85 Degrees and Sunny

A packed day on Friday, with a drive into the countryside to see the Damnoen Sudauk Floating Market and the River Kwai. And another beautiful day, upper 80's and low to medium humidity. I know that will change on Saturday when we fly to Siem Reap (home of the Angkor Wat temples and incredibly hot and humid weather).

Our tour guide, Ten, met us at 7:00 am at our hotel. Our car (nice one, Toyota Camry) and driver arrived 20 minutes later and we were off. First about 90 minutes west of Bangkok, which gave us the opportunity to see some of the countryside (although it took a long time to get out of the greater metro area -- this is one big city with 10 million people! Out of the car and into a long tail boat (narrow, pointy front, we sat on cushions) and drove through a series of khlongs (canals). Quite a ride. Passed a lot of khlong-side houses on stilts. Most had a small 'spirit house' nearby, which is a brightly painted small wooden temple set about 5-7 feet off the ground designed to keep the house in harmony. Passed a large white buddha in a park setting, then came around the corner to the Floating Market (and immediately saw multiple long tail boats filled with tourists who had come by bus. The markets themselves used to be primarily fruit and vegetable sellers hawking their product from long tail boats, now there are some but there's more of an 'on land' market with a variety of products for the tourist trade (postcards, silk articles, buddhas, wooden masks, etc.). All ridiculously priced, but a great opportunity for haggling -- their first price is absurd, you offer a counter if you're at all interested, and then 'let the games begin'.

Another 60 minutes took us to the town of Kanchanaburi, where the Japanese Imperial Army kept tens of thousands of WWII POWs to build the famous Siam-Burma railway at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. Incredible experience, from the replica of the bamboo huts in which the prisoners lived to (another) longtail boat ride up to the bridge and a trip further into the foothills. The actual bridge was bombed during the war, and a steel and concrete structure replaced it. Lunch up the line at a restaurant overlooking the river and the site of the POW camps -- it was here that the rail line was built between rock cliffs on one side and the river down below. A brief ride in an ancient train past tapioca fields, then off to Bangkok.

In the evening we decided to go for dinner in Chinatown -- a tuk-tuk ride over (tuk-tuk is a three-wheeled scooter) again involving haggling, and into another world. Chinatown has a very different feel from the rest of the city -- a little harsher, more mercantile. We decided to walk around before eating at our chosen restaurant. Sidewalks were filled with fruit/vegetable carts and cooking carts, also tables and chairs. This is clearly how the locals eat and for 1/10 the price of a tourist-oriented restaurant. An amazing collection of food items, some of which might have been safe to eat on a good day. But by the end of our 8-block tour our appetites waned and we tuk-tuk'd back to the Sheraton at the end of a long and amazing day!

Tomorrow, off to Siem Reap, Cambodia in the afternoon.