Nit and Eric's hired driver slept in the van outside our hotel last night. They told us not to worry about him, the hotel had an outside shower for hired drivers and if he really wanted a bed he could rent one down the alley for $6.
We greeted him in the morning at 6:30am. Each one of us killed at least two mosquitoes each in the van before we were safe from them ;-) We drove for about an hour and half and arrived at the floating market. We did some shopping in the boats and then sat outside drinking $1.20 Singha beers. Ty and Trey did some shopping and even a bit of negotiating. They both bought dcorative elephants. Trey's had small pieces of colored glass and Ty's was a golden colored broach he said was for his Grandmother. They also bought some drums. Ty negotiated his drum from 250 Bhat down to 200 bhat. Trey negotiated his drum from 1200 down to 500 (well I helped with the negotiation for Trey ;-) I purchased a Thai Marionette for 1020 Bhat. Ed was no where to be seen so I had to negotiate without him. I got it down from 2800 bhat. The boys got to laugh at me because the man made me pay an extra 20 Bhat for good luck and Happy New Year. He didn't care what the extra amount was and saw me pull a 500 out by mistake, I said "oops, not that one" and he said, "no that one good, for very good luck and happy new year!" The kids still laugh about that. I LOVE my doll. Not sure where it will go though.
We had tons of food at the market and tried all sorts of new things..."Shampoo" fruit. It was red and watery, similar to a pear. Trey loved the mango and Uncle Eric and I loved the coconut pancakes. We tried to buy more but she said she sold the very last ones just after we ate ours (it was the end of the day. She was floating on a boat and frying pancakes with hot oil at the same time!)
After the floating market we continued on to the Tranditional Teak House of Rama 2 and then to the Rose Garden which was a hotel on a very big acreage with a cultural center similar to the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. We had a fantastic lunch in a very fancy restaurant over a boat house. The boys were especially happy because they got to eat hamburgers and french fries. We missed the cultural shows because we got there to late, but we did see a magnificent sunset and the gardens were spectacular.
After driving since 6:30am we finally arrived back at our hotel at 8:30pm. Poor Nittaya had worked very hard today. Even though she hired a driver, the driver was from the South and didn't know where we were going, nor did he have a map with him! I think Nittaya was concerned that we were driving for so long, but actually the van was quite comfortable and there was so much to see. We even saw our first elephant walking down the road!
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