29 Nov 2017
The floating market is 100km from Bangkok and more than an hour in traffic.
Our tour guide was friendly middle aged lady who spoke English well.
We stopped at a touristy place on the way to stretch our legs and watched the locals make products from coconut oil and milk. We also wondered around a kiosk with beautiful but very overpriced souvenirs.
We carried on to the Floating Market which we thoroughly enjoyed.
This was one of the things I was looking forward to most and I'm glad we got to experience it.
It was AMAZING!!!
We walked around the market and found a lovely stall, near the exit, that had a lot of cool souvenirs at very good prices. The stall owner was extremely friendly.
At some point we lost our tour guide or she lost us, and am sad to say it was downhill from there.
She was not very pleasant, a little peevish and surly the rest of the day.
We didn't really enjoy the trip to the Chedi, it was a little rundown. Having seen the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha the day before, I think we could have skipped this. I would not recommend you skip it unless it has some cultural/religious/other special significance to you. Before drivinf to the Chedi, our guide did ask us if we wanted to see the Chedi or if we were hungry and want to go straight to the buffet at Rose Garden instead. I think what she actually meant was do you want to see the Chedi even if it means you'll arrive at the buffet late when everything is cold or almost gone
The Rose Garden is very touristy but seeing as I am a tourist I did enjoy it. If you're expecting to walk around an actual Thai village and observe the locals you will be disappointed. The setting is beautiful and there are a few traditional Thai houses on display.
We went around to different stations showcasing different Thai customs. At each station we were split into small groups with an instructor giving us a demonstration and we were encouraged to participate.
The show at the end was good, I enjoyed the traditional Thai music and the bamboo stick dancing.
Audience members were allowed to participate in the final dance which was awesome.