Floating Market, Tigers, and Elephants...Oh My!

Sawasdee ka! (Hello!)
(Also...the only thing I know how to say in Thai)
I just have to say, this trip went way too fast and still feels like a dream! We took so many dang pictures that I needed to break up these posts.

One of the highlights of this trip was the tour we did right outside of Bangkok. We went to the Damnoen Floating Market (about an hour away), the Tiger Temple, and rode and bathed an elephant both in Kanchanaburi, about 2-3 hours outside of Bangkok. I highly, highly recommend doing a tour if you visit Bangkok. Ours was through "Tour with Tong". It was very highly rated on TripAdvisor so we gave it a go. So worth the price for these reasons:
1. We got a private tour guide (Nate) and driver for the whole day
2. Our guide took amazing photos for us the whole day
3. He recommended great food and knew where all the good shops were 
4. He could speak Thai with everyone :) 
5. He told us the history of things we passed or would just tell us random facts
6. We got cold water and towels every time we came back to the car
7. We were the only people with the elephants, and some of the only people at the market since we went early
8. We really were treated like royalty!

Nate-dogg with the peace sign!^^

The first thing we did on this trip was the floating market! It was incredible!! If you are going to do one thing to do in Bangkok, this should be it. This market has been around for a long time. You can get the freshest fruit, souvenirs, and lots of good thai food. We got chicken satay (which was one of the best things I ate here), and drank out of a fresh coconut! We also paid $1 to hold that cute little monkey thing! He was so soft I wanted to take him in my pocket!

So many dreams were made a reality on this trip. Riding an elephant was one of them! We went to an elephant reserve and were the only people there I couldn't believe it! Not going to lie, getting on that thing and trekking down to the river was scary! It was way bigger than I expected. Her name was Bousan and she was just a gentle giant! She loved to drop us down in the water. I kind of felt like it was an elephant rodeo. Alex only fell off in the water once ;) but he was at the back. After she played with us in the water, she wanted to lay down and we scrubbed her body and gave her a bath. We both loved it! If we ever come back here, we're doing this again!

Tigers are one of my favorite animals so I was SO excited to be this close to them! They are amazing animals to be around. We got to take pictures with the big ones, then fed, bathed, and played with the younger ones. Their play time was chasing plastic bottles tied to the end of sticks. Got to get their exercise somehow! It was a blast. We loved it. (Also, if you're wondering about our pants, you had to wear long pants to the Tiger Temple. It's a Buddhist temple where monks live, and those are the rules)

The last thing we did wasn't even part of our tour, but Nate-dogg said we had some extra time and took us to an old bridge overlooking the river Kwae. A railroad is on the bridge that they have been using since WW2. The Japanese built it, but the Thai people rebuilt it after the war since a section of it was bombed. They still use it today. 

I also had to include a picture of some of the lunch we ate because it was the best thing we ate in Thailand. Sadly, we can't remember what it's called because Nate just ordered it for us, but it's basically fried chicken with lemongrass flavor in it. I never knew fried chicken could be that good, but it was. Amazing. We also got green curry, some kind of sweet and sour chicken and some fresh lemonade.

This was the funnest tour I've ever done and well worth our time and money! Stay tuned for my post on Bangkok!

xoxo,

kay