Trekking Day 2

For our second day at the floating markets, a bunch of other SEAS students and I got up early to watch the monks receive alms. I was really glad I got a chance to do this because it is a bug part of buddhist culture, but we could never get to the city quick enough to see it in Bangkok. I went to the riverside around 6:20 in the morning. The monks paddled their boats up to the lobby of our hotel (which was open to the river) and people went down to give alms in exchange for prayer. Once a monk was done receiving alms at a certain location, he would speak a prayer for those people. The prayer was spoken in Thai and was absolutely beautiful to hear! I went back to sleep for a couple of hours after that, and then woke up to see the market alive in the day. We ordered some food for breakfast off of a boat! The boat complete with all the ingredients necessary for cook Thai food and rowed right up to the hotel. I’m not quite sure what I ordered, but it was so spicy I couldn’t even finish it! After relaxing by the river for a couple more minutes, I went to get packed up for our next adventure! We took a bus to a different floating market, that was much more touristy. The first one wasn’t really touristy at all! After looking around at all the landed vendors, we hoped on a boat to see the floating vendors. There were entire stores on little canoes! I was feeling sick from the motion of the boat, so I hoped off early, but not before buying some bananas from a women on her own boat who rowed up next to us. After getting off the boat I decided I needed to relax for a little while and got a massage while sipping water in hopes of feeling better. The massage wasn’t as great as the professional ones I’ve gotten here in Thailand, but it was still nice. I did a little more shopping and bought a Carolina Blue bracelet before we embarked on the long drive to Kanchanaburi.

We got settled into our bungalows at Erawan National Park around 4:30, and then went to do a little bit of exploring! We found some beautiful waterfalls and some of the boys went swimming in the clear blue water. I eventually gave in and jumped into the water with my clothes on. After getting cleaned up we went to have a delicious feast prepared by a restaurant at the national park; we finished the night with a group game of fishbowl!