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 We had the same driver the next morning but a new guide and a trainee guide. The guides
outnumbered the guided and the air conditioning worked, which would be key again as it was already steamy. Our new guide was a young woman who told us to call her Nancy, as
we would never be able to pronounce her real name. Her English was fine but her accent was a little harder to understand. She was from Southern Thailand and also spoke
Japanese and Chinese along with a few Thai dialects.
 We took off through the Bangkok traffic for our tour of the "real"
Thailand. It took a couple of hours to get to the first stop; a combined coconut farm and Thai craft area. There were more crafts than tour here and we
bought a Thai puppet dressed in one of the traditional costumes worn the night before during the dance performance. We then left for our next stop. We were going to see a Thai floating market.
  Our mode of transport was a long tail boat so we were going to have the chance to ride in one. The boat took us several miles through a maze of canals, which was a
roadway into the interior. The canals were lined with traditional Thai homes, some modest, some quite striking. The homes had address plaques and mailboxes
down by the canal. The RR mailbox system of Thailand. Even though the canals were muddy, they were used to bathe in by the residents. We zipped down these canals with the driver slowing down
only at intersections and (maybe) when 2 or 3 boats were passing each other going different directions. We got to the floating market without incident.
 "Floating Market" is a bit of a misnomer. While there were many small boats with
vendors selling farm products, most of the market was on land in an open market area. Some of the stores were even enclosed and had air conditioning, not a bad thing
considering it was stifling out. We bought a few souvenirs and Gisele bought some Thai silk to send home. We also went across the street to an adjacent market and Gisele found a very nice silk dress.
 This was also the place where Arnie met his first Python. Nancy
and the snake owner held it and Gisele let Arnie inspect it. He was not impressed and said he wanted to see real animals like elephants.
 Our driver had brought the minivan to the market and we
left for a lunch at a local restaurant. The setting was cute as you can see, but the open canal next to our table attracted more than a few flying insects. The food was OK
but the highlight was a beer, which was direly needed in the noonday swelter. After lunch we took off for the next venue that was another animal farm.
 This was a lot better than the python. Arnie and
Gisele got to meet and pet a couple of Asian tigers. They were well fed and sleepy and neither Arnie nor Gisele looked like a decent desert. Larry bravely manned the cameras.
 After this we met some elephants up close. The baby
elephant thought Arnie might be lunch but we convinced him to eat some bamboo instead. Gisele and Arnie then sat on the lap of one of his brothers. This only wet their appetites for more.
The heat was oppressive and we decided to pass up the elephant show with elephants playing soccer and other stuff and to avoid the crocodile wrestling show. Although the
elephant show sounded like fun, the crowds were huge. And it would likely be considered poor taste to cheer for the crocs...
 Instead of the shows, Gisele and Arnie opted for a half hour ride on an elephant.  Larry's job was to take the photos and dodge the elephant debris to put
it kindly. After their Raja act, we decided to call it a day before we collapsed of heat prostration. We swung by the crocodile pools on the way out to confirm that they really do look mean and
ugly and left for the long ride back to Bangkok. This turned out to be a 2-hour ride in rush hour traffic. We thanked the driver and guides for a great two days and got ready for dinner. We had
another great Chinese meal at the hotel Chinese restaurant.
We were up at the crack of dawn the next morning to leave for Singapore. The rains had held off for us except for overnight thundershowers so Gisele's offering at the reclining Buddha's temple had worked.
The visit to Bangkok was a wonderful introduction to the country and we were happy to have made the trip.
We got to the airport for our flight to Singapore via a circuitous route as an accident had shut down the main
access road to the airport. Still, we had time to spare and spent some time in the steamy Bangkok airport. The
departure immigration folks were as unfriendly as the arrivals ones (the worst so far in our experience). True ambassadors for their wonderful country. Once again we were in a Big Top 747 for our flight to Singapore via Singapore Airlines. The flight was OK but the service and food was not up to their reputation. This was a
precursor for our next flight. Singapore Airlines gets two thumbs down for poor service. Their reputation is alot better than they are!
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