One Day In Bangkok

Our day on tour with Sammy introduced us to more of Bangkok and its surrounds than we had seen on previous visits.

Good conversations with him and the people we met on every day life in the sprawling city, visits with workers harvesting sea salt, processing coconuts and carving teak furniture.

We also visited the old city of Nakon Pathom, the site of one of the world’s tallest Stupas, and the place where Buddhism was reportedly introduced to the Kingdom of Thailand.

As we climbed its steps, the 2,000 year old pagoda of Phra Pathom was the scene of an impromptu festival.

Monks sprayed worshippers with water as prayers and donations were offered. Messages were being carefully written and attached to brass bells of varying sizes, the size dependent upon the amount of the donation.

The bells and their messages were carried by each donor to a platform where a temple official worked a pulley to transport each bell high up into the crest of the Stupa. At the other end, the bell was removed from the pulley and carefully lodged high in the Stupa. In another area, messages were being written on a long swath of saffron-coloured material, the final resting place of which would eventually be wrapped around the summit of the Stupa.

Such an interesting day, but the highlight was the crazy confusion of the floating market at Damnoen Saduak. Sammy had hired a coxswain who manoeuvred his banana-shaped metal boat at breakneck speed through a myriad of khlongs - canal roadways - creating an impressive wake as we hurtled forward.

Instructed to keep all body parts well inside the boat as we careened past other vessels or came in close proximity to their exposed throbbing engines, we held our breath as liberal amounts of blue smoke belched from the rusty concoction of metal pipes ably serving as boat propulsion.

Nothing like local colour, despite the tourist haven it undoubtedly was, the food market was dwarfed by souvenir selling vendors crammed into small spaces along the water’s edge or in low-slung canoes.

Despite the intensity, there was no impatience as boats vied for position, just an acceptance that it would get sorted out eventually.

Changing to a small wooden canoe we ventured deeper into the back cracks of the market. Food sellers hawked their produce or prepared hot food for sale.

Sammy introduced us to “eating street” as we sampled the most delicious coconut pancakes – hot, crisp and feather light - and fresh from the small grill of a smiling lady crouched in a well-worn wooden canoe. Another lady prepared what could only be described as exotic seafood burritos, her clientele waiting patiently in line.

Meanwhile a wooden canoe stacked with bean sprouts met headlong with an oncoming canoe filled with bananas and papaya, avoiding calamity at the last moment.

Speaking of bananas, a spry elderly lady prepared deep fried bananas, serving them scaldingly hot to her customers on the shore in a plastic basket suspended from a bamboo fishing rod.

The deep brown, steaming bananas emerged from a bubbling cauldron of palm oil wedged precariously in the centre of her canoe.

Business and banter was brisk all around us, and despite our fascination with the scene, commerce went on uninterrupted in the pandemonium of the floating market.