Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market - Zones 1 and 2 @ Bangkok in Thailand

Sub Posts

• Snacks / Food We Had
• Boat Trip at the Market
• Stopover at Wat Saphan Floating Market
• Stopover at Baan Suan Bonus
• The Pine Farm & Cafe

I totally enjoyed my visit to Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market earlier last year and made it a point to check out other floating markets near or within Bangkok when I revisited Thailand's capital late last year.

Hence, this trip to Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market that was west of Bangkok and about 16 kilometers from Hotel Royal Chinatown, where we stayed at last October.

Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market is actually a community market that served the locals and to be honest, not touristy; latter of which was determined by the lack of tacky souvenirs and the fact that there were a number of local produce stalls.

Even the price tags were in Thai! 

p.s. always tempted to buy fruits when I am overseas

Have you heard of wood apples?! 

To me, they looked like rounder honey dews / rock melons! 

Butterfly pea flowers - fresh / dry! Known to be a natural food dye, I have never used them as they were more common for steamed kuehs. Anyway, aesthetic for colors is never really that much of a consideration when I bake.... 

One good thing about Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market, other than the lack of tourists, was that the passages were pretty wide and there were tables and seats, not tied to food stalls, for you to sit and slowly enjoy the food purchased from all over the place. 

Food time! How to resist all those delicious looking food that were just staring back at me?! Nevertheless, it's a fact that I only have one stomach and hence, I had to be selective! You can check out what we had from the sub post called "Snacks / Food We Had".

Not every edible stuff was appealing to me though; I remember seeing these fishes in a documentary on Cambodia which were said to be local delicacies yet not accepted by many tourists; similar to durians.

I didn't know what the above were until I stepped closer! Turned out they were grilled frogs! I am not as adventurous but I heard from a friend, who had them at Cambodia, that they were delicious! No thanks! 

Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market has a total and seven zones, and the photos you have seen so far were from Zone 2. Now, let's cross the road to Zone 1.

More food, including braised pork which I would love to try but knowing I would need rice to accompany the sauce and meat, made me hesitate! 

I am wondering if we were too late to visit the floating market as it really wasn't crowded on a weekend; a Saturday to be exact. Well, not an issue for me since there was ample seating space for us to sit and indulge in the grilled prawns we bought at the zone.

Non-food stalls. At my age, nothing quite caught my fancy. I am selective when it comes to display items and for clothes and accessories, comfort and simple would be the way to go. 

Even though I was attracted to these pots that had plants as "hair", I am aware of my "plant-killer" label and guess it's better to save money by leaving the plants for more capable individuals.

Glow in the dark tee shirts seemed so cool; thankfully, I have reached the point in life where I realized a person really doesn't need that many pieces of clothing! 

Some of you would wonder; what makes the market a floating market when the stalls were all on "land"? You do see some elements. For example, stall owners would use their boats and set up their stalls right next to where they dock. Honestly, that's safer, cooler and more hygienic for everyone. 

Another aspect for the floating market; the opportunity to explore the waterway via a boat trip! Those on packaged tour trips would usually have the boat trip included as part of the tickets. For us, we just purchased from the counters that could be found alongside the canal. 

Check out the following posts which would include the boat trip that cost us 100 baht per person, two stopovers; Wat Saphan Floating Market and Baan Suan Bonus! Absolutely worth it for less than S$4.00! 

Time to replenish my stomach with more snacks after the boat trip! We would love to explore the other zones but it started drizzling quite heavily. Furthermore, we were so relaxed after the boat ride that our primary aim was just to sit somewhere and chill.

Let's climb up this rickety staircase and cross a bridge over the canal. I found an air-conditioned cafe from Google Map and the review was quite decent at over 4.0. 

The Pine Farm & Cafe - definitely a great place to conclude our Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market expedition! Not only did it provide a cool respite, there were animals outside the cafe, including a colony of rabbits! 

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Address

30/1 หมู่ที่ 15 Bang Ramat Rd, Bang Ramat, 

Taling Chan, Bangkok 10170, Thailand

Map

As above.

Floor Plan for Floating Market

As above.

Lunch @ O'mafe Tsou Restaurant in Tsou Veoveoana Cultural and Creative Park [Chiayi, Taiwan]

Lunch on day three of our Taiwan trip was settled within an attraction we were visiting; Tsou Veoveoana Cultural and Creative Park! Again, I am not pinning too much hope as lunches in tour packages are generally quite standard.

