Second day in Bangkok

Kristen: We woke up at 5:30 am Thursday morning in order to meet our friends at their hotel at 6:30 am (which is where our tour van was picking us up). As we were stressed out sitting in our taxi in bumper to bumper traffic at 6:27 am, we sadly came to the conclusion that we might not be as cut out for The Amazing Race as we once thought we were. But suffice it to say we made it 10 minutes later and our friends and van were there waiting for us! Grant and Susan were stressed that we wouldn't make it as well haha, especially because it was nonrefundable and we had already paid cash ; ) Our first stop on our tour was the Damnoen Saduak Floating market, about 110 kms west of Bangkok. As seen in the James Bond film, Man with the Golden Gun, it is a water market, made up of a number of small canals which are patrolled by small boats piloted by crafty ladies always ready to sell their wares and jockey for position with their competitors (they even have sticks with hooks on the end to pull your boat towards their boat or stall haha). In between boat rides we had the most amazing chicken fried rice at one of the vendors on the water, then I bought half of a fresh cut pineapple for 50 cents! My favorite part of the floating market was when we got to take a long-tail boat ride through the town's canals. We sped along shallow brown canals with old women scrubbing their clothes in the water, and old men sitting on their porches with toothless smiles. As we approached one hut, a man ran inside when he saw us and came back out and held up his little boy who smiled and waved to everyone on our boat. There was a giant lizard swimming through the water that looked like a snake and it scared the bejeezus out of me : ) It was a crazy adventure for us to be able to see how these Thai people lived in such a remote environment and worked in the fields behind their house and just sat on their porches on the river to pass the time-- it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far.

David: Our next stop was about an hour west of the floating market, the bridge over the River Kwai. We had a brief stop at this extremely pivotal battle scene during the WWII in which Japanese forces built a bridge and a railroad in order to secure a secondary trade route from Thailand to Burma in order to help win the war on India. We walked on the bridge which doesn't have any means for people to walk (only the tracks and wood planks for the train to cross) till the middle of the bridge. That alone was an adventure for us not to try and fall into the holes. We took some great photos from the middle of the bridge and then slowly walked back to the concrete pillars that held it up. The Allies bombed the bridge many times and sank it in 1945. The original arches still keep the bridge up (which was rebuilt after the war) and a museum was built in honor of the 100,000 POW's who died while making this extremely technologically advanced bridge during this time. The Jeath War Musesum still has bones from over 200 bodies that were never identified. I really enjoyed the museum and the bridge because it was so raw and unchanged much like it was in 1945. The museum also had a ton of old Japanese war motorcycles that I got a big kick out of. Outside the musuem I also almost stepped on an GIANT iguana that I had no idea was there. It was like a small dog. Kristen payed 3 bucks to take a "photo shoot" on a small shop on the side of the road with a live leopard that was either a cub or a smaller one but was really cute. She was both excited and scared as she layed next to it and it moved around. Totally an awesome stop!

Kristen: Our next stop on the tour was The Tiger Temple. This Buddhist temple is similar to a wildlife sanctuary. They have about 50 tigers, along with water buffalo, boars, deer, goats, cows, peacocks and roosters. We were able to take pictures with about 5 different tigers-- one was massive. He weighed over 400 pounds and was so beautiful. They were chained/leashed to the ground during their resting time (which was when we got to see them). We walked around the temple grounds and saw monks walking and running with tigers. When we were walking to see the tiger cubs, water buffalo created a small stampede coming out of the water nearby (the animals roam completely free where all the vistors walk). The temple has some controversy,which we are still unsure about, people think the tigers are sedated because they are so calm/sleepy when tourists are allowed to see them. This sanctuary definitely would never be allowed in the states, PETA would be all over it! We were walking along a dirt path and saw a deer and David went up and was able to pet it because it was so used to being around humans.

David: On the 3 hour drive back we talked with Grant and Sus as well as a British Couple who have been traveling around the world for two years. The girl looked eerily like Anna Paquin from True Blood. Like JUST like her. I thought it was awesome that a Brit an Aussie and an American all were talking about sports, TV, scuba diving, they talked a ton about Rugby (I didn't contribute much) and the British show Top Gear which I love. The way all three of us have different terms for things but mean the same is a really funny part of the conversation. For instance "Mates" are wildly used by the Brits and Aussies to descibe their friends and "Partners" is when you have been in a serious relationship as opposed to just boyfriend and girlfriend. Great drive back! After we arrived back in Thailand we went shopping on Khao San Road the backpackers heaven, and went to a bar for some drinks and some food. After a couple of beers (and a diet coke!) we went back to the street shops and venues and did the best we could to barter our way down the prices. It was an epic day and we did a ton of stuff that were all super fun and amazing. Second day down, couldn't have thought it would be this awesome!