Maekloong Railway Market, Bangkok

It was one of those "aha" moments when I realized that our Guide Leena had brought us to a market which I had seen while watching Anthony Bourdain on the Food Network. 

Wow, here we stood about to enter this sprawling market which I had seen described so vividly by Mr. Bourdain.  It was everything he talked about and more.

If you look closely you will see that the train tracks run right down the middle of the people selling their home grown and fresh caught items in small stalls covered with canvas, which retracts as the train arrives.  Yep, the train arrives.  Eight times a day to be exact.  When they hear it coming, the slide their goods (which they have on rollers) back away from the track and fold the canvas back so that the train may stop to allow passengers to embark/disembark.  Mr. Bourdain got off the train and tried some of the local street foods when he was visiting.  There are all kinds of beautiful fresh vegetables and fruits available.  Some of them were very familiar, some I had never seen before.  The variety was mind boggling.  This little lady is displaying the goods which she has brought to market for sale today from her own farm.  When she has sold what she has brought, she will go home for the day.

 The market is very busy, crowded, noisy, smelly and HOT!  As we progresed further down the tracks, we came to the area where most of the meats and fish were sold.  There was every kind of meat, offal, fish, shrimp, crab and protein you could possibly imagine.  Some was freshly cut and some was dried.  Dried fish and shrimp are commonly used in cooking in Thailand and other Far Eastern countries.  The first time I had tasted dried shrimp was when it had been prepared for me by a Vietnamese neighbor. 

She actually stir fried it in cauliflower and green beans, and although it was rather strong in odor, it had a wonderful flavor!

See the little shark in the picture at right..it is favored here.  There are also rays and numerous types of fish.  Cost here is very inexpensive, as most of the locals shop here for their goods.

 Once again, I came across the Rhambutan, and couldn't resist buying some of those as well as the Mangosteen for a snack.  Delicious little devils!  Yeah, I know, street food....honestly...we never got sick from any of it!

 Large shrimp and squid were abundant at the market also.

 Crabs anyone?  These appear to closely resemble our Blue Crabs at home, and when I had some "fried" Szchuan crab in a local restaurant, it tasted pretty much the same too!

 There are also individuals selling cooked foods and the little man here is actually shelling "snails" better known in some circles as escargot!

 Although the odors were overwhelming at times, most of the meats and seafoods displayed appeared to be quite fresh.  Melanie nearly fainted when she saw a "pig face" ... which had been removed from the bony skull and appeared to be smiling at us!

 There really seems to be quite a large assortment of shellfish in the market, which I guess shouldn't be surprising given our close proximity to the sea.  Mussels, clams, shrimp, crabs, squid and octopus are all available here.

These are small bamboo baskets filled with smoked mullet.  This is apparently a staple in the area.  It was tempting to try, but on this occasion, with the smells and all, I declined.

We had walked quite a ways down the tracks before we exited back out on a main street, jammed with people shopping and scurrying about.

This lady street vendor was making a kind of rice "pancake" in the mold you see her pouring into..then they pour sweet coconut sauce over it.  She said it is a great way to get the children to eat their rice!


Another vendor beside her was selling rice crisps - kind of an extra light, flaky chip like thing - flavored in shrimp, crab or fish.  I tasted all of them, and actually bought a bag of the shrimp crisps to consume later.  They were very light, non-greasy and flavorful. 

This was another dessert like item being sold on the street. From the best I could understand they were made of mangoes, rice and coconut. 


We had a wonderful time exploring the market, and it was still early in the day when we climbed back in with our driver to head for the next destination...a coconut processing area. 

GOD BLESS - Peace, Love and Joy

Lunch at The Deck on the River, A Tour of "The Venice of Asia," and A Relaxing Foot Massage!

This is the view of the Temple of Dawn across the Chao Phraya River from The Deck Restaurant where we decided to have lunch at the suggestion of our Guide Leena.  If you look closely you can see the Temple behind us from the deck seating we had, as well as some of the boats traveling up and down the very busy river.

The skies had become overcast which was actually a blessing, as it had become extremely hot and humid. 



It didn't take us long to figure out what we wanted for lunch since both of us were actually too warm to have anything heavy.  I ordered an appetizer sized Chicken Satay (which was delicious) and Melanie Sweet Stuff ordered Mango Sticky Rice!

The mangoes in Thailand are amazing.  Probably because they are picked when they are actually ripe, and not when they are still green and shipped thousands of miles to their destination.  YUM!

After a refreshing lunch and some nice cool water to pick us up, we met Leena again (she had gone down the street for a noodle bowl which we would have done had she told us about it...guess she was treating us like her "usual" tourists, but I am actually into the street food the locals eat!)  we headed just a little way to get aboard one of the "longboats" we had been watching course up and down the river.

Boarding these turned out to be quite a challenge, as the river is constantly being churned by the traffic of the boats passing.  You actually step from the edge of a dock, onto a tire tied to the dock, onto the edge of the bouncing boat while ducking to get in under the awning atop it!
And although it looks like more from this angle, it is probably only about 2.5 ft...scrunch down...step in..and pray you don't go in the drink! LOL

But as you can see, we made it (we let our guide go in first and hold the cameras, etc!). Smile! We made it!