To be fair to the restaurant, called O'mafe Tsou, it commanded a good review score of 4.7 (from over 40 reviewers) and my comments were based on dishes that had already been pre-arranged by the tour company, and might not be the signatures. 

Dishes served were not bad but my expectation for the oolong prawns fell short as they were a bit too salty. I was more excited to see the guomao vegetables (过猫菜), which was something I had been craving for ever since my last Taiwan trip in 2014! 

While dishes were quite boring and standardized including fish, meat, vegetables, soup, I can guarantee you that it's a balanced variety and for someone who doesn't eat much rice, such variety appealed to me. 

A pot of hot soup would always be welcome in the cooling climate and this herbal one was supposedly made using highland chicken. Not that it tasted any better from typical chicken soup.

Even though there were the boring dishes like stir fried cabbage, you might still get some interesting looking ones like this dessert known as 三粉圆, which was made using basil seeds!  

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Address

梅花一路1號, Fanlu Township, 

Chiayi County, Taiwan

Map

As above. 

Click HERE for the Summarized Itinerary for Our 8 Days 7 Nights See Iconic Taiwan Anew Tour Package via Chan Brothers

Finding a Decent Washroom / Toilet @ Feng Chia Night Market in Taichung [Taiwan]

Feng Chia Night Market is well known as Taiwan's largest night market and you know what's the worst thing that can happen? The urgent need to find a washroom / toilet! 

KK, our tour guide, was cognizant of that "emergency" and the first thing she did after we alighted from the coach outside of Feng Chia University was to point towards the right, near where "kacha" signboard was.

Look out for the building with the green wordings, Sun Plaza (碧根陽光廣場). From its facade and from afar, it's quite easy to mistake the building as a collection of shophouses.

Once you are at the entrance, you would notice a walkway leading into more shops and from here, you should be able to see the directional signs for washrooms! According to KK, the washrooms here were clean with many cubicles.

Let's take the staircase to the basement to check them out! I have the tendency to drink a lot of water and occasional bladder release is helpful so as not to jeopardize my plans to shop and eat. 

Indeed quite big with a lot of cubicles. I was there only for number one but from the look of the cubicles, it seemed that the toilets were the squatting type, which means number two would be a big issue for me! 

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Address

No. 19號, Lane 19, Fengjia Rd, 

Xitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan 407

Map

As above.

Click HERE for the Summarized Itinerary for Our 8 Days 7 Nights See Iconic Taiwan Anew Tour Package via Chan Brothers

An Hoi Bridge (also known as Hoi An Lantern Bridge) in Vietnam

In the heritage city of Hoi An in Vietnam, I bet the above bridge is considered the most crowded one as it is the shortest route one can get from the old section to the popular Hội An Night Market, and vice versa. 

In addition, the area was dotted with numerous boats offering visitors the chance to cruise down the river, and release lanterns on the water. This resulted in a beautiful backdrop for those in the middle of the bridge, a chokepoint for people walking across.

There's no street lamp on the bridge and the only illumination came from the "lanterns" fused with the bridge; hence, this bridge is also known as Hoi An Lantern Bridge! 

 

Spanning just 50 meters across the Thu Bon River, I seriously wonder what the maximum load for the footbridge is. I arrived on a Monday and thought it was already quite squeezy; can't imagine the number on a weekend. 

Since I stayed in Hoi An for three nights, there were plenty of opportunities for me to explore An Hoi Bridge in the daytime and the sight in the morning differed from night. Aside from a reduced number of users, it's also opened for motor vehicles! 

To be fair, I was early, like before 8.00 am since I prefer to jog before it gets too warm. Many shops remain closed although you get more crowd nearer to Hoi An Market, where there was a thriving wet market. 

With daylight, and lesser people, I noticed that the bridge had a wooden section right in the middle. That was even more disturbing as the load for wood is likely to be lesser compared to concrete! 

The wooden section was further divided into two sections and with the steel wires holding on to the wooden planks; I am guessing if the middle segment of the bridge has a drawbridge feature. Sadly, I didn't find much info (in English) on the web. 

Maybe I need to take a boat ride and look at the structure, from down under. 

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Location Map

As above.

Click here for my 8 Days' Itinerary to Danang (The City of Bridges) & Hoi An (The City of Lanterns) in Vietnam