Damnoensaduak Floating Market @ Near Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is such a fabulous shopping paradise that I have not really explored any other attraction beyond the main city area.

My recent trip was different because that was the first time I paid for a half day tour to the famous Damnoen Saduak (not sure if the two words are joined or not) floating market, one hour drive from Bangkok.

At 700 baht per person booked with the hotel’s official travel agent, I had expected it to be only slightly more expensive (laziness had prevented me from sourcing around) till a fellow Singaporean traveler on the same tour told us, albeit proudly, she paid only 400 baht per pax!!

ARGH!!!! Hate it when I know I have been scammed! 700 baht was approximately S$31.

Anyway, no point crying over spilt milk! The minivan took around an hour from our hotel to reach a desolate jetty with long-tailed motor boats to bring us to the floating market.

Initially thought to be totally irrelevant since the floating market is easily accessible by car, the boat ride opened our eyes to the lives of the common people living right beside the khlong (Thai for canal)!



No, she didn't attempt to strip.

Eerie looking house! I wouldn't want to go near it at night!

Wondering what the steps are for? Most residents have a boat tied around the wooden beams.

The big khlong before reaching the floating market!

Boring and not exactly very interesting for some people, we found the breezy ride a natural remedy to freshen up the sleepy souls within us.

After around twenty minutes, we disembarked at the apparently famous yet dismal looking floating market. You could see a few boats here and there; not exactly the bustling market I anticipated!

The best thing?

The highly priced 700 baht tour doesn’t include that close, intimate experience to do my marketing on the river!

It will cost us an additional 150 baht EACH for an half an hour ride on a hand-rowed, long tailed boat!! Another bloody rip off!

We decided to explore the market on the land instead as Mom wasn’t interested in doing any marketing (thank god) and there was plenty of free time on our hands (an hour)!

Let’s use pictures to take a closer look at this special market!

Found a high spot to take some pictures on the increasingly crowded floating market mostly made up of tourists.

A shop catering to the curious shoppers on the boat!

Curiousity doesn’t guarantee buying! A moving boat has its disadvantages; the time was too tight to bargain for a good price!

Empty long tailed boats waiting for passengers.

Yes, cooking on the boats was common! Heavy looking gas cylinders were used as fuel but we wonder where they get the water from…..

Maybe the water is from the polluted river? Euuuwww… that thought stopped me from buying any edible items from these boat people!! Back in my kampong, we used to have a toilet right above a running stream, with a gaping hole right in the middle for humans’ big and small businesses!

Food stalls took up a big percentage of the trade in the floating market! Sad sad sad *imaging the journey of various waste materials flowing from the stream into the canal* 

Local hats that will look too touristy on foreigners (like the farangs) were on sale everywhere!

A group of locals savouring their meal on the shore, next to the floating ‘shop’.

It did not take too long for me to realize that almost all the vendors line their boats to either side of the canal and most local customers will actually purchase their items from the shore side.

This phenomenon totally explained why most boats travelling in the middle of the narrow canal carry tourists, instead of locals! Of course, looking at the other side of the coin, maybe the foreigners have pushed out the locals since tourist dollars are always more lucrative.

Having said that, a bunch of bananas at less than a Singapore dollar was a damn good buy!

Fierce looking huge dog blocking our passage!!! We took the risk to tiptoe our way around it in order to get some badly needed caffeine in a western coffee joint.

Guess we were the early birds as the market became more and more crowded as the time passed!

Providing Thai massage service is a must for any place in Thailand with an influx of foreigners. Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is no exception to this rule.

Lastly, in order to abruptly end this post, three pictures with no caption!

.

.

.

Oh! I have to post this super duper cute puppy at the jetty where I took the motor boat! The devil in me kept telling me to grab this sweet young thing, shove it into my backpack and zip up the bag!