So it's already our last night in Bangkok and we've spent 7days here. Every day has been filled with stuff to do and every night we come back to our place completely exhausted. It's made time go by fast here.
Today we made our return trip back from Amphawa. It was quite a feat getting there and we impressed even my family, who are of course Thai people. On Friday morning, we took the BTS Sky Train to the end of the line. Then got into a Taxi to go to Wong Wan Yai train station (a smaller more locally used station). We took the train to Mahachai. Because they considered me a Thai person, I rode the train for free, but grant had to pay 15 baht because he was a "Farang," which is loosely translated as "white guy." At Mahachai we took a short boat to Ban Laem, then from there, took another train to Mae Klong. It was SUPER cool pulling into Mae Klong. The train basically pulls into a busy market. Vendors set up their shops right next to the tracks and have retractable awnings that they pull back when the train comes through. It blows its horn to let vendors know it's arriving, the vendors quickly pull the awnings/umbrellas back and herd tourists and local shoppers off of the tracks. If you want to see how this works, watch Anthony Bourdain's episode on Amphawa, Thailand. I think he took the same train! After exploring the market at Mae Klong, we took a Song Tao (sp?) ...a bigger Tuk Tuk that is basically a small local bus... All the way to Amphawa. When we arrived we had no where to stay, so finding a place to lay our heads was the first order of business. After asking around for a bit, we finally found a nice guesthouse. It had air conditioning, included breakfast, transportation to and from the market, and to top it all off, our hosts were the nicest, most accomodating people!
Amphawa is best known for the shops that line the canal as well as the small floating market. Walking along the canal is not for those who are clausterphobic. You are constantly rubbing shoulders with people you dont know. To cap it off, it's REALLY hot, so you're sticking to veryone else toHerOn Amphawa, you really can't go hungry; there's so much food to try! Both nigts we were there, we ordered food from people in boats, bought handmade trinkets, and on the first night we rode a boat out onto the river to see some beautiful fireflies! Amphawa is the place where Thais go to get away for the weekend. There are hardly any "farangs" at Amphawa, but Damnoen Saduak is another story. On our second day we decided to visit the very popular, touristy Damnoen Saduak. There, you can find all sorts of quintessential Thai items to bring home to your friends; its basically a tourist's dream. And hey, lets face it, Grant and I are tourists too... So naturally, we went to town buying cool "Thai" stuff. On Monday morning we left Amphawa after first saying goodbye to our amazingly hospitable hosts. They sent us to the local bus stop via motorcycle and we rode a "Song Tao" back to Mae Klong. There were school kids riding the Song Tao and when they saw Grant, said "hello" in English and laughed. We're pretty sure they have probably never seen a "Farang" riding the local bus on a Monday morning haha. Then we caught a "Rot Baep," a small air conditioned van all the way back to Bangkok.
Tomorrow morning we leave to India and I find myself not wanting to leave the familiarity of Thailand. Though I can't speak a ton of Thai, I can still speak enough to get around. In India, I won't be able to speak any Hindi which makes life more difficult in terms of getting around as well as bargaining for lower prices. Here I have the advantage of making vendors think I know exactly how the pitch works. After all, if I'm adequate at bargaining, I must be "kohn Thai" (a Thai person) right? A Thai vendor in Dam Noen Saduak told me that if Grant was trying to buy something from him alone, he would have jacked up the price and ran away with it. In India i'm going to be just like Grant; I'm not going to have the Thai advantage :(
In preparation for India, I re-packed my whole backpack with some of the stuff I've recently acquired. The rest of the stuff we've bought is packed neatly and efficiently into the hard luggage we brought with us; it's going to stay with family while we travel. The luggage is already incredibly full. I'm pretty sure we'll have to buy another piece of luggage to carry everything back home! In such short time span we filled one luggage...and we still have 5 weeks to go! Eeeek! I can't help but shop here though... Everything is just SUCH a good deal! It's ridiculous and it's a shopper's dream!
Don't know when I'll write next...India is going to be NUTS!
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