the tour

The tour actually turned out pretty good! First, we went to a floating market via long-tail (long canoe with a motor - looks like the engine in your car, with a long propeller attached) about 2 hours away from Bangkok. Everyone piles up what they have to sell on their long-tail (w/o motor) and paddles through the canal buying/selling/trading goods. The canal isn't more than 6 boats wide, so everyone is bumping into each other trying to navigate, Thais are shouting to each other, and money/goods are passed through your boat if you are in the way. You could tell it once used to be a great way to buy/sell your goods - I am sure the 70-80 year old women who were paddling/steering the boats have watched the market change to accommodate tourists over the years and shake their heads. I am guilty of being a typical tourist at this point because the market was my favorite part about the first 3 days!
From the Market, we went another 45 min. north to the Tiger Temple. I'm not sure what I expected ( a beautiful outdoor temple, with tigers roaming around in a pristine environment - or something like that....) but I was a bit surprised. It is an outdoor sanctuary for several animals (deer, hogs, bulls, chickens...a bit random), with the tigers on a schedule where they eat/exercise in the morning, then are chained up to trees so tourists can come pet them and take pictures. By the afternoon when it is open to tourists, the tigers are practically asleep (they sleep for 18 hours a day). The volunteers take your hand (and don't let go) and take you to each tiger to get your picture taken. Of course I went along with it - and soon as I have have my camera cable and camera with me at the computer I will try to upload some pics...I do have to say it is pretty crazy petting a full gown tiger! After we had our pictures taken, we went up to see and play with the cubs (a couple months old - separated from their moms) - they were so cute!!
We went up to visit the outdoor temple (closer to what I thought it would be like), and it started to thunder and downpour rain! We sat it out a bit (rain doesn't last much longer than an hour here so far) and then ran to the bus to head home.
I have experienced a bit of the crazy Thai drives in the tuk tuks, and cabs, but our driver on the way home was something else. I always though two lanes were meant for two cars...but this guy seemed to think there was enough room on the shoulder to make a third! Changing lanes when clearly there is a car there, someone finally end up giving in and either slowing down or speeding up (mostly speeding up) and weaving through traffic while trying to avoid the scooters on the side of the road. Our 3.25 hour drive took about 2.5 hours...so you could say I didn't really get to nap on the way home.
Ahhh, can't wait to head out to the islands tomorrow!