Biking in Ko Kret

Today Jim and I took a tour to Ko Kret island to ride bicycles around. I highly recommend the Spice Tours people. Our tour guide was a bouncy Bangkok college student who seemed to delight in having us taste all the different fruits we hit along the way.



Let me say a few things about the bikes I see here. They are numerous and varied. I see a lot of bike racks that have instead of a place for your groceries, an additional set on top. In this way, you can carry another person who sits on the rack and there are footposts you can stick in the sides of the back wheel so the rear-rider has a place for their feet. I'm not sure it would be the most comfortable ride, but it will do when you need to carry someone who doesn't feel like riding on your handlebars.


I've included a photo of a market where they were selling fried flower petals. I don't know how many fruits we tried today but the only one I've had before was Durian. Here's a list of the fruits we tried...

Durian - Smelly and not as good as I thought it would be. Sweet.
Custard Apple - This one is probably my favorite from today. To me, this is everything the Durian should have been. Not smelly, super sweet, custardy.

I cannot list the rest because I can't remember the names.

One was being cut by a guy by the side of the road. It was a white fruit that had to be cut very carefully so as not to damage the inside. It was jelly like and white but without much taste.

There were different grape-like fruits, some sour, some again without too much taste but there was a tree that had some red berries on it. I was expecting them to be hard and sour because that's what they are like in the states. Jim said they tasted like cotton candy which is as good a description as I can think of.

There are dogs *everywhere*. It must be a hard life for them. They are often sick or have open wounds, but other than that, they look the same as dogs in the states.
There were some cute, CUTE puppies that we all wanted to take home with us. I stay away though, because a rabies cycle is not something I want to go through.

The cats all have siamese characteristics are in much better health somehow.

It is HOT. By the end of the day, all I could think of was getting back into the swimming pool at the hotel.