Sunday-a trip to the floating market

Sunday morning at 6:30 am we crawled down stairs to meet our tour guide for our trip to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. We loaded up into the mini bus and proceeded to pick up other tourists for our trip. The mini bus then took us to a large Holiday Inn where several other mini buses meet to load into one large, double decker tour bus. Melinda, who has a lot of experience on the buses told us to sit on the bottom of the bus. Most people think the view on the top deck is better, but the is more swaying motion and people easily can get car sick. Our tour bus had a lounge on the bottom. There were 4 regular seats and a crescent shaped couch with a table in the middle. Similar to a motor home. A man and his two teenage daughters joined us on the bottom. They were visiting from Rancho Palos Verdes to attend a Thai and Hindu wedding. We speculated at how marvelous it must have been. 
About 45 minutes into the bus ride the tour guide joins us on the first level and tells us our tour itinerary includes a stop at the Elephant Village, the floating market, and the cobra show. Everyone thought the tour was only to the floating market. Turns out this is a common Thai scam. The tour guides are paid by various tourist attractions to take the buses off the original plan. Riding elephants was on our must do list, so we took it as a sign to just do it now. The elephant ride at the Elephant Village was 600 Baht for a 25-30 minute ride through the jungle including crossing a deep stream. We had a good time, took a lot of good photos, and made friends with the trainer and elephant. It was a magical experience. Elephants are truly majestic animals and we were happy to see that this venture did not appear to mistreat their animals. 
After ride we loaded back into the bus and headed toward the dock to take the long speed boats to the markets. The boats were long, skinny, and our driver took off in a flash. We sped along the canals. The ride reminded us of splash mountain, including getting wet! Once we got to the floating market, we paid the 150 Baht each to load into the gondolas. It was a VERY busy day at the market. I have never seen such a tangled mess of boats before. However, our gondolier was motivated to get us shopping. We used Melinda's Thai bargaining techniques and purchased some very cool items. After an hour on the boats we returned to the pier, met up with our group and loaded back onto the bus. 
Many of us were hungry, and did not have a chance to eat at the market because of the boat traffic jam. Our patience was wearing thin and we were eager to return to our hotel. However, we discovered that our bus was going to the Cobra show. Out of a large bus of 70 people, one family of 8 saw the show. Everyone else chose to save their Baht and sit on the air conditioned bus. After a long delay at the cobra show, our tour guide said we were now headed to the coconut farm where our groups would split up. Those who signed up for the full day tour would eat lunch and then proceed to their next stop on the tour. Everyone else, including us, who had signed up for the 1/2 day tour would return to Bangkok. 
So we begrudgingly switched buses. This time we were stuck on the top deck. After an 90 minutes of driving back to Bangkok we were told that we were being dropped off at the Gem Factory, where we would have an opportunity to purchase gems before returning to a mini bus and then our hotels. Most of the people on the bus were upset and voiced this. We were over an hour behind schedule, were dragged to locations not on the itinerary we signed up for, and were tired of being charged for all of the extras in what was supposed to be and all inclusive trip. 
We eventually made it back to our hotel around 3 pm. Hot, tired, and feeling taken advantaged of we told the girls at the front desk what had happened. Who knows of they relayed it to the boss, but they seemed shocked at our experience. After leaving our purchases from the day in our room, we ventured out into the neighborhood to have lunch. We ate at a local Japanese resaurant. Melinda and I had a delicious salmon rice bowl while mom and Allison had the tempura rice bowls. With full bellies we headed back to our rooms for an air conditioned nap. 
Melinda and I awoke from our nap around 7 pm. Melinda had the genius idea of getting a Thai massage to forget about our misadventure. BEST. IDEA. EVER. Initially we went to the little massage parlor next to our hotel, but it was full. So we just walked up the street to the next nice looking one. For 300 Baht ($10 USD) we got hour long oil massages. It was wonderful. My outlook on the day had changed and my tension melted away with the massage. After a quick shower we met a teacher friend of Melinda's at a local pub for dinner and drinks. It was quite fun. We bar hopped up our street and returned jovial and ready for a new day, which was good because Monday was New Years Eve.