Aroy Mak!

Aroy mak!  This, in my horribly rough English translation, mean "very good" in Thai.  And that's one of the best ways to sum up today....

Tang and I were picked up early by the family, and we drove 1.5 hours south to Samut Songkhram (a district along the coast) for the local water market.  The water market shows how Thais along the coast (and Bangkok, to an extent) lived and worked and shopped before roads and cars.  Everything was done on canals and boats.

Today, these water markets are mainly a tourist attraction but super cool to my Western eyes.  We hired a boat and driver to take us through the market.  Along the canals, in boats and on the dock areas adjacent, men and women cooked food or sold souvenirs.  Most of the food was sold straight out of the boats, whether it was fresh fruit and drinks (including coconut juice straight from the source - check out my pic below!) or hot noodle dishes.  For the noodle dishes, the cooks brought their gas burners and big woks and all their ingredients into their boats.  The tourists floating by would order a dish, and it would be cooked right there in front of them.  Super fun morning!

After the water market and a walk around a park, we went to a restaurant by the ocean that Mama D really likes.  And we had some of the best seafood dishes I've ever tasted!  See the pictures and descriptions below.

Our boat to the market

Water market!

Making spring rolls on his boat

Boat full of fruit - bananas, mangosteens, and mangos

Coconut - tasty and refreshing

Boat noodles

While at the park, we saw some boys practicing traditional Thai ballet

Tasty lunch - L to R - grilled mackerel, crab in curry sauce and razor clams

Dinner at MK, a sukiyaki (or hot pot) restaurant.  You order your ingredients (veg, meat, tofu) and cook them in a pot in the center of the table.

More lunch - shrimp - and these were the small ones!