Oh my its Thai

Day 2 Thailand. I woke up at 6:35. My tour van was scheduled to pick me up at 6:30. I threw on my jeans and ran out the door. I felt like a total slob, and looked like one too. The van finally came at 7:30. I was a bit stressed starting the day thinking I got totally ripped off by the travel agent but then they came and the day started to go much better. There were 10 of us of the tour and everyone spole English and all were friendly (a nice change after my Goa tours!) It was an extremely educational day (not that I'll remember everything but here it goes...) We drove past salt fields on the way to our first stop. I guess it is made from taking the salt out of the sea water. (So I've seen where your salt comes from Grandma!) I also learned that Bangkok has over 4000 temples in it. Most of them are Buddist temples. I tried to learn more about Budism from my tour guide but she was a bit difficult to understand! We stopped at a place where they make sugar and massage oil from coconuts. Then we went to the floating river market. People line the canal with their flat boats and then you can shop from a flat boat. It was quite unique. The merchants here don't hassle you as much as in India, which is also a welcome change. I had some fried coconut milk pankakes there and tried coconut water (for the second time) and actually liked it this time. (Are you catching a theme here...COCONUTS! They are everywhere...umm yeah anyway...) Then is was off to a snake show. The most memorable part of which was the pre-show during which some guy walked aroudn holding out a snake while the announcer said again and again (insert broken English Thai accent here) "Snake haaa 2 penis, 2 time the fun!" Yikes! Then we went to a place where merchants were making and selling intricate wood carvings. There was everything from full size elephants to small carved boxes. We then had a buffet lunch and then went to a place called the Rose Garden. There was an Elephant show there, and obviosly rose gardens. The last thing was a Thai culture show complete with traditional dancing, a wedding ceremony, Thai full contact wrestling and sword fights. Oh wait my bad...last stop was....another jewelery store! It is a huge scam, not supposed to be part of the tour, but all the drivers go there so they get free gas. This time we even had to sit throw a video about the sapphires and rubies of Thailand. Yeah anyway, so I'm tired now and another girl is waiting for the computer. More tomorrow...another tour...yikes!