Floating Market

The pictures below are from a one hour floating market tour we did on our way to the Bridge Over the River Kwai. This market is called Damnoen Saduak. Joe had checked on-line and downloaded the maps on his GPS before we went out there. We were off that day for a US Holiday - Veterans Day - and our friend John was still in town visiting. Our plan had been to do the Floating Market, the Tiger Temple and on our way home stop by the Bridge Over the River Kwai. Well, the GPS lied to us on the time and what we thought was about a one hour drive turned out to be a three hour drive. It was insane. In the end we managed to do the floating market - but got there at the tail end of it so our pictures are not as cool as they would have been had it been busy. I guess this means we will have to go back one day. Then we drove to the Tiger Temple - yet another long drive and we got there just as it was closing! Totally sucks! So we went to the Bridge Over the River Kwai on our way home as that never closes!

We did not buy too much while there as most vendors were closed. Joe bought some rambutan's (a red hairy fruit) for John to try and he got taken for a ride! Joe has yet to learn the art of negotiating and gets frustrated by it. If I recall correctly he paid 100 Baht for a bag of rambutan's - I think about 1 kilo. Anyhow, the minute he agreed to it I knew he had been taken for a ride. Sure enough after he pays the lady who was directing our boat started yelling at him. Joe could not understand as it was all in Thai. He was trying to understand her and I finally told him - she said Pheng Maak - very expensive - you paid too much! He wanted to know how much he should have paid - she said about 20 Baht. For those of you not familiar with our currency here - 20 Baht is about 60 cents and 100 Baht is $3.03. Negotiating in Thai is a hard thing for an American to do - we are not brought up that way and the only place you negotiate on a price at is at a Car Dealership. So, it is very frustrating at first. I struggled with it in the beginning but seeing as I was not working for my first 5 months here I was out doing all our shopping and my negotiating skills have come a LONG way. My father used to be a professional negotiator of contracts and I really think he'd be proud to see me in action over here. As I negotiated Joe's gym membership at the fitness center I could honestly feel every part of my father in me coming out. I guess that is a good trait to have if I am going to be living here for the next three years but I am hoping I don't return to the US and go into a store to buy something and start trying to negotiate with them on the price!

Most of the pics below are of the boats in the canals selling fruits. They had some in the boats actually cooking food too. We were quite hungry as we had not stopped for lunch but we all refused to eat the prepared food as all the utensils and plates etc were all dipped in the dirty canal river to clean for the next person to eat off of - and God knows what is in that nasty canal water!