Bangkok-- Markets, food that blows the westerner's mind, and Buddahs!

I arrived in Bangkok Saturday.  When our plane flew into the city, I couldn't help thinking how much it looked like West Palm Beach below!  Tons of palm trees stood out on a flat landscape.  It was quite different from the hills and mountains of Phuket.  I took a taxi to my hostel, U-Baan Guesthouse, which I booked for just 8 something a night!

The hostel owner is well loved.  People who come back to Bangkok revisit this hostel and bring her stuff from all over the world.  As soon as I got there, she offered me Cadbury chocolate someone brought from Germany.  She told me I had just enough time to make the weekend market, Chatuchak.  I told her I was exhausted and I would be okay with not seeing it.  I told her about the tours I had booked for Sunday, Ayuttaya in the morning and a cooking tour in the evening.  She said, "Why not book with me?" which made me immediatly distrust her after my expereince in Phuket.  I politely declined.

I later decided to cancel all tours I booked, and ask my credit card company to dispute the payment.  I was going to tour Bangkok by myself, and save a fortune.

Sunday I took the BTS skytrain to Chatuchak.  I was expecting the market to be cheesy but I thought it was super cool!  Its a large area of vendors selling food, fruits, clothing, shoes, bags, toys, art, etc.  The food blew away my imagination.  I had no idea what some of it was.

 Strawberries from Chang-Mai, so fresh they are still on the vine!

 This isn't a beef burger!  It's fried chicken blood!

I was hoping to find someone from Thailand to join and introduced myself to two girls walking in front of me.  "Hi!  Are you from Bangkok?" I asked.  "No, we're from Bali".  Another Indonesian!  "Oh, do you mind if I join you?"  They didn't and I spent the next couple of hours with them, shopping, eating, and chatting.  

The two girls are sisters.  The oldest, Eka (in yellow) is 21, and medical student who also wants to do pediatrics!  Her sister is 18 and didn't speak English very well so I mostly talked with Eka.  I told her how I wanted to go surfing in Bali and couldn't resist not showing her the video of me surfing in WPB on my phone.  She told me I could go with an instructor friend of hers for only $50!  I was prepared to pay over $100!.  She also said that I could go diving with her brothers when I get to Bali.  I still have to get certified though.

Of note, we passed by the realest looking fake poop I have ever seen!  It was so real, I had to sniff it to see if it smelled.  In all honesty, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was real.  I just saw fried chicken blood!  "I can't even bring myself to touch it!" I told Eka, and we started laughing.  I touched it with the end of my nail.  I pretended to eat it!

After we parted ways, I went to Amphawa, a floating market.  Honestly, it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen on my travels!  I was really lucky because its open only on Saturdays and Sundays. Its like Venice meets supermarket.

When I got there I walked along the canal and again the food for sale blew my imagination.  I didn't know what most of it was but I took a lot of pictures.  One of the very cool things about the market is that the vendors let you sample the food!  I tried a coconut pancake.

A friendly man asked when I was from and stated a conversation with me.  I asked him what the was in the bowl that was being sold at the stand next to him.  He said something I didn't understand so I said, "Oh!" and smiled.  "Try some!" he said back.  "Wait, what did you say it was again?"  I asked.  And I still didn't understand him.  His friend took out spoon and scooped up one of the things into the spoon.  It was reddish/brown, and looked liked a small sea creature, or an organ of a creature.  I nervously started laughing.

"Just give me a minute" I told the man as I worked up my courage.  If Samantha Brown can eat ant larvae and eyeballs, surely I could eat whatever this was".  I decided I was just going to swallow it, and skip the chewing part.  I tilt my head back and with a big gulp got the thing down as fast as I could.  It was salty and tangy, like vinegar  I don't think he thought I was brave enough to do it!  I asked him to write down what it was I ate and he wrote "Sheel Salt".  I've googled it and can't find an answer on what it is.  For all I know I ate marinated fish brain.

I pain 50 baht for a river and temple tour on a canoe.  I began to learn that this is not something a lot of tourists do.  First, the canoe had already left the dock when the operator had me join.  He took out a wooden plank and bridged the gap between the canoe he was in which was several feet from the dock but right next to the canoe tour I was to join.  "Is he kidding?" I though.  I stepped on the plank and walked several feet over the canal into his canoe and then climbed into the touring canoe.

But what really told me that not a lot of tourist did this was that as we approached the first temple, the canoe driver spoke in Thai but gave no English translation.  Luckily a man sitting behind me knew some English and said to me, "We have 15 minutes at this temple".  "Thanks!" I told him.  I tried to start a conversation with him by asking how often he comes to this market to do his shopping, but he didn't understand.

Then I had my first Buddist temple experience.  I took of my shoes outside the temple.  I paid 20 baht for yellow flowers, incense  and a candle.  I was going to copy what the people in front of me did.  Then the monk who was reciting their incantations, stopped talking.  I realized he stopped because of me!  I was having difficulty lighting my incense stick and he came over to me, lit it for me and lit my candle.  I wanted to say, "Really, its okay.  You don't have to stop your praying because of me!"

 Then as I sat in front of the budda and he sat next to me.  He looked at me and said something in Thai.  "I'm sorry, I only speak English" I said.  Then he started speaking in Thai again, but this time louder.  I figured out he wanted me to repeat after him.  So he said something, and I would repeat, deliberately mispronouncing words because I had no idea what I was saying.  It was a bit uncomfortable for me.  It felt like it lasted 5 minutes.

 After it was over, we put my candle on a stand.  Then he took out 3 small pieces of folded paper I got with the flower.  Inside each piece was a small, maybe 1 x 1 inch, piece of gold paper.  He walked me over to the budda and showed me how to put the gold leaf over an exposed part of the budda. I never understood the meaning of gold leaf until then!  To realize that most of the gold buddas are covered and recovered with gold leaves by his followers was really cool!

After that, it was over.  I collected my shoes and immediately prayed, "Dear God, I didn't mean a word of whatever I just said!"

We got back into the canoe and went to 4 other temples.  Along the way we passed by people's homes, right on the water!  We also saw a couple of people bathing in the canal.

I was asked at least twice by different people in the canoe where I was from and if I spoke Thai.  When I said no, they put their finger to their ears and said "Thai?" as their way of asking if I could understand Thai.  I said no.  They seemed so shocked that I didn't understand Thai!  I was surprised by their surprise!   "Do you really think a black girl from America understands Thai?!?"  I thought. Then I realized, most tourist don't do this!

In fact, that is true.  The main floating market tourist go to is Domnoen Saduak floating market.  Its more touristy and picturesque.  But I learned from tripadviosr and travel blogs that a lot of people didn't think it was a good experience because it felt like a show put on for tourist   It lack authenticity.  There are companies that offer tours of the market but I strongly believe they use their own canoe and not the local one I took.  That's why the locals were so surprise to see me in their canoe!

I am really happy I decided to do the tour on my own.  I paid 20 bhat for a bus from Victoria Monument in Bangkok to Amphawa.  Then 50 baht for the canoe and temple tour.  That is a total of 90 baht.  The company I was going to book with charges 850 baht for the same exact thing!  That is $2.70 vs $25.50 USD!