We have a morning at leisure (LOL) 
before our 12 noon tour. After a very filling breakfast of waffles and scrambled eggs with all sorts of Thai herbs in the peaceful garden, we decide to trust the lady at the Grand Palace and try to use our tickets for the Vimanmek Palace – even though the sign out side the ticket booth clearly stated that it was closed on 10/23 for the holiday (the ticket lady kept saying it was open). It’s a really hot, humid and worst of all, sunny day today. We trek off up the street trying to follow our map (which is only so useful) to find the Palace/museum. Long story short (but very long and sweaty walk later), we get to the entrance – and lo and behold – it’s closed. Yeah, we should have known.
So we hoof it back past the other side of the Palace and the National Assembly. It’s Chulalongkorn day (the day memorializing King Rama V – one of the most important king’s in Thailand’s history), so most people are off work and celebrating. We run into a parade of sorts in front of the Rama V horse statue, where people lay wreaths in honor of the king. There’s a marching band playing and marching down the street and a ton of people at the statue. We follow the band until they stop, then continue on down the avenue, past the Government House and the PAD encampments out side. It’s all peaceful – but there are an absolute ton of tents set up and 100’s of 1000’s of pallets of bottled water. They’re obviously in this for the long haul!
After making it through the demonstration area, we head on down toward the Khao San area. This is traditionally where the backpackers stay – although lately it’s turned into a little more hip and trendy now. We somehow wandered off our trek – and ended up just at the very end of Khoa San road – stopped and had a coffee and water at a hotel – got directions, then wandered a bit through the stalls and shops selling all sorts of “hippie” type attire and accoutrements. After an hour in the brutal heat, we headed back to the hotel to cool off a bit before our tour.
Nook, our guide, showed up right on time and off we went for a foodie adventure. Our first stop was the Don Wai floating market, about an hour outside of Bangkok. It’s not floating anymore, but now in a huge complex that snakes around forever inside the buildings. Nook expertly guided us through the throngs of people – it’s crazy and jammed packed because of the holiday. It was so crazy we couldn’t even take pictures. We were jammed in 4 or 5 deep in places, just trying to walk and see things! This market is made up entirely of street food – Thai snacks, tons of sweets, main meals such as fried fish balls, fish and duck – they are famous for their duck. All the stalls let you sample things- so we had a blast. It’s like the Thai version of Costco – snacking your way through the place!
We had sweet sticky rice – two varieties – the original made with tomato, and another version that was green. Have no idea what it was made of! We liked the tomato so Nook bought us some to take home (which, btw, wasn’t as good at all as the fresh stuff – we ended up just throwing it away). We also had coconut ice cream with peanuts on top, some to die for sweet rolls you dipped in something that looked suspiciously like avocado, but wasn't! And these excellent fried fish balls with cucumbers. We also got to 
watch duck be prepared – boiled/fried, then cut up and sold (one of the few pictures we took). And we watched this lollipop maker – who is really a sculptor – make these intricate lollipops by hand. Just amazing. Too much for the senses!
Next stop, the main event - a floating seafood restaurant. We drove about an hour past the market, in the southern most part of Bangkok, where there was nothing but fields and fish/shrimp farms. For miles, the only thing you could see were these large ponds used to harvest prawns and fish. Very country – little lanes that were no more than dirt roads (and totally bumpy with pot holes everywhere) along with fisherman’s shacks dotting the horizon. We finally pulled up to a dock where we were to wait for our long tail boat to take us to the restaurant: The Sea View Restaurant. Nook ordered our food from the dock so it would be 
waiting for us when we arrived. The boat arrived and we hopped on with about 30 other folks (all Thai – we were the only round eyes there!) and off we went. After a 25 minute ride down the canals, past houses and fishermen shacks, around poles with ropes for the fishing nets, we 
finally arrived at the restaurant. It was incredible! Basically a series of piers built out in the middle of the water in the middle of nowhere. We walked toward the very end of one of the piers, found a table (Thai style – sitting on the floor on pillows) and waited while our feast was delivered. In the meantime, the skies opened up – so we got to sit under cover and 
watch the storm cross the river – we were so happy we timed it right and weren’t’ in the little long-tail boat when the rain started.
The food didn’t disappoint, and matched the view and the 
atmosphere perfectly – just incredible! It was the freshest seafood we had ever had – and what a feast! Mixed seafood grill, with prawns the size of my hand, crab, mussels, and squid all grilled to perfection. Sautéed shrimp with local vegetables that were supposed to be good for our digestion – they were really yummy and really spicy – being good for us was an added bonus!. Next, fried fish with mango salad on top – similar 
to the street food we had the first night, only bigger and the mango salad was a great addition. Then finally spicy seafood soup that was truly spicy! I could only eat a bit of it, but Ed enjoyed it immensely.
After we could no longer stuff our faces, we strolled around taking pictures. It was a great local experience we won’t soon forget. Hopped back in the boat and they toured us through the canals and waterways showing us little fishing villages and different lifestyles out on the water. Landed back at the dock, bought the cute picture they took of us as we were leaving for our meal (99b or less than $3 US – including the wooden frame!), then spent the next hour and a half watching the farmland change back into the hectic Bangkok lifestyle.
Back at the hotel, we hung out, had some beers and crashed after stuffing ourselves silly all day!
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