At the airport
Day 1. A Floating Market Tour, Scary Elephant Ride and One Grand Palace
Our tour guide, Sa, picked us up at the hotel at around 630 am. Since it's too
early to have our breakfast at the hotel, we just had it packed. First stop is
floating market, around 2 hours travel from Bangkok. We were dropped at a
station where we boarded a motorboat to take us to the market. Nothing much to
say about the ride. It was more like one big flood. And since the boat was a little
too shallow and motor-driven, water was splashing from the sides so we were
too busy trying not to get wet from the icky water.
early to have our breakfast at the hotel, we just had it packed. First stop is
floating market, around 2 hours travel from Bangkok. We were dropped at a
station where we boarded a motorboat to take us to the market. Nothing much to
say about the ride. It was more like one big flood. And since the boat was a little
too shallow and motor-driven, water was splashing from the sides so we were
too busy trying not to get wet from the icky water.
We were dropped at the market itself (no, the boat going through the market is not included in the package, you have to pay 150baht to be able to ride the boat that will
go through the market). Having seen the water and experienced the boat ride to
the market, we decided to just sit this one out since we're not going to buy
anything and we're not too fond of going near those waters again. There
are souvenir shops on the sides and market stalls selling fruits, noodles,
drinks etc. to keep us occupied anyway.
Colorful displayWe tried this taco-like sweet. The shell is sweet, something like
sugar cones, and then filled with meringue and topped with coconut (this sells
for 3pcs at 20baht).
sugar cones, and then filled with meringue and topped with coconut (this sells
for 3pcs at 20baht).
A Yummy TreatAfter the floating market, we went to an elephant school where we sat atop the elephants (again, the elephant ride is not included in the tour so we shelled out another 650baht apiece here). Not much picture from here coz we're too scared to let go of our seat. The seat was not very stable and when you're on top of an elephant the ground seems so far and hard. Here, the elephant walked through a trail (amazing how an elephant that big can walk through a trail so narrow) and went down a swamp. It was a long 30-minute ride and I was more than happy when it was finally over.
Oh, the poor elephant!Next stop would be a handicraft store. Lots of souvenirs to buy here but as you can expect from any souvenir shop, items are way overpriced. One thing of note here though are the sculptors' work which are so intricately done. The tour ends here (after the customary visit to a gem factory) so we asked to be dropped off at the Grand Palace on our way back for our DIY temples tour.
This is the first sour note to our trip as we were scammed right outside the palace.
Beware of these two!SCAM #1.We were dropped off at a park just across the palace. There were lots of pigeons here so we raised our cameras ready to take some snapshots when we were
approached by a man who gave us bags with corn kernels in it. Yeah, we know
right from the start that we he'll be asking money for it - lousy thing though
we cannot reason with him coz he couldn't understand English. We tried to give him back the bags but he refused and so we proceeded to feed the birds. We were still surprised at how much he was charging us for a little bag of corn kernels - 100baht and with us holding 3
bags each that would be 300baht! Geez! He called somebody to help him collect
the money from us and the second one charged us 50baht per bag only. We were tired
and hungry then, so we just paid them what they were asking.
approached by a man who gave us bags with corn kernels in it. Yeah, we know
right from the start that we he'll be asking money for it - lousy thing though
we cannot reason with him coz he couldn't understand English. We tried to give him back the bags but he refused and so we proceeded to feed the birds. We were still surprised at how much he was charging us for a little bag of corn kernels - 100baht and with us holding 3
bags each that would be 300baht! Geez! He called somebody to help him collect
the money from us and the second one charged us 50baht per bag only. We were tired
and hungry then, so we just paid them what they were asking.
Lessons learned: 1. Treat strangers like dogs, don't look at them and they'll ignore you.
2. Many things are cheaper in Thailand, but not corn!
We had lunch at a nearby restaurant before going to the Grand Palace.
Looks yummy, eh?The palace grounds was amazing. Elegant structures can be seen left and right - it was so fun to take pictures here. The temple of the emerald buddha is also inside but unfortunately there's a ceremony being held then so we cannot come in.
After that we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel. Of course it's already around 5 pm then so we got to see how Bangkok is at rush hour. The traffic was more horrible than in Manila. Our cab driver bought two newspapers to read anticipating the traffic that we're gonna be in. We were in one place for 30 minutes without budging an inch, imagine that!
Well that's it for our first day in Thailand. Nothing much to brag about I know, but hey, we still have 3 more days to go...
Expenses: Floating Market Tour (Asiatravel) - 600 Baht, Grand Palace - 350 Baht
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