ZH’s first solo vacation in Thailand: Day 3 of 12

Day Three: Day trip to Damnoen Saduak floating market and cooking ‘Bunny’ pan mee at home

We decided to go ahead with our Damnoen Saduak floating market plan since ZH had a good night rest the day before.

Damnoen Saduak is about 100 km southwest of Bangkok, around 2 hours drive. The trip will only take half a day, including travel time. So that leaves us ample time to reach home early, for a good night rest before our trip to Hua Hin the day after. Not only that, we can also prepare and cook a Thank You dinner for Uncle Vich.

It seemed that ZH wakes up according to Malaysia’s time, but sleeps according to Thailand time.

This morning, she woke up at 6.30am again. Yiyi (aunt) again follow suit, and Uncle Vich woke up not long after. He has volunteered to drive us, even though I already planned to take minivan from Victory Monument.

I prepared fruits for her breakfast again: cut a guava in half and peel some rambutans. ZH watered our plants whilst waiting for breakfast to be ready.

We left home before 8am, and immediately got stuck in Bangkok’s infamous rush-hour traffic. As we entered Expressway, ZH needed to use the toilet. It was kinda dejavu, as Uncle Vich encountered the same thing with ZH five years ago.

We had no choice but to detour, and that added time to our journey.

As it was quite a long drive, ZH frequently asked ‘how long more before we arrive?”, and will proceed to countdown accordingly.

ZH’s countdown was so cheery, that she never failed to make us smile. She always drags the nines when she countdowns … nineeeeeteen, twenty, wentynineeeeee, thirty. And yiyi sometimes managed to sidetracked and confused her during the counting.

We got local price left, right and center, thanks to Uncle Vich. Well, it was nice .. but as I undersood every single words exchanged, so kinda weird to hear the sellers repeating they charge foreigners more. But at least it’s still within reasonable price range, so I think it’s still tolerable.

Uncle Vich paid 300 baht for a paddle boat (otherwise it’s 450 baht, or 750 baht for a boat with motor engine). And the local price momentum continued throughout our trip … 40 baht (instead of 50 baht) for ZH’s coconut drink, 100 baht (instead of 130 baht) for ZH’s tuk-tuk souvenir, 100 baht (instead of 150 baht) for photo souvenir.

We opted for paddle boat as it’s more environmental friendly. Our elderly boatman still uses a paddle boat, but we saw some young boatmen using motor engine boat! Tsk Tsk.

I prefer Amphawa floating market to Damnoen Saduak floating market. But Damnoen Saduak has its own charms. It’s interesting watching the boatmen/women navigate their boats, and trying to balance a piping hot bowl of noodle inside a moving boat.

We were very lucky to get an elderly boatman. He was very attentive to ZH, making sure her hands are safe inside our boat. He also did not rush us. He patiently wait for ZH to eat her noodles, as she had difficulties balancing her bowl of noodle. We also appreciate that he did not steer us towards ‘commercialized’ seller.

I I valued it so much that I upped Uncle Vich’s tip from 100 baht, to 200 baht. Omotenashi, and we got a very happy boatman.

We reached home in the early afternoon, and ZH watched TV whilst chatting with her mom and sis. She excitedly looked forward to cooking and eating pan mee dinner. Sshhh … she ate the most, but that’s okay.

It was a pan mee unlike others, as we made bunny-shaped pan mee this time. She wanted to surprise Uncle Vich so much. I think the cat was out of the bag by the many reminders she gave to him, to stay inside the bedroom. Haha.

Continuing from Day Two, I reflect on the day and take time to marvel at the wonders of ZH:

• She thanked me for preparing her breakfast.
• She cried because she knew she should have voiced out earlier when she needs to use the toilet. And she didn’t want to trouble Uncle Vich to make a detour for her.
• She resisted the many temptations at  Damnoen Saduak floating market.
• She said ‘no’ to the photo souvenir at Damnoen Saduak floating market as she didn’t want to simply spend her pocket money. When we bought it for her as a present, she was appreciative and clearly loves it. An 8-year old able to exercise control of wants versus needs. Wow!! Shame on some adults, no?!
• After earlier toilet-facility problem, she didn’t drink much water in the car, as she wants to prevent similar problem.
• She exercised control in watching TV.
• She rationed her reading, as she only has one book left. And she didn’t want to spend money on books (thinking that it’s expensive).
• She didn’t know how to drain the water in bathtub after her bath. She then forgotten about it, realized it and came apologizing.

At 8.30pm, she was sound asleep. Good night. ZH. Rest well for ‘holiday in holiday, in holiday’ tomorrow.