Floating markets

I had seen pictures and shows about Bangkok's floating markets for years.  It is a mainstay of travel shows to Thailand and is often portrayed as one of the "must see" places to visit.

I had wanted to go and visit for quite a while, but I'd never had enough time to go.  The markets really aren't in Bangkok, they're actually a couple of hours drive outside of the city, so the trip there takes a bit of planning.  Since I was hanging out with my friend Todd for the weekend, we decided to hire a driver to take us out there.  The driver arrived nice and early and we hit the road.  It wasn't long before we hit traffic.  It was what I would consider to be a mild annoyance at worst and seemed to largely be caused by the vast highway construction works which were underway.  It probably wouldn't be long before this trip time would be cut in half.

There were two floating markets I wanted to go and see, Damnoen and Amphawa.

We were taken to Damnoen first.  Once we got there, we hired a boat and we were taken into the canals and the market itself.

This market was absolutely a tourist trap.  No doubt about it in my mind!  I had read that there were locals that shopped here, but I didn't notice any at all.  Instead, all I saw were other tourists like myself floating past and taking photos.  We were immediately put on notice as well when our driver urged us "not to buy anything".  His advice was wise, as we were immediately confronted with overpriced food and the type of tourist trinkets that no one ever seems to buy. 

Yet even with the tourist trap nature of the place, it was really quite beautiful.  It was lovely to be floating down the canals past the little shops and the houses of the locals.  Even if the places we were being taken were very touristy, the area as a whole was definitely still being lived in by locals and it was a unique experience to experience (in a brief way) the lives they lived and the calm surroundings of their homes.

After about an hour of floating around the markets, we made it back to where we started and our driver took us to Amphawa markets.

Our driver told us to get food here.  He said that this was an actual market, not a tourist market.  Now, there were PLENTY of tourists, but we quickly understood what he meant as it was clear that this was a working market where people did their daily shopping.  It was nice to see the combination of the locals and tourists all walking around together.

Amphawan was quite a bit bigger than Damnoen, but it wasn't as unique or pretty to look at.  We decided against the boat tour in Amphawan and that was probably for the best.  It was easy to walk around and much of the experience was from being closer to the shops and restaurants which you could walk past.  We sat in one of the restaurants eating seafood and watched as the boats floated by.  It was a nice place to sit and to decompress.  Not long before we left, we also saw an enormous monitor lizard calmly swimming around in one of the canals... sadly neither of us was fast enough with our cameras.  We had both noted that the area in Amphawan felt pretty clean and tidy.  With monitor lizards that size in the area, I doubt there would be too many vermin around to cause much trouble.

I was very glad that I had been able to visit these floating markets.  I was reminded of the canals of Zhujiajiao outside of Shanghai.  It's not always fair to compare different places, but it's hard to avoid at times.  Whereas the Thai floating markets receive global attention, Zhujiajiao is relatively unknown outside of China.  It's a shame because when I compare the two, I definitely feel that Zhujiajiao has a lot more to offer in terms of both the visual beauty and the specific shops and sights to see.  It's not to say that these markets weren't great to visit though.  They offer something very different to the intense bustle of Bangkok.