We have to be up early today! Tour leaves at 7:00 and we need to be in a Tuk Tuk by 6:30. We head downstairs around 6:15, and get our take away breakfast (since we can’t have the full breakfast, the hotel has given us sandwiches, a huge thing of fruit, OJ and water to take with us so we will have a good breakfast! Too sweet!) and head out into the darkness to hail a Tuk Tuk. It takes a couple of minutes, but we’re in a Tuk Tuk by 6:25 – and off we go. Oh boy do we go! Like the Wild Mouse ride, this guy was hauling. There are no speedometers on these things, but we’re guessing he past 50 mph easily. Holy cow – my stomach did that crazy little jumpy thing when you hit gravitational force and fear all at once. We hurtled through the semi-darkness on relatively empty (thankfully!) streets, over the big Chao Phraya river bridge, around squares and monuments – we were flying!
And even though it’s 6:30 in the morning, the city is already awake and full of life. We streak past soccer fields with games in progress, people shopping at the markets, street food vendors selling their wares – you think NYC is the the city that never sleeps? No way – it’s Bangkok! We safely make it to our drop off point (phew), pay our 100b ($3) to the Tuk Tuk driver and head down the street to the Grasshopper tour office. We are way early – but that’s ok, we just sit outside and eat our breakfast while we wait.
Everyone begins to show up – and we get our introduction to Nok (tour guide) and her husband Roland (who developed the tour route and is along for the ride – and who turns out to be our official photographer!) – and 6 others who will be our little group. Two Americans here getting their company’s factory back online after the floods (they’ve been here 4 months now), and a family of 4 from the Netherlands. Good group!
We head out into the city shortly after 7am, riding through markets teaming with people, zig zagging around stalls then into the nearly empty streets, alongside the National Palace and Wat Pho. We take a ferry across the river, 
with the sun peaking up above the horizon through hazy, cloudy skies, dusting Bangkok with a soft glowing post-dawn light – a beautiful sight in the morning. 
Off the ferry, we head out to the Wong Wian Yai train station (yep, right near our hotel – how funny!). We take a circuitous route, alongside the river (lovely in the post-dawn light) and through little alleyways not big enough for 2 people to pass walking. We duck under awnings and building outcroppings, and generally pick our way through the back streets and lanes of the Wong Wian Yai residential area. Very, very fun!
We cycle right up to the train station – which is actually just the track in the middle of the city with a market surrounding it. As we are wheeling our bikes toward our loading are, the National 
Anthem begins to play. It must be 8:00am! Every day, 8:00am, the National Anthem is played and everyone stops what they are doing to listen. We all stop where we are and wait until it is over so we can resume our train loading strategy. Once in place, ladies get on first to save seats because “no one will sit by you because you are strange”. LOL. Then the guys will hand the bikes up in tag team fashion. Works pretty well – and we’re the first one’s on the train with plenty of seats to choose from.
We have 10 minutes before we leave, so Nok 
goes off to buy us some snacks which include Rose Apples (they are SO good – look like apples, taste more like pears! Yum) and my personal favorite – grilled bananas. Yay. Snacks!
8:35 – and off we go. The train pulls out right on time and we sit in our little plastic seats and watch as Bangkok passes right by us. And the term “right by” is pretty accurate. Buildings, trees, houses, they are all inches from this train hurtling down the tracks. We can see into peoples’ bedrooms, living rooms, worlds. Reach out and touch trees and and shrubs – it’s amazing. All along the way, we stop at train stations and more people pile onto this train headed south to Mahachai. By the time we get to our stop (the last stop), the train is jam packed. We manage to haul the bikes off and then have to wheel them out of the station and through the market. Holy cow! The people. The market. It’s a huge seafood market (because, of course, it’s located right at the major fishing port) and it is teeming with people and incredible seafood. If I were more coordinated, I would have walked the bike and videoed the scene – but I was more worried about getting myself through the crowds with the bike intact (and not hauled off with each passing car or scooter) so the few pictures I snapped will have to suffice.
