Amphawa

Ever since I had the opportunity to go to Amphawa floating market with Eddie and Khwan a few months ago, I have wanted to take my wife there to show her the really exotic style of market, and eat some amazing seafood.  Needless to say, when you see shrimp like this on ice, with a grill set up a meter or so away, you know it is bound to be delicious.

We decided to kill some time walking around, and ended up finding random dogs and taking photos of them.

Plus, Danielle was able to find a few cute bugs to take photos of to pass some time.  I think that she was taking a photo of a spider that happened to have a nice rainbow/metallic sheen on the shell.  

My cell phone camera was not quite good enough to catch the spider on the tissues here, but just make a note - in the tropics, always look before you blow your nose...

Now, our main purpose of this trip, besides getting some delicious seafood, was to take a nice tour at night of the market area and the surrounding river system.  I did not know at the time, but we had signed up for the firefly tour, which was very pretty as we have not seen fireflies since we were in Japan. 

The boat trip was lovely, and everything was going well until the motor died...

Then we just started floating with the current.

So there we were, in the middle of the river, at the whim of the river, in a boat that really was not going to be comfortable to be stranded in.  

All I could think about was Apocalypse Now, and not getting off the boat.  I just kept remembering the scene about the tiger.  

It might be a bit off reality, but it is possible in Thailand. 

Plus, snakes...

I really did not want to drift into trees, bushes, swamp, jungle, etc.

I like my nature controlled sometimes, this was one of those times.

So, we floated...

Then we floated some more...

Eventually we made it to a little dock a bit away from the market.  After helping people up the 1+ meter gap, we were free.  Just was time for the long walk home.

Here is a photo of us after we made it off the boat.  Honestly, it was more funny than anything else.  

I am just glad that the tide was flowing into the river and not out into the Gulf at that point.  

If the tide was going the opposite direction, this would have been quite a different story indeed.

A Morning Walk

One of the things that gets me about Thailand is all of the different smells.  I know that this might seem weird to mention, but each place that I have lived in has very specific smells.  The thing that I have always noticed about the United States is that we do whatever it takes to make the smell of an area very neutral.  Where I used to live in Hilo, Hawaii, was always quite a shock, because it was a constant battle to fight back the mildew. 

Thailand is a very interesting mix of cooking food, water, and just about any other smell that can be thrown in the mix.  I know it is a weird observation, just something that I noticed this morning very evidently while I was walking along the water behind my apartment during the early morning.

Another aspect of Thailand that can complicate things is that it is not a morning culture.  I love the mornings.  I love the sunrise and a cup of coffee.  Tragically, with Thailand being more of a night culture, most of these mornings take me in search of the one or two shops that might take pity on the caffeine deprived foreigner who is up way too early for any sane person.  You know, like 8:00am.
  

The great thing is that if you can find a place that is willing to serve you coffee that is both not dehydrated and also free of sugar and milk, it is very good.  Oddly enough though, it can be quite hard to find.  I was lucky enough to find a nice place about a kilometer from my house, that serves a nice cup of coffee.  It is also quite scenic.  For some reason it also has a pool that you can swim in for about $2, and it serves lasagna.  I think I know where I will be coming on one of the long and hot weekend days.  

The directions to the place are quite simple.  You walk about a third of a kilometer down the market area, turn right down the dirt road, avoid traffic as there is no sidewalk, then turn right again.  After about a half kilometer of walking you will notice a bunch of bridges and across the river there is a big cartoonish octopus on a seafood restaurant.  You should be in the right locale.  Pass the In-N-Out burger, and you are there.  Yes, an In-N-Out burger.

Needless to say, I am both scared and willing to try this version of In-N-Out.  I mean, it has to be a franchise owned place right?  

The river is quite beautiful in its own right, especially in the morning.  

After a nice walk back, where I did not get hit by any cars and finally found the horses that I have been hearing during the night, I managed to find more of these damn sheep.  I really do not understand the Thai fascination with sheep, but who am I to judge?