I still had a number of things that I had marked on my map that I had missed on previous trips or had added in at some point after a trip. On this day my first stop was at King Naresuan Monument and the Don Chedi (พระบรมราชานุสรณ์ดอนเจดีย์) in the province of Suphanburi.
There was work taking place around the monument and the whole Chedi area had sometype of event. There were a lot of people working on setting up stands for what I assumed would take place in the evening. I snapped a picture, went into a shop for a cup of coffee and then moved on.
I had spent some time in the city of Suphanburi in the past but didn't make it to the Suphanburi National Museum (พิพิธภัณฑสถานแห่งชาติสุพรรณบุรี). I had read that there is one price for foreigners and a much lower price for Thais which is very normal in Thailand. I also read if you are 60 and up you get in for free. I don't think this applies to foreigners but I assume there is no harm in asking. I asked in my best Thai (which is still very bad) if it was free since I am 61 and the lady let me in without having to buy a ticket. Following are a few pictures I took while enjoying my free entry.
My next stop was at Wat Phra Non (วัดพระนอน). Not sure if there was something specific that I was supposed to look at here but it just seemed like another temple. All I did here was sit on one of the blue swinging chairs in the photo, read and enjoyed the view of the river. I did have a conversation with a Thai man that I think wanted to practice his English. His English was very close to my level of Thai so we talked with a mix of both but I got a bit of a free Thai class or at low price of posing for a photo.
I didn't do a lot in Suphanburi but check into a hotel fairly early and watched some movies. The next morning was an early start for me I was going to Red Lotus Floating Market (ตลาดน้ำทุ่งบัวแดง) in Nakhon Pathom and I had read that you need to see the flowers before 10AM to see them in bloom. Google maps said the market opened at 8AM and I arrived shortly after that.
I was disappointed in the Red Lotus Floating Market. I have seen people's pictures of some of these places to see the Red Lotus and they look spectacle. The market looked rundown and most of the stands were empty. There were a few flowers but nothing like I had seen in online pictures. I sat and had a cup of coffee at the market and was surprised to see a group take a boat tour of what I called disappointing.
I ride past a lot of rice fields and I find so many of them to have pretty views but don't take many pictures of them. For some reason I stopped and snapped a picture of this rice field on my way to my next stop.
My next stop was at Uncle Jam's Lotus Field (นาบัวลุงแจ่ม). I had been disappointed in the Lotus Market so was not expecting much here. I can't say I was overly impressed but think if the lotus flowers here would all be in bloom it would be a lot more impressive than the market. It did not have a rundown feeling like the market but they seemed to be busy preparing for a large lunch and I felt a bit in the way. If there would have been someone at the coffee shop I would of at least bought a coffee.
I mark things on the map and then forget why I marked them. My next stop was one of these places. What I had marked on the map was not even a place but rather GPS coordinates. It seemed like a very large park with a Buddha statue in the middle. I think the name maybe Phutthamonthon (พุทธมณฑล) but not really sure I have the right name to go with this place. I still enjoyed the stop and have now removed the pin from my map.
My last tourist stop of this trip was at Don Wai Floating Market (ตลาดน้ำดอนหวาย). I don't understand why it is called a floating market since it seems to all be on land but next to a river. It is open every day of the week unlike a lot of the Floating Markets that are visited mostly by Thai people on the weekends. Since it seemed to be just a normal market it did not have all the touristy stuff or the touristy feel that some of the markets I have posted about in the past. Here are the links to my recent posts on floating markets Samut Songkhram Floating Markets and the most well known Damnoen Saduak market.
I really enjoy going out and playing tourist but I am always excited to get home as well. I did not spend the full 2 weeks that I had allocated for the trip but feel like I accomplished what I set out to do. I spent time in 6 provinces that I may have pasted through in the past but didn't stop before. Maybe sometime next year I will be able to say I have visited all 77 of Thailand's provinces.
Following is my trip counter on the motorbike which says I did over 1,800 kilometers or over 1,000 miles. Thanks for following me along on my travels via my blog.
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