TRANSCRIPT:
We made a short trip back to the Grand Palace to meet Apple our tour guide.
Apple will be showing us the food market the canal, Santa Cruz church and some Thai boxing.
But first up are the markets and to get there we took another boat, thankfully this one was not quite as busy.
Apple explained she was taking us to a restaurant located in the middle of Wiang Liang food market.
She described it as a local market that fewer tourists visited, meaning the Thai people could sell what they liked and without any Western influence.
As we weave through the market, we found the restaurant and we’re eager to try some local signature dishes.
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We made our way onto the boat and went on the main river before turning into the back street canals to see a different side of Bangkok.
As we darted through the canal, I was feeling pretty pleased to have seen a monitor lizard, there was also so much more to see the architecture nature and floaty stores were very cool.
We came to stop to buy some local bread for the fish I can’t believe how many there were there were hundreds. After feeling the fish sat back and enjoyed the river of the rest the tour.
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I have to admit that this was a real highlight the canal is beautiful, and everyone seemed really friendly and happy.
There was always something interesting and varied around every corner and I was especially fun when the boat stepped up again.
The boat moored next to our next destination Santa Cruz church one of the many old catholic churches in Bangkok and part of an old Portuguese settlement.
Bangkok has grown so much that covers all of the excess area, so there is no longer lots of capitals there is now only just one.
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As Apple took us around the local houses in this area, she gave us her opinion on tourism in Thailand.
The church and surrounding buildings were so beautiful, and the area was very peaceful and a much-needed break from the chaos of the inner city.
The penultimate stop of the day was to watch Thailand’s national sport Muay Thai boxing at the famous Rajadamnern boxing stadium.
So, as we said goodbye to the Santa Cruz church Apple reminded us just how she remembers the real name of Bangkok.
As we made our way into the stadium, I got a real sense of just how important the sport was for Thai people and I could not wait to see it.
Muay Thai is over 2000 years old and formed during the medieval period as a form of hand-to-hand combat during the times of war.
A ritual dance is performed before each fight called the Wai Kru and it aims to pay homage to their teachers’ family and to bless themselves with victory in the ring.
Muay Thai is one of the fastest growing forms of martial arts over the last 80 years.
And is the combination of limbs into what is considered the eighth weapons of Muay Thai… elbows, fists, knees, legs, the shins, and feet and some consider the use of the head to be the ninth weapon of Muay Thai.
This ancient style of fighting aims to use limbs to mimic weapons of war by the sword or a dagger. I have to admit I found the boxing brutal and quite hard to watch at times.
In fact, one match had to be stopped as one of the fighters was too badly injured to continue some of them seemed so young too but Apple assured me that they really enjoy it and I could tell that Apple was loving it as well
Meeting Apple has been great, and she has taught us so much about Thailand, and the tourism here and we thoroughly recommend her tour from the company Your Thai Guide.
After quite an intense evening watching Muay Thai we decided to have a little downtime in soi Rambutttri, which is the less busy and more authentic street just around the corner from its busier counterpart Khao San Road.
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