Our First Day To Meet Mum And The Family In Bangkok,

we had a quick meal in London, 

before our flight, 'Cheers!',

a bacon burger for Diana,

fish and chips for myself,

and here we are in Bangkok, Diana, Doshian, Rojen, Mum, Donna, our guide for the day and Sandio,

first a bite to eat, 

we were all a tad hungry,

Sandio, one of Diana's brothers, 

Diana finished as we all were so into the mini bus and we were away, 

we stopped at a market just outside of town,

as you might imagine, 

lots of produce on sale, 

this stall had cornered the market on bananas!

we were led across the road, 

not much traffic thankfully,

and into the central section, 

we knew we were in the fresh fish section, before we actually saw them! the pink thing, 

is attached to a small motor which swirls it around to keep the flies away,

we continued walking, 

trying lots of goodies on the way,

delicious!

past a meat stall,

and back to seafood, 

on ice,

like this, 

a king sized horseshoe crab, I have to say I tried one of these many years ago, it was not to my taste, 

Diana taking a selfie with our guide, 

the prawn section,

these all freshwater I believe, as an aside the exchange rate was roughly 43 baht to the UK pound,

making our way past these, 

we came to a section that specialises in dried products, 

like squid, 

and other food delicacies,

some were so nice a few bags were bought to snack on in the mini van, 

I am not sure what these are, but they looked impressive, 

more dried squid, 

and a few varieties of bananas,

and fresh vegetables,

the market was huge,

looking along the aisles, 

they seemed almost never ending, 

back to vegetables,

crabs, 

and fish, 

now this should give you an idea of why we are in this market, railway tracks,

we continued past the fish stalls, 

these, huge catfish, 

frog on a stick anyone?

or alive, alive oh! as the song went, but I think it was cockles and mussels, 

it seems amazing that a railway train runs through here, 

but it does, the awnings lifted out of the way as the train approaches, 

and replaced as soon as it passes, 

as you might expect the area is packed when it is train time, 

but before that our guide explained the advantages of bulk buying!

some of the stalls put plastic chains across the front of the stalls, pesky tourists!

any moment now the awnings will be removed, 

and here it is, I should say at this point I will be making a separate few posts of just videos once I have posted the stills, 

next I spotted these DIY kits, 

of how to make the famous Thai dish of Tom Yum soup, 

we carried on walking along the tracks,

 we walked past this stall selling tilapia, in Thai the ones on the left are called pla nin, (say it as it looks), the gold ones, pla tab tin,

a real Thai and in fact Far Eastern delicacy now, durian, I have tried this 3 times, and found it quiet unappealing, it is all a matter of taste, 

 

a fresh coconut for the journey anyone?

back across the road to the mini bus, 

the fried chicken smelled nice, 

as did these pastry's, 

all set, 

and in to the van,

well a pose first!

our next stop, 

a farm that makes sugar, from coconuts, 

so up the ladder to collect some,

well Donna had to try, and emulate a monkey!

our guide showed us how the flesh of the coconuts was collected, 

using a scrapper,

which he sat on, 

the scrapper a part of a carved rabbit, 

Donn a had to have a try,

those were the days!

I took a bimble around the building,

straight away I was drawn to the fish pond, 

covered over to stop the fish jumping out, 

and I suspect birds eating them,

I have seen 3 person bikes, think the Goodies, but this is the first and only 4 person bike I have seen,

back past the pond,

to a souvenir stall,

and this is what we had come to see, 

the production of coconut sugar, 

the hot part of the operation,

and it was more than a tad hot!

and now the good bit, try the sugar,

behind the building, 

all manner of objects were being taken over by the jungle,

but I guess the boat was for the small river,

 that bordered the property,

lots of wild bananas, growing everywhere, 

I looked behind me, the family had caught me up,

solid teak furniture here, no IKEA in sight!

"anything for the weekend sir?", I remember hearing the last time I sat in a barbers chair this old!

a neat use for a discarded oil drum, make a swing, 

or table and chairs out of them,

Diana admiring these, 

Jackfruits, a favorite of both of us,

a quick pose from Diana,

and a look at a table, 

with this on it, 

a palm flower, 

back to the bus, 

but first a group photograph, 

before we arrived here, the floating market, there are a few to visit, this is the one about 2 hours outside of Bangkok, 

a quick look around, 

before we decanted into long tail boats, 

all set, 

some of the engines, which are car engines on gimbles are massive, 

I will now start to make only a few comments as the photographs are self explanatory, and it saves a huge amount of time, I hope you enjoy the photographs, 

I will say that in the photograph, the water level seems a tad high!

I think my favorite on the water photograph, 

oops!

the boats are called 'long tails' because of the propeller shaft at the back of the boat, 

it makes the boats easy to manoeuvre in the narrow canals, 

but some times they are alarmingly close!

a puff of blue smoke, and they are off, 

and the next one,

all manner of goods for sale,

a golden ampullaria apple snail, (Pomacea canaliculata), on the surface, 

I thought these were rather neat, look carefully at the handles, 

elephants!

a work in progress, 

we are looking at them, they at us, 

more works going on,

time for a ice cream,

add a orchid, 

ta-da!

Diana was so happy to see here family again after nearly 6 years of being in the UK.

our boat ride at a end,

a quick chat about what was happening next,

up onto a viewing platform,

looking upstream,

and downstream,

a pose rom Diana,

and a last look at the floating market, 

a quick bite to eat, 

if you are in Bangkok and want to go to this market, this is it, 

another drive and we were here, 

at a temple complex,

I am not sure who he is, 

but we were told he was made of wax,

well I just had to!

time to eat, 

in a strange coincidence, 

I sat here with Neil about 40 years ago!

this is the one and only restaurant that specialises in farmed giant Mekong catfish, (Pangasianodon gigas), 

Neil and myself were here looking at fish and particularly discus breeders in Thailand, 

and stopped here for lunch, 

and, 

here he is!

back to now, after lunch, 

the girls just had to have a go on the swing, 

we were soon back in Bangkok and back to our hotel, ready for the next days adventure, I should mention that if you want to see more of our days in Bangkok and my trip to Pattaya, please click on to the 'Older Posts' at the bottom right of the page, also now that I have published all of the photographs except Diana's I will now start to put together a couple of videos that I will post soon.