New Year's Eve

After the mangrove activities, we drove to Amphawa, a small nearby fishing village that comes alive on December 31.  Lots of Thais come here for the celebration and floating market.  We are just about the only farangs (white westerners) in town.  We checked into our hotel and had the evening to enjoy the Amphawa Floating Market before the midnight New Year's Eve countdown.  Starting a few hours before midnight, a singing group performs and the dance floor eventually is graced by our students, who quickly become local celebrities.  It's a fantastically fun evening and a real cultural experience.  Try counting backwards from ten in Thai or any non-English language!

One of the entrances to the floating market.  Lots of boats with people selling food are parked next to a boardwalk sidewalk.  You walk along, look down at the boats to decide what you'd like to eat.  Other vendors are along the boardwalk and street in the main part of the village.

View from a pedestrian bridge at the floating market.

This is my favorite stop at the floating market. The woman down in the boat prepares the food and hands it up to the man at the boardwalk level.  There is no better nacho dish in the world than Pad Thai Nachos served on a banana leaf.  Mmmmmm.

Gabi and Becca enjoying pad thai nachos.  None of the other students found it.  Too bad for them.

Various fresh seafoods are available from most of the boats.

Crabs, giant shrimp, and other seafood.

I have no idea what these are.

Squid on a stick.

Giant shrimp.

These crabs are attractive as well as tasty.

These things look like jumbo burritos but more fibrous.  I can't imagine eating one of them.

Long-kongs.  You peel off the thick yellow coating and underneath is a fleshy, juicy, sweet fruit.

Horseshoe crabs.  There's next to no meat on these things, but they've stuffed some organic material between the head and the carapace.  I don't think so.

Holy cow, look at the mackerel.

Meat on a stick.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Star fruit.

Street scene near the end of the market.

At the end of the market is the stage show and dance floor.

A selfie that Alysa took with some of the students shortly before midnight.

Here are our celebrity students posing with a Thai policeman.  Sigh...

The stage show singers.

Becca dancing with a Thai person; Sara further toward the stage.

Here is a bunch of our students on the dance floor.

Suk sahn wahn pi mai!

Try this video clip from Carlie.