Bangkok: The Full Tourist Experience

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

While this was once a functioning local market, today it is fully geared to visitors. It remains colourful, with vendors in long slender boats and canal-side stalls selling food - mango sticky rice, coconut ice cream, cut fruit, noodle soup - and an outrageous amount of cheap and cheesy kitsch. The narrow canals are packed cheek-by-jowl with tourist boats. Vendors with long hooks pull the boats to their stalls. Boat drivers receive a small commission from every sale.

We tried fun food like Thai Green Jujubes (a bright green fruit tasting like a cross between an apple and a pear), and Khanom Tako (small crispy coconut pancakes filled with meringue topped with golden egg threads.)

Reflection: probably the most touristy thing we have ever done, but colourful and interesting none-the-less.

Maeklong Railway Market

Four times daily a passenger train makes it way through the middle of a busy working market. Everything from live fish, chicken feet, fruits and vegetables, housewares, souvenirs, food and drink, sits against or right on the rails. Minutes before the train arrives vendors pull back their awnings and shift their wares. The train passes slowly through the market to the station within inches of the market activity. Vendors and shoppers are non-plussed while tourists like us who were lucky enough to secure front row seats track-side snap photos in amazement. Once the train has passed, goods are returned to their positions and commerce continues.

Lasting image: Precisely at 8am the national anthem was broadcast throughout the market. Business stopped momentarily and everyone stood, hand on heart.

Damnoen Sky Café and Theme Park

We stopped for lunch at an airplane café - quite literally a plane dropped in the middle of a coconut plantation, accompanied by seemingly random activities.

Large motorized dinosaurs ridden by kids and parents raced around a track. A tiny train, adults with knees folded to their ears, gave visitors a ride around the property. For a few coins, kids could operate a digger in a huge sand lot

There were two choices for lunch inside the airplane: sushi (6 pieces from a buffet) or a large loaf of sweet bread in several flavours (a bit like panetone).

The cockpit is a popular spot, complete with hand-held radio, and caps for pilot or flight attendant. Here’s our friend John living out a childhood fantasy.

Reflection: highly touristy, but weirdly fun

Jim Thompson House Museum

A quiet, green oasis in the centre of urban, chaotic and gritty Bangkok. Gardens, Koi ponds, tall leafy palms, and narrow brick paths wind through the old-style teak houses that Jim Thompson assembled to create his home.

Every room is filled with elegant South-Asian art, porcelain, silk wall hangings, and small statues. The traditional silk that Jim Thompson brought to international attention and acclaim is featured throughout,

The silks and linens in the gift shop are works of art. Although they might be overpriced, they are exquisite and unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

Reflection: The beautiful table linens we purchased are a reminder of the value we will continue to place on connecting with family and friends over meals when we return home.