Today we visited a tailor that Eddie had set us up with. James Tailor!! I know but that really was the name! I had heard that Bangkok was the place to have clothes made, but didnt think we had time. We were leaving in 2 days.
We were picked up at 10am. A common occurrence here is that organizations will provide transportation to their store or activity and pick you up from your hotel. This is wonderful as traffic and parking are horrible. Half an hour later we entered a showroom filled with beautiful fabrics! Oh dear! This was going to be fun! Leon started by looking through magazines for styles. Then we walked through the showroom picking out fabrics. There were 2 floors of aisles of bolts of all kinds of fabrics in hundreds of different colors and patterns! It was beautiful! They would snip pieces off as we chose. Suit, shirt & pant fabrics. Meanwhile, the girls had picked out their styles for dresses they wanted! It was so cute how they talked about their designs! Choosing fabric was a bit harder for them! Elise knew what she wanted but Sara was a bit overwhelmed! Then it was my turn! Luckily Elise helped me! I found quite a few fabrics I liked for trousers. This was just like my old days at Bloomingdales! We then had to narrow down the assortments of fabrics! Then we discussed the final details of the styling, they took measurements and notes. The staff was great at giving opinions and suggestions. By tomorrow they would have samples ready for us to try, and then all finished items would be ready by the time we left on thursday! I couldn’t believe it! But he said they had over 100 tailors working 24 hours! It was a fun morning!
We rushed back to the hotel for a quick lunch, then was picked up for a rice barge cruise down the Chao Phraya River! This is the main river that runs through Bangkok and empties into the Gulf of Thailand. We started off on a long tail boat which maneuvered through the canals. This gave us a wonderful view of the skyline before we turned off to enter the canals. There are 80 canals in Bangkok. Some natural ,some man made. There were many homes along the canals. They had been built on stilts and many didn’t have road access so docks were built in front to provide boat access! Many didn’t look very safe I must say! Some had little shops set up in the front and were selling thing like fruits, vegetables and drinks! This was a very different way of life!
A common site was a small canoe type boat that would paddle along the river selling snacks, drinks, and souvenirs to the tourists. I think these people search out the tourist boats and approach.
We then arrived a another dock and disembarked the small boat and boarded a converted rice barge. Here we were offered a beautiful spread of drinks and traditional fruits & vegetables as we cruised along the city. Here is a funny story. I had noticed a woman on the barge with a “Kennedy Space Center launch visitor” button on her cap. I had to ask! Not only had she been to a launch, she was from Melbourne Florida – no way!! And she was originally from New York! What a small world! I kept running from the front to the back of the boat taking pictures! It was a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon and to see so much of the city!
We ended a very busy day with dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant. It was very yummy! I’m proud of the girls – they have tried many different cuisines. Again this is something that I had hoped for them as part of this wonderful adventure we are on!
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