Samut Songkhram

First stop, famous railway market where train literally drives through market several times a day. A little anti-climatic, but we were there!

Next, we visited a coconut farm and learned about the many uses made of the entire coconut tree- so many! They demonstrated the process of making coconut sugar, and we tasted the delicious semi- firm product. It is similar to maple sugar making, but instead of tapping the tree for the sap, they tap the coconut blossoms. The picture shows the tube used for collection and flower peeking out at the top.

We then picked up our next form of transportation - a long tail dragon boat which took us to Damnernsaduak floating market. Getting to the market drop off point was an adventure that involved a boat traffic jam and lots of diesel exhaust inhalation, but we enjoyed sampling a couple of Thai specialties. Mango sticky rice did not disappoint!

A different dragon boat transported us through Klong-Khone mangrove forest, where we fed fruit and pieces of corn in to the long tailed macaques living there. This is an activity where you are advised to throw the food really far from the boat so the monkeys don’t get close and attempt to board. We survived the gauntlet to motor around in the Sea of Thailand and see the oyster farms, punctuated by ‘kopangs’ - little stilt treehouse type buildings used by the families for processing and other sea farming activities.

After a very long activity filled day, we boarded another boat for our nighttime ride to River Kwai Reshotel. The rooms were in separate casitas and were exactly what you’d want from a tropical resort. Approaching at night was quite magical- pictures are from the following morning.Read more