I'm well rested after 6 hours of sleep in the first bed I've encountered in 3days! We stayed in a very nice hotel (although we didn't have time to enjoy it, just slept & ate breakfast then packed & left early in the morning for next place).
During the hour bus rides today, we saw several crops and learned about exporting from Thailand. 20% of Thai exports are sent to the US, that is the greatest amount. 15% of Thai exports go to Europe. Some items that are exported are prawn (like shrimp) and rice.
Rice fields:
One interesting natural product that we saw today was sea salt. We stopped along the side of a major road/highway to watch workers harvest the salt. The workers pack down the ground (in divided "fields") so it is hard & won't make the incoming ocean water muddy. The fields are located fairly close to the ocean bit I couldn't see the ocean so it isn't especially close. Twice a year, during summer, they open a dam which allows the salty ocean water to flow into the fields. Fifteen days layer the water has evaporated & the salt is left behind. The workers use a special technique to rake the salt into piles without picking up dirt with the salt. It is a very inexpensive process that produces a lot of product. (The pictures that I took of the process are on my camera so I will include them after I have returned to the US.)
We took another long-tailed boat to get to the floating market. This time we went through a series of narrow mad-made canals. This was my favorite part of the trip so far. In the floating market people sell goods and food from boats to customers who are also in boats. This is the way local people get all of the meat, fish, vegetables & fruit that they need. It is like going to the farmers market in the US. I bought coconut ice cream in a coconut shell for 30baht (90 cents US) and ate delicious fried banana pieces. Yum!
Later in the day we went back to Bangkok & visited the Temple of the First Pagoda,
the royal palace,
were taken on a boat taxi to feed fish bread (make a donation to animals for good karma), and went to the Temple of Dawn
. As soon as we got off the boat taxi we had to race to get to the train on time. We are taking the overnight train to Chiang Mai.
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