Phillip kissed a snake today

We went on an excursion today to the floating market, a cobra show,  handcrafted wood exhibition, elephant show, and Thai cultural performance. A full day, leaving the hotel around 7 am and returning after 5 pm. We traveled in a van with a tour guide, so although hundreds of people were at the same locations we were, a dozen of us stayed together. Our first stop was at the floating market, where we got out of the van and into a long boat for the 15 minute boat ride to the market.

At the market, we saw people in boats buying from vendors in boats. It was a water version of the market, complete with food vendors making noodle soup on their boats. I don’t think I ‘d want to deal with boiling liquid on these narrow boats!

After the visit to the floating market, we traveled to the cobra show. David and Miriam had seen it two years ago when they brought Peter and Andrew, so they didn’t pay to watch the show again this time. They missed seeing Phillip kiss the snake after the show!

The cobra show was in a small amphitheater with only a two foot tall wall between us and the snakes. And Phillip went to the front row to sit! We couldn’t take our eyes off the men who handled these snakes. Look at the concentration on this guy’s face.

Several demonstrations of the snakes, and I will say I jumped when the snake in this picture punctured the balloon to show us they really did have fangs.

At one point in the show, the handlers brought one around for us to touch. The handler had a good grip on the snake, so I did touch him, but this was as close as I wanted to get. I really don’t mind snakes (except the copperheads in my garden), but admiring them from a distance is fine for me. But not for Phillip! This is a python that he got friendly with! Even kissing it!

After the cobra show, we visited an exhibition of handcrafted wood. The folks working on the wood were artisans with tremendous talent to create these intricate designs in the teak and palm wood. No computer designs here with laser etching. These people were using wood chiseling tools to create works of art.

Phillip and Miriam took a break in the furniture area of this exhibit hall.

We spent the afternoon at the Rose Garden, where we saw an elephant show and the Thai cultural performance. Before the show, this small, 2-year old elephant was walking around the people and posing for pictures. His mahout (official term for an elephant handler) kept ahold of the elephant’s ear and apparently transmitted commands by pressure on the top of this guy’s ear. The actual elephant show was similar to the one we saw when we rode the elephants, but Phillip got a good picture of the demonstration of how elephants help move large objects, like this log:

The elephant show was outside, at about 2:30 pm. It was hot and humid, so we were glad to move inside for our next activity, the cultural show. The performance started with Thai music played on traditional instruments, xylophone-like ones. More music and a lot of dancing. The most unusual dance was the fingertip dance:

These ladies had long, rather wicked-looking tips on their fingers. They moved their hands and these tips beautifully with the music. More commonly seen Thai dances were also performed, as well as a humorous demonstration of muay thai.

It was a full day of activities… and I leave this post with a picture I took of a colorful parasol display near the Thai performance center.