Although I have made several
trips to Bangkok in the past, I have never visited the famous floating market for one silly
reason that I am too lazy to wake up early to go for shopping. Okay, I admit,
I am not the shopping type too, but this is one of the ‘must-see’ tourist
attractions, I had decided to make a trip this time.
It took us three hours to reach rural
floating market of Damnoen Saduak situated 110 kms west of Bangkok. I started the journey at 6am, but reached only around 9:30am. (I am not an early riser, so I slept most of the way and missed out the fabulous view outside my window) Ah well!
By the time we reached, the sun
was up, weather was warm, and some people had brought their umbrellas to float in shade
But the true fun is rowing in a paddle
boat, freely down the river, surrounded by wooden houses and vendors on the
either side, with hundreds of boats, paddling side by side, ready to
bargain and sell.
There were some pretty houses on the route to the market, how interesting it is to sit in the balcony facing just waters...
Or watching the tourist from up above
The tourist seemed happy to just go clicking, they were sure they would find something different and some memories to take back home
For those who did not wish to go boating there was a market on either side and a bridge connecting sides, but the pretty sight was watching boats under the bridge
The water was dirty but nobody cared....we kept our hands closer to our body and water did not splash
Interesting part was the food stuff that was sold on land and also in boats
The boats rowed so close that we bumped many times
The vendors with fixed boats had a long stick with a hook, when our boat paddled closer to their stall, they gripped our boat with the long stick to bring it closer for discussion and selling
Those in larger boats could not shop, I think that was mainly for rowing experience
They bargain using their fingers,
because they don’t speak English. But still it is easy to communicate with them
The woman cut fruits while she waited for some clients, she stored them in plastic bags
The man had a huge snake around his neck and he offered to rent it to a tourist for a photograph
There were pretty bags, I could not resist buying, but yes..I bargained too with just gestures
and Oh! lovely painting for sale too
I was veg on that day, so I just ate veg spring rolls with sweet sauce..it was delicious
It was lovely afternoon, enjoyed a lot...a great experience too...
