More Bustling Bangkok

Picking up where I left off, we had sweltered for a few hours at the floating market before driving a little bit further to a fishing village. We got into a long tail boat and picked up a welcoming breeze in touring the area. We saw a ton of shellfish, huts perched over the water a few hard working fishman.



Finally it was time for the much anticipated swimming monkeys. We weren't sure what to expect exactly other than our guide had brought along more fruit than we could possibly imagine giving away. At some point we stopped in the middle of nowhere, the boatman stood up and made some strange hollering calls into the marsh. Out came an army of monkeys looking for a free meal.








As you can see, it was completely insane! These monkeys wanted that fruit!! And they never got full no matter how much they ate. Finally we had to say goodbye but not before I filled my camera with monkey photos galore. It was a great experience albeit a bit scary (at least for me!)We were shocked the area wasn't loaded with tourists - we were the only ones in there! So as happy as I am we had the place to ourselves, I'm letting the cat out of the bag that this is a must do if you have a free day in the city.
Our final few days in Bangkok was spent in a more leisurely way. We took several tuk-tuk trips. We tried our best to avoid the protesters that were gathering in the streets.

We visited the huge weekend market on Sunday morning. I was impressed with the range and variety of things for sale here. (Generally these kinds of markets tend to sell the same things over and over but there was some really great items here in addition to the usual souvenirs and tshirts, etc.) If you are in Bangkok, this is a must-do.


The animal section of the market is incredibly sad. Adorable animals in tiny cages sweltering in the heat without access to water. I managed to get cursed out by this lady selling squirrels in dresses. I just couldn't resist snapping a photo despite her warning signs and she was not at all happy about it. After she gave me the evil eye, we decided to move out of the area entirely and see what else was for sale.


The protests going on at the time were only a minor trouble to us - closing off some of the main streets prevented us from seeing a movie at the fancy theater there and prevented us from visiting the Jim Thompson house one afternoon. But it was never anything that made us regret our trip there.

We had a great time in the city and would not hesitate to return. We stayed away from the red light district entirely so we didn't see some of the more scummy bits of the nightlight life prostitution, etc. Bangkok is a varied enough city that it has something for everyone and we were definitely entertained.

Smack in the middle of our time in Bangkok we took a 45 minute flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Despite the proximity, it couldn't be more different so I'll share that in another post.