Thailand Day 3: Return to Damnoen Saduak and Khao San Road

Yet again, the tour guide was late. It was worse this time, though, because we were travelling in three mini-buses full of tourists, and we were the last ones to get picked up, so we were holding up the whole day. We could've very easily gone to the floating market on our own--in fact, I had initially planned to do so--but Mike was a safety first kinda guy, and I was more than happy to oblige. Unfortunately, the package also included performing elephants.

If nothing else, the market turned out to be worth a second trip for me because we took a different route this time around; we actually got to ride directly into the market along the canal through a part of the River Kwai. Our tour guide hilariously tried to hype up the boat ride by telling the group that these particular long boats are famously referred to as the James Bond boats, since they were featured in the film The Man with the Golden Gun.

Regardless, it was a pretty fun, scenic, and slightly wet ride through a small neighbourhood. Sometimes the view was nothing but trees, while other times you could practically see into peoples' living rooms.

Your chariot awaits.

It's coming straight for us!

The entrance to the market.

Once we arrived in the market, we were given an hour to roam around on our own before meeting up at the meeting point. Although I promised myself the previous day that I wouldn't buy anything else, I was lured in by pretty little goodies. By now, at least, I had become well versed in the art of haggling.

Sadly, this was not one of the pretty little goodies I bought.

Nor was this.

Next stop was a buffet lunch in a park that was essentially a Thai version of Marine Land, except instead of whales and dolphins performing tricks, they offered elephants (again) and alligators, but I won't bore you with those details.

The final stop on the tour was fairly interesting, though. We were taken to a rose garden, where we watched a Thai cultural show. The show highlighted various aspects of traditional Thai culture, ranging from traditional dances, a display of Muay Thai, sword fighting, and a traditional Thai wedding. (I know, a bit of an odd mixture of elements: love and violence.

The dance wasn't particularly interesting, though we did walk in towards the tail end of it. Next up was the Muay Thai match, which featured two fighters who were certainly past their prime. They looked like a couple of drunkards in a bar brawl or a pair of really angry gym teachers. One dude was even packing quite the gut. That's not to say that they couldn't kick my ass while blindfolded, with an arm and a leg tied up. It was still entertaining. The sword fighting didn't hold up to the stuff I've seen at Medieval Times, but I'll never say no to a live sword fight.

Finally, though the wedding itself didn't really tickle my fancy, the choreographed dance between the guys and gals of the wedding party was pretty amusing. It was like something out of Wipeout. There were two rows of people sitting opposite of each other, each pair holding two long pieces of wood that they bashed together to the beat of the music. The wedding party lined up in pairs and proceeded to dance through the sitting rows of people without getting their feet clobbered by the wood.  As the speed of the music picked up, so did the speed of the wood. The whole thing was very intricately timed, and any slip up would have caused some serious damage. Nothing mind-blowing, but still amusing.

Once the show was done, we were herded back into our mini-bus and taken back to our hostel. After a quick rest, we headed out to Khao San Road, which is the bar and club area for foreigners, where we basically walked up and down the street with beer in hand and gawked at all the crap that was for sale.

The life of a tourist.