We finished school on Thursday Sept 8th (3½ weeks into the school year) at 2:10, came back home to finish packing our bags and headed out to the airport at about 4:30 (about as fast as we could!!). We had a short flight to Dubai, a 5 hours layover then flew to Bangkok, to arrive there at noon on Friday, Sept 9th.
We went for a dinner cruise on the river that night (our hotel was on the river), then headed out Saturday morning to the Floating market, with a stop at a coconut farm on the way (one of their major industry). It was so cool. The coconut farm looked somewhat similar to our .... sugar shacks. Everything is outdoors, naturally, but they boil the coconut sap, obtained from the coconut flower, just like we do with maple sap. The coconut sugar is as sweet as maple sugar, and doesn't taste like coconut. One would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two if they were placed side by side. They also produce coconut oil, coconut soap, grated coconut, and then burn the discarded coconut shell to feed the fire to boil the water. It is amazing to see how nothing from the coconut is wasted.
We didn't drive to the floating market; we parked some distance away and then took a narrow elongated boat to get there, through small canals that looked like "water streets". It was a really nice way to get there. As we got closer, traffic became heavier (? - it still floated!!). We ended up at a dock, where we got off, but a lot of the merchants were selling their stuff from their boats (mostly fruits, veggies and food for immediate consumption). Other merchants had their shops on shore, by the waterways. We bought coconut pancakes from a lady; these pancakes were naturally sweetened by the coconut - they were very good! We also had coconut ice cream, which was refreshing as it was hot outside. Once our visit at the market was over, we went back into our comfortable van (leather seats) for our 90 minutes drive back to Bangkok to visit various temples (that will be my next blog entry!)
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| Coconut flower, from which they get the sap to make coconut sugar (left) |
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| Jacqui grating coconut |
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| Coconut sap boiling - just like maple sap! |
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| Cooling off the "sugar" after the sap has been boiled |
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| Placing it in a big "muffin" tray, to make small patties of coconut sugar |
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| Pretty flower at the coconut farm |
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| Leaving the "boat" stand to get onto the various canals to get to the Floating Market |
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| Look at the size of the canal; not very wide |
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| The sign says it all - in 2 languages! |
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| Shops along the waterway |
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| At the main intersection of the floating market |
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| They cook from the boat! |
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| Fruits for sale |
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| Coconut ice cream for sale |
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| Making coconut pancakes |
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| The sign says it all! |
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| Coconut pancakes - really good! |
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| Pancake Lady! |
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| Our lunch, well ... after the coconut pancakes and before the coconut ice cream: chicken noodles |
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