Temples and Markets and Elephants

Friday we hightailed it out of town, taking a comfortable air-conditioned van to the area known as Samut Sakhon, about one hour from Bangkok. There are several “floating markets” there, as the area has one big river and many canals and tributaries that people use to get around (and they sell their wares from their boats). On the way we stopped at a small seaside village to get some of the fresh catch – long necked clams and horseshoe crab eggs (I took a pass on both, but Paul was game!). We also loaded up on fresh fruit like star fruit, pomelo, mangoes and a few others I didn’t get the name for.

Ed (our “guide”) is the stepson of my ex-husband’s brother (and works for Paul, who is married to my ex-husband’s cousin Birgit), and recently moved back to Thailand after getting married to a Thai girl. Luckily, Ed loves to eat and has been showing us all kinds of new food – although Paul is sometimes the only taker for the more “interesting” meat selections. Thais like sweets, and sweet drinks, and they put sugar in almost everything, including soup! It is offered as a condiment like salt or fish sauce. Yesterday, I had such a sugar high all day that I crashed at 8 p.m. and slept until morning.

Much to the girls’ delight, we were able to go for an elephant ride (we are such tourists!), but I also enjoyed it, especially when I got to sit on the elephant’s neck and scratch his bristly head.

We stayed the night in Samut Sakhon, in little guest cottages on the river – so peaceful after Bangkok! I can imagine living there, taking a canoe to the market… a simple life.

We spent Saturday at Ayuthaya – ruins of temples from approximately 700+ years ago. The contrast with the temples of Mrauk U in Burma was interesting – most bear more resemblance to the Khmer style in Cambodia. Then I learned that the Burmese burned the whole place to the ground (after taking all the gold) around 1769 when they invaded Thailand (then Siam). The Thais are still miffed about that.