Day 4 – Elephant rides, Pattaya floating market, another cabaret show

After breakfast, we were brought to a local temple to pay respects to the 4-headed buddha. Each person bought a small bunch of incense for 20 baht with a fake flower rosery, and in 4 areas where the buddha's face is facing, the incense is divided and placed into a stand full of ash. The flowers are placed on a hanger. You can also visit the main temple inside where a statue of a Buddha is with little boothes selling roseries, chains, statues, etc 

I guess being in Thailand you can't miss an elephant ride. The one we went to was called Siam Elephant Katinglai. Elephants are not only used for work, but also for tourist attractions, performances and rides all around Thailand. Whether it's ethical and a welfare/health problem, that's a big argument on its own which I won't go into details. Riding an elephant is alot like riding a walking horse I find. As we rode around a little circuit, I couldn't help but feel my heart tighten as I saw a young elephant chained up with only a little area to move around. It was fed with plenty of leaves though, but being used to seeing them roam freely in the wilderness, I just wish there were other ways that the locals could find income rather than using these elephants for rides. I was told that Thai people love animals, and killing one is actually a sin (according to Buddhism), so despite the confinement I do hope that they are at least treated well.
Also in the area was a restrained tiger where you can sit next to and take photos with...if you dare. The tiger surprisingly looked comfortable lying on the slab of rock all stretched out on its back. Again weird to find a magnificent jungle beast confined in a small area being used for tourist photo shoots. Anyway, if I ever return to Thailand, riding elephants would not be on my list.

[A chicken for variety]

Because we couldn't go to the famous Bangkok Floating Market, we went to the Pattaya Floating Market instead. The place was quite empty, which was great for a good stroll without bumping into sweaty arms every second. There were all kinds of things sold, mostly food and souvenirs. The only thing we dared to try (whilst trying to avoid getting food poisoned) was the mango sticky rice pudding with coconut milk. That was definitely 50 baht well spent! Since Thailand is known for its mangos, they were extra juicy and sweet and I just loved the combination with the pudding.

A note on the random photo taking you may encounter/encountered, in many tourist areas the workers would randomly take a photo of you without your permission or notice, and before you leave they would come up to you with an already print out photo for your purchase. Of course it's your choice whether you want to buy it or not (usually very cheap anyway). But seriously, those cheeky bastards...

[Fake meat, no idea what they're used for]

 [Mango and sticky rice pudding - YUM]

Next we went to a place where they randomly sold 'special' and very expensive pillows, but next door was a warehouse with tonnes of different snacks. We mostly bought durian related stuff, like the freeze dried versions with water sucked out leaving the strong flavours in. Man that stuff is good

In the evening we watched another trans cabaret show. Compared to Tiffany's, this was pretty mediocre. The audience were allowed take photos of the show so I've included some below. The costumes were still pretty, the props slightly less and cheaper looking, and the quality of the dancers were pretty third rate compared to Tiffany's. HOWEVER, yes a lot of them didn't bother to smile or lip-synch properly to the music (with only a few able to do it and they stole the show entirely), it's understandable that after 4 shows consecutively every day the last one, which we went to, would be a great strain on them. So in some ways I do feel sorry for them, especially when it was so easy to see how exhausted they were.