We heard all about this great floating market outside of Bangkok. Our plan was to see it first thing in the morning before our flight. We didn't realize the market was 1.5 hours away so we decided to wake up early and hire a private taxi to drive us there and back so that we wouldn't miss our flight. First thing in the morning, we packed our bags and went down to the concierge to ask where to wait for the taxi. When they heard where we were trying to go by taxi, they gave us a look that said that we had three heads. They said it's too far and too expensive by private taxi. Of course, coming from US rates, we didn't think the amount was that expensive. We felt like Russian oligarchs. So heads held high, we walked outside and waited for the taxi. We saw a police man standing next to the curb, and ask for an opinion on how much the cab would cost. Again, he looked at us like we were crazy Americans. . You're going where? His eyes said. He chuckled as we told him and he walked away. And at that point, we looked at each other and said, "maybe this isn't such a good idea." We walked back into the girls of the desk, and they laughed at us.
We think they felt sorry for us, so finally, they gave us some suggestions of what to do. We said we wanted to see the Royal Palace. We also said that we wanted to see how local life was in Bangkok. They suggested that we take public transportation to get to the palace. So we did. As we waited for the bus at the bus stop, every head in every car seem to turn and look at us with a quizzical look saying, what the heck are you two white people doing? Either way, it was an awesome experience. The bus cost us the equivalent of about $.30 each, and that's because we got the more expensive, fancy bus, with "aircon".
Side note: There are two people that work on each bus in bangkok. The driver, and the toll collector. The toll collector knows exactly who you are, when you got on, and where you're going. She's also quite nice.
As usual, many tuk-tuk drivers blocked our walkway in order to book us. Jacob tried to negotiate with one of them by asking him to pay us 5 baht to drive us. The driver laughed at us, but thought we were funny.
As we were walking the streets, we noticed that Thai massages were about $20 more then what we had experienced the night before. We realized, as we looked into the sky, the Sheraton was only a block away. Location, location, location.
We finally found the ferry and took it down the river to the Royal Palace. When we got off at the royal palace, we attempted to steer away from the crowds and he came across a meditation retreat. We thought it would be fun to try and meditate in Thailand. Apparently, the teacher for foreigners was on vacation. We decided to try and sneak into the local meditation room. We were offered passes and told them that we had minimal experience in meditation. They made me wear a shirt to cover up my skin. We walked upstairs to the meditation room and sat down in front of the big Buddha where everyone else was praying. I sat on a brown cloth and Jacob sat on a white one. When we had meditated sufficiently and we're about to leave a man came up to us and let us know that men were supposed to sit on the brown cloth and women on the white. We felt like idiots. So we switched cloths and then left the meditation room.
On our way out of the center, we almost got had. We met a very nice man with a mustache. He pointed us into a big room with a big Buddha. He told us to go inside. We didn't want to. When we tried to walk away, he started a conversation and asked if we lost. We obviously were. So he pulled us aside and forced us to sit down as he told us all the places in Bangkok that we should see. He seemed like a jovial fellow. He told us how it was a national buddhist holiday. He seemed like he was being so generous because it was a day that he was just trying to do good deeds. And he was telling us all these great places to go. He told us about a great boat ride in Bangkok. He told us about the lucky Buddha. He told us about many other Buddhas. And he then offered to go flag down a took took, and he could probably negotiate a price of 80 baht for All of it. At that point, we told him that we appreciated his insight, but had to go as we were leaving town. He got flustered, very angry, and said "I not stupid. You stupid. I not stupid." It was weird. 20 minutes later, at the Royal Palace, we saw the sign, saying,
"don't trust strangers who offer boat trip, tuk-tuk, lucky buddha". That was close.
We ended up not going into the palace because it was too expensive and we were short on time before or flight We made our flight and then took a Bas from Surat Thani to the pier. At that point, we hopped on the ferry to Ko Phan Gang, The island where we were staying. The ferry was actually really nice and the view was stunning. We watched the sunset over the islands of Thailand. After two hours, we made it to our island and took a taxi to meet Leah, Jacobs cousins friend. Leah pointed us her favorite lodge on haad rin beach. We got a bungalow on the beach. We then met Leah and went to a local party at the secret Garden. We danced the night away. For a late night snack, we went to the famous Mamas schnitzel.
Yesterday we woke up, opened the blinds, and reveled in our bungalow's oceanfront view. We only had 20 feet of pearl white sand separating us from the Gulf of Thailand. We decided to get more acquainted with the island by starting our stay with a 6 hour beach-hopping boat trip on Sababa boat. Leah works for the company and was able to squeeze us on with a group of predominantly Israelis. This was no catamaran, but the wooden long boat had a good motor, a solid roof to jump from, and Israeli flags streaming from the straw canopy cover so we were happy. As we circled the island, we quickly realized there were many beautiful beaches to be explored with wooden bungalows, tents, and resorts lining the shores. Most of the beaches could only be accessed by boat, foot, or 4-wheeler. We snorkeled a reef on our last stop and followed the most gorgeous neon blue fish.
The sun wore us out so we took an essential 2.5 hour nap before we went to the Half Moon Party. We decided every day should include nap time. Luckily, Leah knocking on our door woke us up in time for the party. We joined hundreds of people on the taxi trek into the jungle. Going with Leah meant we were on the guest list (free entry) and got to hang next to the stage with the locals. The entry path into the party was lined with late-night food vendors to our right and fluorescent body painters to our left. The path opened up into an what seemed like a stadium of techno dancers and flame throwers and covered by a giant white snowflake. Fluorescent lit cut-outs hung from the trees and bars encircled the dance area. It felt like we were in someone's dream. As for the demographics of the estimated 1500 party-goers: 95% tourists, 90% under 30, 80% single, <1% doctors, 35% on drugs. We danced the night away until we were dripping sweat and realized everyone around us was swaying back and forth to their own music. That was around 4:30 am. We grabbed a late night plate of Thai noodles and pizza. There was a guy in a Jimmy John's shirt and Val immediately professed her love of JJ.
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