When we were done eating, I couldn't resist taking a tuk tuk home. I made the mistake of not asking how much the ride was so we paid way more than the ride to Chinatown. Fortunately all the taxis are pretty cheap so it was only $2 vs $6. We bargained with our taxi drivers on price for the rest of the weekend after that trip.
We stayed at the Shangri-La which was right on the river and had great views. Normally we wouldn't stay at a 5star hotel, but the prices in Bangkok are pretty reasonable so we figured we'd go for it!
Our room had a great view of the river and the pool.
Saturday morning we were up really early to be picked up at 6:30 for our Damnoen Saduak Floating Market Tour. It took about an hour and a half to get from Bangkok to Damnoen Saduak. On the way, we passed MaeKlong Train market which is a market set up on a train track but they move their tents in giving just the right amount of space when the train comes through. We had seen this on one of Anthony Bourdain's shows, so it was pretty cool to see it especially since we had no idea we were going to drive by as part of the tour. We didn't see a train go through but here's a you tube link so you can see if you want (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqUafue6vBE). We just drove by so this is the best picture I could get of it.
We stopped at a coconut farm on the way where they showed us how coconut oil was made. It was basically an opportunity for the people to try selling us souvenirs but they had some green curry there so I was happy.
We took a long tail speed boat for the last 15 minutes of the trip to the floating market which was really cool. Our tour guide kept referring to it as the James Bond boat because James Bond rode a boat like this in a chase scene in The Man with the Golden Gun.
The floating market is closed early in the morning for the locals to trade but then it opens to tourists around 9am. We spent about half an hour in a paddle boat on the floating market. They sell fruit, various foods and lots of souvenirs. Some parts were so crowded it was difficult to buy things because you have to be fast to say what you want and pay before you get pushed through. We did get a chance to buy some mango while on the boat.
We had about an hour to walk around the market after we got off the boat where we got some noodle dishes, Thai coffee, a wall hanging and some soup. The floating market was probably one of my most favorite things we've done because it was really different and something you can't do many places. I wish we would have had a little more time there to explore but that probably just would have resulted in us buying a lot of souvenirs we don't need!
Someone on our tour asked the guide if we could stop and ride elephants somewhere so we ended up stopping at an elephant farm on our way back -I had no idea this was going to happen or that it was even an option. I didn't know if we'd ever get the chance to ride an elephant again so we went ahead and did it. We rode the elephant for about 20 minutes - the whole time we were on the elephant all I could think was that if it got mad we were goners! I got to feed it some bananas afterward which I actually enjoyed more than the ride. Jimmy and I were both a little torn on this experience. While something neat and different, we felt bad for the elephants. They weren't being mistreated or anything that we could see but we don't know how they are treated when tourists aren't there. Watching them just walk in circles in the heat just seemed a little sad.
After a full day of sightseeing, we decided to relax and grab a drink at a rooftop bar. We went before dinner because I assumed it would be less crowded but it was still packed. Scenes from the Hangover II were filmed at this bar so I ordered the Hangovertini which was the drink they had served to the cast and crew while filming. The bar was cool because it changed colors and the views were great but they were definitely over charging for drinks.
For our anniversary dinner we decided to do a river cruise which was amazing. We got to see great views of Wat Arun, the Grand Palace and Wat Pho lit up at night. All of our food was delicious and the crew were great about taking pictures for us. They even stopped in front of Wat Arun for awhile so each table could go to the front of the boat and get their picture taken!
After dinner we were pretty tired but I wanted to at least check out the crazy Bangkok night life I kept hearing about. We told our cab driver we wanted to go to Patpong and have a drink, but he took us to a small club down an alley where we quickly told him that wasn't where we wanted to be so he dropped us off in the main area - we're assuming he would have gotten a commission if we went to the first place he took us. Patpong is basically one street with strip clubs and souvenir stalls set up in the middle of the street. We were offered the "Ping pong show" about every 2 minutes but we decided to pass. Jimmy got some more street food but we were both so tired we ended up skipping the bars and heading back to the hotel but I'm glad we stopped by.
We had been debating about going back to see the Grand Palace on Sunday morning since it was closed when we got there the day before but the street food had its revenge on Jimmy and he was sick all day. There was a Chocolate Boutique at our hotel so I went and indulged there while Jimmy was ailing in the room.
Besides Jimmy getting food poisoning, we had a great trip and I was really happy we got to see and do so much in one weekend. I told Jimmy he has to do some serious planning to top this trip for our Second Anniversary!!
