the sides of the canal- where the merchants gathered to create the floating market. They had all sorts of little handi-crafts, just like the locals market. We bought a few things- with the help of Chenya and then she loaded us into a little paddle boat, which took us up and down and around the different streets of the floating market. We kept finding really cute (fake) Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Hermes knock off purses, and kindof looked at them- maybe wanting one and Chenya stopped us and said Very Quietly "If you like- I know better place. Better quality and good price- but tell nobody. Us secret." Hmmm..okay?
Chenya told us that the canals had become a major tool for transportation and trade in that part of the Province, and had been expanded to include over 200 different "canal streets". Incredible.
We bought a few things, and rode along and enjoyed all the unique sights, then went back to where we started and unloaded.
We made our way back to the Car and drove back towards the city. We were both tired and hungy, and about 20 minutes outside of the city, the driver took an exit that took us back into the city- just through a different part than our hotel. Chenya explained that she had a friend that ran a souvenier shop and he had the purses in the upstairs, butu they would take us since she was with us. Melanie asked if they ever had trouble with the Police and Chenya said "Yes- but only for locals if no pay taxes- not for foreigners," She told us that her friend had already paid the taxes on these bags so we shouldn't have any problems taking them back to the US and wouldn't be causing trouble.
We did it. Maybe we shouldn't have- but we did. And it was fun and exciting..haha. They snuck us through the back door of the Souvenier shop and up 3 flights of dark stairs to what I expected to be a dimly lit dusty little room- and it was better looking and cleaner than the souvenier shop was. They had put a lot of time and expense into making it look like a high dollar showcase.
Melanie and I each bought a few fun little finds-- They accepted Visa ;) And decided we better go back to the hotel before we caused any more trouble. Oiy.
We went back to the hotel and unloaded our bags (our many many bags) and walked across the street to the Holiday Inn and ate lunch at their little Cafe "Cafe G". I got a wok fried chicken with Vegetables and steamed white rice and Melanie got a Soup she knows and likes called Tom Kha Gai and steamed white rice. It was really good. We grabbed a taxi and came to the hospital.
Eric had been feeling much better that morning and had walked down to the nurses station in the hall and back a few times, but since he had gotten back to the room he had started feeling a lot of deep aching pain in his hip and leg again and was suffering a little bit. We visited with him and tried to joke, but he still wasn't feeling well. He hadn't had much of an appetite and since he had a laxitive induced bowel movement 2 days earlier- has had no other urges since. It was becoming concerning, so we tried to get him to eat something substantial and visit, but he was in pain, so he took his pain killers and went to bed early. They had increased the amount of the "pain killer" they had given him called "nytriptoline" (sp?) which is actually a antidepressant that they were using to suppress the pain in his nerves. He had been taking about 15 mg, and they upped it to 35mg. The docot had said that they have used up to 200mg on patients- safely-before, so we were not concerned.
We headed back to the hotel and had an early night.
We had experienced a very long and very entertaining day.
No comments:
Post a Comment