And off we go with Leena explaining our next adventure!  There are canals cut off the busy river with homes of all types, from the most simple to the most elaborate.  There are also Temples located alongside the canal, as each community has it's own Temple which is basically the center for all activity.

The young woman above was actually having some kind of snack with her young son on this ramshackle dock beside the restaurant where we had lunch.  Though their lives are simple, the Thai people seem to be very happy.

Children are the same everywhere, and these little boys had made styrofoam floats to surf the waves caused by the passing boats in the canal.  We also saw monitor lizards (found out later they are not poisonous thank goodness!) swimming across the canals.

 The Thai people like flowers and frequently have many many pots of colorful flowers and herbs on their decks/porches. 

We pulled up alongside one of the Temples on the canal to buy some loaves of bread to feed the huge amount of catfish living there!  Apparently this person keeps this bread available at all times just for this purpose!  And oh my, what a bunch of fish surrounded our boat when we began to throw pieces overboard!  There were literally hundreds of them scrambling around on both sides of the boat!

I wondered if the locals ate this particular kind of fish...found out later they do! So we were fattening them up for the locals  

When another boat passed close by, we shared some bread with them so they could also feed the fish!  Silly tourists! LOL

Re-entering the busy river, the sun peeked out and struck the Temple of Dawn as we passed lighting it up for a lovely picture!  We soon found ourselves back at the dockside, trying to figure out how to climb out of our boat and up onto the dock!   Yet another tricky maneuver for this old lady!  But, with the shedding of my shoes, stepping onto the slippery tires and scrambling carefully, I made it!  Melanie followed and soon we were headed for a famous Wat Pho Massage parlor for a foot and leg massage...(no more booby massages LOL!).  Apparently Wat Pho is considered the center and most important place to learn Thai massage.  There is a school here teaching these ladies, and the massages are incredible!

Yep, this was definitely a GOOD idea...my feet and legs were pretty tired after our 8 hour tour of Bangkok..and the prices are so incredibly reasonable, you can not afford to pass up this luxury!

 

Following our beautiful and relaxing foot/leg massage, we headed back out into the streets of Bangkok and toward the W.  The traffic is always insane here, and you just have to get used to dodging it as you pick your way across the busy streets.  

 Food carts are everywhere and we dicided to purchase a cooling cup of coconut/peanut ice cream.  It was absolutely delicious, wonderfully cold and such a refreshing treat!  More street food as you can see.  Really people, the street food is definitely part of the experience!

 Cost was approximately 65 cents...what a bargain!

 YUM YUM YUM!!

 Well, it was time to head back to the W hotel and leave the streets and river behind, but what a wonderful day of education and experience.  Thanks Charles for providing our Guide and Driver...they were amazing and looked out for our comfort as well as our touring experience!

 Leena helped us negotiate this climb from the longboat onto the dock as the boat bounced along!  Tricky business for sure!

The beautiful Temple of Dawn...

So much to see in beautiful, exciting Bangkok, and we have planned special dinner out tonight with Charles and Jon and then tomorrow a trip outside the City to see some more of Thailand and the amazing Thai people!

Can't wait to share!

GOD BLESS - Peace, Love and Joy!

The Reclining Budda of Bangkok

 After leaving the Grand Palace, our guide directed us to yet one more Budda.  The Reclining Budda was created to celebrate King Rama III's restoration (1824-1851).
At 150 ft (46 m) long and 49 ft (15 m) high it is the largest Buddha image in Thailand. The reclining Buddha is decorated with gold leaf and his eyes and foot soles are inlaid with mother-of-pearl.  As with most of the Temples, there is an area of worship outside as well as worship stations within the Temple.  Ringing the large gong three times is supposed to bring one good luck...so ring we did!

 Walking into the Temple you are immediately overwhelmed with the enormous size of this gold leaf covered Budda.  The inside of the Temple, once again, is very ornate with gold leaf, mother of pearl and colorful paintings everywhere. 

The Budda is so very large that it is virtually impossible to get a picture of the whole thing from inside the Temple.  The Temple is literally filled with this huge Budda and it's worship stations where locals stop to pray and pay tribute. 

The Budda's head is reclining on three large elaborately decorated "pillows."

Wat Pho is considered the largest and oldest Temple in Bangkok and is said to have more statues of the Buddha than any other Bangkok temple.

 This was the view from the head toward the feet of the Budda...long way huh?

 One of the many worship stations adorned with live flowers on each side.

 And this is the view from near the feet to the head.  As you can see, the building is literally filled with the Budda.

 There is a line of small metal pots along the side of the building on the back side of the Budda where tiny (very tiny denomination too) coins are placed one at a time for each of the Monks.  The Monks go out each morning with similar pots to gather offerings of food from the locals for their meals for the day.  The Monks are very dependent on the people for their sustenance.  Thai people praying at Wat Pho.    

Note the gold leaf being applied piece by piece to the figures at the station. When you purchase your incense, candle and lotus blossom you are also given several pieces of gold leaf to apply to the figures as you depart the station. 

See the bottoms of his feet...Mother of pearl...amazing inlay..

 It was time for lunch and we decided to bid a fond goodbye to the last Temple we would visit in Bangkok.  There were many more adventures to come and the heat had tired us.  We headed for the river next to refuel and refresh!