25th November 2008

We woke up early around 5am to be collected at 7 am to go to the floating market.  We were dropped of some way from the Taling Chan floating market and had to take a long boat to get to the market.  This was great fun as the boats sped down the narrow water-ways passing rural life in Thailand.  When we arrived we disembarked and strolled around the market and looked at the vendors selling their wares from small boats on the canal. The energy and pace of the place was phenomenal, people selling just about anything from their small boats each jostling for space near a customer, it was a sea of boats without sight of the water.  The bright colours and noise all around where quite exciting to experience.  We got back to the hotel around one o'clock but the airport was still being blockaded by democracy protesters so our flight to Chiang Mai was cancelled that evening.  We eventually managed to be book another flight from the old Bangkok airport on NOK AIR.  We arrived in Chiang Mai around 2130 and checked into the Banthai Village hotel