Bangkok is as lush as Dubai was dry. That water is part of their way of life is no surprise. At the Damneok Saoeuk floating market, you can take a long boat down the watery streets where vendors tout their wares. 
They use hooked poles to grab your boat as you sail past, but they’re not as insistent as those in Dubai, who border on aggressive: they present their wares and take “no thank you” for an answer (whoever came up with the phrase “take no for an answer” just wasn’t brought up proper, like what I was). Occasionally they stroke a mini guiro to attract your attention – it’s effective, polite and kind of relaxing all at the same time.
Like taxi drivers, it seems markets are the same the world over: a few different types of stall all selling the same thing. Most of it tat, but seemingly authentic tat. Great if that’s your thing, but I was content to go with the flow (well, I didn’t really have a choice being in a long boat without the paddle) and just enjoy being there.
Towards the end, we went round some of the more residential areas. Houses on stilts:
Raised “roads”:
A series of man-made canals supporting small communities:
Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.
Further north is the “Death Railway”.
When allied forces prevented sea transportation between Thailand (then Siam) and Burma during the Second World War, the Japanese (who had relatively quickly and easily taken control of Siam) ordered a 250km railway to be built. It is estimated that 16,000 prisoners of war (POW) and 100,000 local Asians lost their lives during its construction (mostly due to disease, malnutrition and exhaustion). Hence its name. Three bridges were constructed across the River Kwai: two wooden, one iron. Apparently, POWs deliberately chose poor-quality, unseasoned wood to significantly reduce the structures’ lifespan (and one was clever enough to build eight radios that enabled them to keep up-to-date with the news).
The iron bridge was snaffled (not the official term) from Java and brought by barge to Kanchanaburi where POWs re-assembled it.
The associated “Gallery and War Museum” was eclectic, informative, fascinating… and empty (a phenomenon explained using a variation of Pareto’s 80/20 rule: 80% of people don’t venture more than 20 metres from the car park).
Some things were lost in translation:
And others required some imagination. For instance, who is this?
Go on, have a guess – the uniform surely gives it away 😉
Answer: Winston Churchill.
Somewhat inexplicably, the “Miss Thailand Directory” also occupied the building:
As well as the main title, there were (are?) prizes for “Miss Photogenic”, “Miss Beautiful Face”, “Miss Beautiful Hair” and “Miss Outstanding Swimsuit” (I reckon I could contend this last one as I have an extensive collection, some quite unique… as long as I don’t have to actually wear it).
Also in the building were fine examples of “The World’s Minerals” and a rather uninspiring exhibition celebrating the souls lost in a war with Burma during C18/19. I skipped the “Museum of Archaeology, Stamps, Money, Watches”, but felt I’d got my money’s worth (entrance fee: 71p).
Two other, random things now follow. The toilets were, um, not for the immobile:
And the ants were gigantic:
Back on the bus for the 2-hour return journey to Bangkok after a really, really enjoyable, informative and interesting (and, I have to mention, very slickly-organised) day 🙂