Yesterday we booked a tour with Bangkok Day Tours. We had read some good reviews and it looked like it had everything we wanted to do so we gave it a try. And let me tell you it was AWESOME!! We all LOVED every minute of it!
We started bright and early at 7 a.m. the tour bus came and picked us up from the guest house. We met our precious tour guide Na and our driver Joe.
This is Na, our tour guide. Isn't she just the cutest?
We had a super sweet ride! The tour bus was so tricked out! It came equipped with disco lights, reclining bucket seats, a 24" TV, a cooler full of water, snacks and so much more!
We got to watch some music videos on our way to the Floating Market including Gangnam Style and Cody Simpson. It was rather amusing.
Then we made it to the Floating Market! In Thailand they used to, and still do, have homes accessible only by boat, along canals. So vendors would put all their products on boats and go around selling things from house to house. I believe some markets still work like that, but this one, and many others like it, have changed into more of a touristy area. So now they have mostly souvenirs and things like that on the sides, but most fruit and food vendors actually sell out of their boats. And the shoppers (us) ride around in a boat as well! It was pretty cool to experience, a few of us bought things from the floating vendors, but Na had told us to wait for this other shop that was near the market that had low fixed prices. Most of us took her suggestion and were rather pleased with it!
Oh, the two guys are people that Hilary know, and they are in Bangkok at the same time as we are, so they decided to join us!
After the market we went to lunch! We went to a really cool restaurant! It was on the River Kwai, (like the movie Bridge Over the River Kwai)! And it was a good sized buffet of all authentic Thai food! I focused mainly on the fruit! 1. Because it looked really interesting 2. Because one of the fruits was on Ugly Betty once 3. Because it was SO HOT and eating a plate of piping hot rice and pork didn't sound that appealing.
This is the entrance to the restaurant.
I had to try a Thai Coke! It tasted similar to a Honduran Coke. I think they use real sugar instead of corn syrup.
Okay so these are all the crazy fruits we tried today! Na helped me pick the best ones and showed me how to eat each one. The little orange ones were pretty good, they had a bit of a sour taste, but it was a good sour. I however do not remember their name. So sorry! The purple ones with the stem are called Mangosteen, and are really good! You break open the inside and there's a thick purple shell and then white fruit pieces inside, sort of like how an orange is divided. And the red one with the green spikes are called Rambutan, and to eat it you sort of peal off the top and there's a big white fruit inside! (I'm pretty sure this one was on Ugly Betty, but they called it a Tico Berry) And the last is a little tiny banana, basically it's just a super sweet banana.
After lunch we go to take a stroll across the bridge. It was neat. The bridge was built during WWII by POWs captured by the Japanese. The bridge is part of a railway that connects Thailand to Burma. The bridge is pretty well known because of the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai that came out in the late 1950s. But apparently the movie wasn't very accurate...shocking right?
There was a pretty big temple next to it, can you tell?
After the bridge came the ABSOLUTE BEST part of the day...ELEPHANTS!
I mean honestly, HOW PRECIOUS IS THAT!?!?!
I can't stop staring at her, SHE'S SO CUTE.
Anyway, we went to this elephant camp and everyone got to ride on an elephant! And when I say ride, I don't mean you sit in a basket and walk in a circle. We sat on the neck, right behind her ears and rode around the camp and into the jungle for about 30 minutes! It was incredible!!
This was my view...that's her trunk. (we can only ride the girl elephants because the boys have the big tusks) Apparently my elephant was having some tummy troubles while we were walking, but I didn't notice so who cares right!
After the ride we got to take them down to the river and play with them! IT WAS SO FUN!! They would pick you up and let you sit on their trunk, or they would lift you up and throw you off, or you could use their trunk as a nice little water cannon, or they would try and throw you off almost like a mechanical bull. Fret not there was a nice little Thai gentleman on each elephant that told it what to do, and kept all of us safe!
I unfortunately don't have these pictures yet, but once I get home I will and I'll definitely be posting them! I've even got some videos!! It was just so so cool! Such an incredible and unique experience! I'm so very glad we got to do it! And I would highly recommend this tour if you ever make your way to Bangkok!
We didn't get back to the guest house until close to 8, so the rest of the night mostly consisted of us trying to find a restaurant that would suit everyone. We failed at that and just ended up at a food court type thing, but that seemed to pleased everyone well enough.
But now it's off to bed! We need to be well rested for our last day in Bangkok; we go to Pattaya tomorrow afternoon!
Okay just one more!
BUT SHE'S SO ADORABLE!
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