Liz Guest Blogs: The Thai Floating Market and Fishing Village

Our guide for the next two days, Tong, picked the four of us up at our hotel at 6:30am.Unfortunately, Tim wasn't feeling well. Tong convinced him to come along anyway. She immediately went to the 7-11 and bought Tim some Gatorade.Then, Mom fell down the side of these steps (see the rounded parts) and twisted her ankle. I am sure Tong wondered what she was getting herself into!
Our first stop was the railway market. The market is set up directly ON the train tracks. When a train is coming, an alarm is sounded, and everyone clears the tracks. After the train passes, the market is set up again and business continues. Crazy!
Our first food of the day: coconut puffs. They were very yummy! Tong ordered them from a street vendor through the van window. Thai Fast Food!We then stopped at a porcelain factory, where the porcelain for the Thai Royal Family is created:
JackfruitHuge orchids:The Floating Market
This woman is selling bananas that were covered in coconut and then deep-fried-- delicious!Pork with rice-- fantastic!Mango and sticky rice- my favorite!More fried bananas-- these were plain (no coconut):Tong's "Starbucks"! Iced coffee to go:I can't remember if these were green coconuts or pomelos, but we saw a lot of each.This noodle soup was my favorite food item of my entire time in Asia. SO GOOD!Hats for sale!Chicken wings, fried in a boat:The motor boats were "long-tails"-- here's a photo of the motor and propeller shaft:Rose apples:
Traffic jam!Overlooking the market:
The Fishing Village ("The Secret Place")
On our way to the fishing village, we stopped to buy a LOT of monkey food. Here is the evidence in the wheelbarrow. Also notice the adorable little girl, who I believe is the daughter of Reed, our fisherman.
Our first stop was to feed the monkeys. It was SO FUN!Check out the baby!Fighting over a banana:Cute babies everywhere:There is a baby on the back of the monkey eating a banana.Baby monkey!If we threw all of the fruit to one side of the river, eventually the horde of monkeys from the other side would dive in and swim over to the fruit side. It was so funny!Climbing the bank to the "fruit side" post-swim:Look at the baby!!This monkey was swimming with a piece of watermelon in each hand, chowing down. It was hilarious.Water Monitor!Next we toured the area, observing the daily life of the residents.
Shellfish farmers:It was wavy, splash-y, and overall very wet!Oyster farm:Collecting CocklesThe location of our delicious lunch:
Clockwise from top left: fish coated in shrimp paste and then fried, prawns, whole fin fish in tamarind sauce, fresh crab:Close-up of prawns and whole fish in tamarind sauce:Close-up of fish coated in shrimp paste and crabs:Tamarind Soup with sea catfish, green beans, and a vegetable similar to morning-glory.Tim still had an upset stomach, so Reed (the fisherman) set him up for a nap, complete with stuffed animal.Then Reed took me on a photo shoot. He doesn't know English, I don't know Thai, but we did this while everyone else napped!Dad and me: The view from the nap station:The view of the lunch spot from the other building:Mom's ankle was still hurting, so she got a foot massage from Champ, Reed's sister-in-law (and the chef!)Tong made sure that Tim was hydrated, giving him gatorade at every opportunity. Dad said that if he had any more electrolytes, lightning might shoot from his fingertips!
Mixing the sport drink powder with water:Hydrating:
Last pose before returning to land:Our guide, Tong, waiting to board:All of us with Reed, the fishing village entrepreneur and our boat driver:All of us with Tong:
We headed back to the hotel for a rest. Dinner consisted of pizza and beer at the restaurant across the street from our hotel.

Chang Beer (Mom loved the elephants on the label):
Liz's calzone:
Tim's pepperoni pizza and Mom's ham and asparagus pizza. Dad had pizza topped with olives.