Row Row Row Your Boat

It is hot, really hot. I remember now that I turned off the aircondition before I went to bed. It works loudly and  I can not even stand clock tick tocks when I am sleeping.  And it is raining heavily. My eyes are still closed but I can feel the lightining and hear the sound of the thunder. The strike must be 2380 meters away. (just count the seconds between the light and the sound of the thunder, and multiply it by 340m/s, impressive for those who forgot primary school data, isn’t itJ) But it is not the thunder that wakes me up in the middle of the night,it is this loud family speaking loudly, slamming the door like hundred times in one minute.  I am too lazy to go and tell them to slow down a littlle bit, and I know they will not. Someone annoyed that Arabic father a lot and I am sure he does not want to see me at the moment.  I have still 2 hours for my Floating Market tour, I hope the rain is fast and short in Bangkok.

Wake up call comes at 6 in the morning. I had a quick breakfast  and went to the lobby at once. A brand new mercedes took me from the hotel. I have never felt this rich before! I am sitting at the back and the driver is on the right handside, the traffic flows the other way around  and it might be worse than Istanbul traffic. There are many cars and many many motorcycles coming from everywhere. I can see the parents who are taking their children to school on the motorcycles. They must be proud of their kids that they are still going to school and the kids are lucky to continue with thier schools compared to little girls in the bars and in front of the bars I saw last night.

After an hour drive I am now in the center of the tourism agency where they package tourists and take to tours.I am also included in this package since it is the easiest way to see around. I have tour friends from England, Singapoure, and Italy. We get on the bus to go to Floating Market that was quite far away. It was good for me to take a small nap on the bus, luckily I did not miss the coconut farm which we stop off. I know now how they make the coconut milk that I use.

However my real interest is on the Floating Market which we reached at last. I heard there are many floating markets around Bangkok and the most famous is this one that is called Damnoen Saduak (meaning convenient travel ) Floating Market which not suprising after being a place for a chase scene in an old James Bond movie.  It is an original canal which was built in the 1800s.

For people living here the only transportation ( and communicaiton) vehicle is the canoes on these canals. You can see the Thai living in the houses that surrounds this canal. 

It took as half an hour to get to the floating market where the people sells their own grown products on thier boats. These are literally mobile food stores.  You can glide on your long tail canoe while you are checking out the food and other stuff displayed on other boats. 

  
If you would buy a hat for example, it will come  along with a long stick hooked on top by an old lady who paddles her own boat expertly among tens of small boats.  The tour guide says this is a traditional way of shopping the people living nearby especially after the king moves here in the early century. However, I am not sure about that after I see many tourists around. But, it is still fun to see such different colors around, I now realize that there are many tastes  which are waiting for me to be discovered.   
I was not brave enough to eat the insects that are deep fried on the boats; however , I ate as much as the fuits that I could. There is a rambutan for example which resembles to litchi. Or there is the mangosteen which looks like an aubergine when it is with its skin. When you peel it, a garlic shape comes out but if you eat it you will realize that smells awfull but  tastes  very sweet.

This floating market experience was fun for me. I love going to local bazaars in Turkey too, and now I am looking for more attractions from Turkish bazaar vendors  other than calling for their products.