Floating Market

The other morning Bob rented a long James Bond style boat for the morning. The driver/ pilot picked us up at our front door. How cool is that. This is because Thailand has long been known as the Venice of Asia and Bob and Sami's property sit on one of the canals.

It took maybe 30-40 minutes to get to the Floating Market but the whole time was so enjoyable because right and left there were houses and people to see. So much more fun than taking a boat on the sea where there's nothing but water all around. We look lots of photos - to be uploaded when we're back cause I'm not on our own computer.

Got saffron and a few little souvenirs at the market, and then we had lunch. Sami picked our meal from one of the boat vendors and it was delivered steaming hot to our table: a wet soup and dry soup. Same ingredients in both only one had hot water and one didn't. Both were delicious.


Our boat driver waiting for us and when it was time to head back, he dropped Sami, Hans and I off at her sister and brother in law's place. They live in the old parental house and while we visited, Bob and Atom (their young nephew who's spending the summer) carried on in the boat and picked up the car, then returned to fetch us.

Along the way, we found this to be an odd image: a fairly poor looking residence with a satellite dish.



Sami comes from a family of 10 siblings and each one was left a portion of the land the parents had accumulated during their lives. We've now met several of her siblings and so far, they all live on a canal. Bob and Sami also have mango, banana, dragon fruit and guava trees on their property. In fact, I'm going to have some mangos or lunch!

Before heading back home, we walked through some of the high land portions between the canals to visit her 3rd youngest sibling. Suni is one of only 8 female monks in Thailand. She lives alone in a little bamboo hut somewhere in the canal system in a grove of coconut trees. As a female,she's not welcomed in the temples with the male monks.

Thailand used to have female monks but over time, they died out. Only a female monk can ordain another female. As a result, Suni had to go to Sri Lanka to find a sufficiently senior female monk to ordain her and now, she's waiting to have a temple hall built across from her little bamboo room. Meanwhile, she teaches English to local kids and like other monks, relies on the generosity of the local people to bring her daily food and water. As a monk, she's not permitted to prepare or pick her own food except when she travels. She has a Buddha shrine set up and says she spends her days peacefully and quietly.

This is where she lives.