Our starting destination: Dong Wai Market (Nakhon Phatom Province)
Dong Wai market is a popular spot frequented by many foreigners. The place consists of boat tours along the Nakhon Chai Si river. However, the point in which to start the tour from varies as there are quite a number of operators offering this. Also, this is food heaven for food lovers out there. I didn't quite have the time to peek through the variety so I left that feature out from this entry. As one of the Thai colleague quoted: "If I stay here I'm gonna be fat" its a testament on how great the food tastes. Well, there is always next time, most definitely. ;-)
Nakhon Phatom Province is located 56 km north west of Bangkok. We started the trip at about 10am and took us nearly an hour to reach the first destination.
The car park
There are a lot of food sellers. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than that found during our trip to Ayutthaya. And what interests me a lot is that every stall sell different stuffz. The food are pretty cheap and looks very delicious. But I wasn't in much mood for food sampling, so I passed up that opportunity.
This one we can find a lot in Bangkok. Using mixture of flour and putting some other ingredients inside. Something like fried mini pancakes.
Roasted duck. This place sells a lot of braised duck too.
We had our lunch on board a tour boat traveling South of the Nakhon Chai Si river.
It was raining hard that late morning/afternoon. We had to stay clear of the sides midway through the trip. It was a pretty welcoming sight to be honest, because we don't normally get rain here. But the locals consider this to be summer storm. In the upcoming days, Bangkok and its neigbouring province stormed a little, which subsided in the following week.
The boat traveled from Dong wai market. The check point being right in front Wat Hom Kred . Where somehow lots of HUGE fishes (Not sure what spieces though) gather. The boat offered bread (Sold at 10 Baht) to the public so we could feed the fishes. I was told that these fishes are considered sacred (Some significance of their appearance right in front of the temple), and no one is allowed to catch them. The boat turned around and sailed back North to Dong wai market.
Well, our Dong wai market affair ended at about 2pm (I think). Then it was off to our next destination via an hour drive.
Next destination: Siam Cultural Park (Ratchaburi Province)
We didn't manage to go through this tour due to a minor disagreement with the ticket price for foreigners. Our Thai colleagues wanted to acquire us a ticket priced for locals (Foreigners at about 250 Baht whereas locals at about 50 Baht) but the operators wanted work identification in which we couldn't produced that time. It's a shame really, cause I was rather fond of visiting the place. The highlight of this place being a wax mesuem depicting history/culture of Thailand.
The miniture showing compound of the entire park.
Entrance.
Ticket booth.
Off for a half hour drive or so to the next destination.
Next Destination: King Rama II Memorial Park (Samut Songkhram Province)
I was getting very exhausted by the time we reached this place. Desperately needed to lie down and snooze a little. ahahaha. Dang, no wonder they called me old man.
Anyways, this place houses some arts and crafts (Including the thai style houses you will see in the next few pictures) left by King Rama II. If you're interested for better insight, click on the above link.
This is actually a massage parlor if I recalled correctly.
The various Thai style houses.
I like the concept this open space patio, where a tree grows below and through it in the center. Has this nice warm serene feeling to it.
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the houses. And thai colleagues were insistent on that, so I didn't.
Not far from here there's a small vegetable farm. Here you see is kangkung aka morning glory leaves aka Pat Pom.
I can't recall the name of this fruit. I was told that when it's young it's taken whole like normal fruits but when it ripens, it's ideal for juicing.
There's a very nice garden surrounding the Thai style houses. These are carpet grass so you can just lay down, getting a shut eye and just relaxing.When we arrived at the park we had only an hour to visit before it closes. But I am not sure why the guards saw us out just half hour before closing time. *Shrugs* Well it was off to our next destination, a 10 minute walk to the neighbouring Amphawa floating market! <-- The second highlight of the day. Next destination: Amphawa Floating Market (Samut Songkhram Province)
Unlike Damnoen Saduak Floating Market (located at Ratchaburi Province), this place it not quite known by foreigners. Hence we don't see a lot of them. In fact, I've read from a blogger's site that this place is not yet featured in Lonely planet's guide book. I guess that could be one of the reasons. I see mostly Asians there. =P And interesting enough, a Malaysian who's co-owning a business here. >.<
More on that later. Like Dong wai market. This place offers boat tours along the Mae Klong river, to see fireflies! and also offers a lot of food!
The crowed at its peak by 6pm! 
Lol... normally I would faint just looking at this. But it was pretty exciting walking over the bridge and overlooking the river.
A view from the bridge. This place is packed to the brim.
Floating stalls selling cooked food. It's interesting to see how they cook on the boats (Presumably using charcoal). But... I have a very strong suspicion that somehow cleaning is used with the river water... which I am content to stay clear of. And another fact is I didn't quite like the idea of waste being thrown into the river...
These are the tour boats.
Crossing over to the other side where all the coffee shops are located.
We had our dinner at this small place selling different variety of noodles. Mine has gung aka shrimp in it so I was a little hesitant at first to finish it.
Ahhhh 7.30pm (Or was it 8pm). Let the tour begin.
On to the boat!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.... Ok... Looking at this frame. There are 2 person that I am very facinated with and I have only felt that way 3 days ago from the point of updating this entry. Apparently they both are great singers! And they performed a duet once in a karoke session, I simply melted listening to them sing. Can you guess who? Well, the man in the first row on the right, and the girl behind her. SUPERB singers I tell ya! The girl even performed Mariah Carey's 'Hero'... it brought tears into my eyes. Yeah she's that good!
Ok, I couldn't take any good pictures/videos of the fireflies because it came out too dark. >.<
There wasn't much fireflies to be had in the first place. The locals think that this is attributed by the recent heavy rain. It's a real shame actually, cause I had quite a vivid imagination whereby our boat would just softly sail through a veil of fireflies over the river, and a few would just land on the palm of my hand where I could go picture snapping crazy. >.< =P
The boat operator did try to take us through small channeling canals but to no avail. And he didn't take into consideration that I was sitting at the front! Each time he tried poking into a canal with thick foliage, the branches would sorta stab me from the back. >.< And I didn't even get a heads up on what he was trying to do. But later found out. ahaha. It was pretty interesting experience overall. ;-)
After the boat ride, we visited some shops along the river (Where the floating food stalls are located) and hunted for souvenirs. There's this shop selling on the spot photographs and it was co-run by a Melaka-an (who I heard also owns a photograhy shop in KL). The girls took some shots and that pretty much summed up the entire day.
It was a very fun trip overall. I am eternally greatful for the courtesy and care shown by the Thai Colleagues. Thanks Guys! And also very special thanks to the girls for putting lots of cheer througout the trip. ;-)
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