After a quick bathroom break, we were able to get on the bikes and head to the pier – we literally rode our
bikes right onto the little ferry boat! Right over the tires that are used as bumpers on the pier – and up onto the boat! Wow! The ferry took us on a quick trip across the water where we began our countryside journey. From here, we wound our way through the village and out into country lanes, past fish farms and wats (one of which was for travelers and we stopped there to give our respects to the spirits to help us with a safe journey), and little settlements of people who were almost more interested in us than we in them! The only time they see foreigners out here in this area is when Nok and 
Roland bring their bike tours – so everyone would come to their doors or outside to see us go by. It never failed, everyone was excited and waved and called hello or bye bye or something to us. Too fun!
We stopped at one particular wat where there was a large elephant statue with an odd cup contraption over top of its head. This is where you can make a wish by putting a coin in a cup, then turning the winch handle and trying to drop the coin in the bowl at the elephant’s head. If the coin goes in, you need to circle the elephant 3 times, and your wish will come true. Then when it does come true, you have to come back and thank the spirits. The two Dutch kids tried this – and both did it successfully, so hopefully they will get their wish to come true.
We then had a little lesson on the national lottery – there were two vendors there and the Dutch family asked Nok about it. They eventually bought a packet of tickets. We all hoped that one of the kids had wished for money or good luck or something! 
We also went through a little museum about the salt farming industry. It had some interesting pictures and tools used in salt farming. Then we watched the construction of a building on the property. Only because they were pouring concrete on one of the top floors. But instead of mixing the concrete where they were working – they were mixing it on the ground and sending it up in 2 pails. The pails were attached to a pulley, and the pulley was being raised by two men who would run with the pulley rope in their hands. Over and over they did this….in the baking sun and heat. Absolutely amazing the stamina and work ethic. There has to be an easier way, doesn’t there? 
Now that our entertainment was over, we headed back out in the country, sighting birds and fish farms and krill drying operations. We road past meters of blue netting with krill on top, drying in the sun, and laying on one lane of the road. While not really allowed on the road, apparently the krill catch was too plentiful to keep the drying operation in its rightful place – so – what the heck! To the road we go. These particular catches will be used for the shrimp paste found all over Thailand. The krill now is it’s natural soft pink color, but die will be added when it is processed to give a more vibrant pink color.
Next we head to the “beach” – a rocky promontory at the edge of the Bay of Siam – that is reachable only through some really thick mud (which is not a part of biking where I excel and I have great fears that I will not make it through this unscathed). You can see the fishing boats out in the bay – as well as all the bamboo that has been placed in the water as a sort of manmade jetty to protect the land from rough waters. The bamboo is all over the place and we can’t decide if it’s for protection or an attempt at reclamation to keep the area from sinking further into the water. We pose for pictures, and then we all, me included, make it back safely through the mud and continue on!
Next up is a squid drying operation. Thousands of little squid all laying out in the sun – Ed is in heaven! Too bad he can’t grab some of these for later – but, well – obviously we wouldn’t be able to cook them here in Bangkok – and they’re not coming on the plane to Chiang Mai with us – that’s for certain.
A few kilometers more and we break for lunch at a lovely little restaurant right on the water. We feast on seafood – of course – crab in a curry sauce, seafood soup, tempura vegetables, glass noodles with a surprise (shrimp on the bottom of the bowl) and a local mussel dish found only in the region made up of straw mussels (they actually live and grow in a shell shaped like a straw) that is very spicy. I pass on that – but everyone who tried it liked it. We hang out for a while just “chilling” and watching the kids “fish” for mud crabs in between the board walks connecting the eating areas and kitchen. And we get our first water monitor sighting – the things look like a cross between a crocodile and a snake.
What a great respite in the middle of our biking! Now it’s time to take off and head to the salt farms.
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