I'll take that one!

After much to do getting through Bangkok, I arrived in Damnoen Saduak, home of Thailand’s infamous floating market, in the evening. I stayed at a place called The Little Bird Hotel. It seemed that I was the only traveler staying there and between the deserted feeling and the 1950’s look, it reminded me of the hotel from the movie “The Shining.” It was a comfortable, air-conditioned mosquito-free sleep, however, so I was well-rested for my market tour the following morning.

I arranged to hire a boat through the hotel to ferry me through the market place. Captain C, as he introduced himself, greeted me at my hotel at 6:45am and walked me to his boat. We started our tour through the market at 7 am which seemed a very good time. By 8:30, most boats passing through canals were filled with tourists instead of vendors so it was definitely best to get there early.

The market was a series of narrow canals lined on either side with vendors selling food, souvenirs and clothes from fixed dock platforms. By 8:30, many vendors in their long, narrow boats had essentially moored up in front of these fixed platforms, making the already narrow canals even more narrow. At 7 am, however, many of the boats on their way to moor up were still paddling through the canals. The boatsmen and women all greeted each other and me as well. The feeling was one of camaraderie, locals chatting among friends. There was a palpable shift in this mood as the morning drew on. Even as early as 8:30, it seemed that the vendors moods transformed from a state of relaxation to one of virtually hunkering down to weather the tourist storm. Clearly, I much preferred the early morning atmosphere.  

not quite ready to start the day

The long narrow boats used by many vendors were clearly the “star attraction” at the market. At least that was clear to me. Although friendly, “Captain C” had a horrible sense of what I wanted to see. In areas of the market where there were many vendors selling fruits, veggies and flowers where I could spend hours snapping away, he zipped our boat on through. The tough thing about photographing under those conditions is that all your subjects are constantly moving. Not only are the people moving which is always tricky to shoot, but the boats themselves are moving so fantastic compositions come and go in fractions of a second. I didn’t expect Captain C to be aware of the “rule of thirds,” but I had hoped that he would recognize my interest in photographing people and not shopping given the plethora of photo gear strapped around my waist and slung over my shoulders. Alas, he wasn’t attuned to these details so we dawdled by tacky souvenir shops and whizzed through the spectacular stuff until I told him I didn’t want to buy anything. The whizzing still continued but we resolved that toward the end the more I motioned with my hand “slow down, slow down.”

watching the morning pass by

The people were very friendly and easily impressed with my simple ability to say “Hello. How are you?” in Thai. Often they would mistake that for an ability to speak Thai fluently and would chatter away at me until I told them (also in Thai) “I’m sorry. I don’t understand. I only speak a little Thai.” The fact that I said even that in Thai affirmed their conviction that I spoke Thai fluently so they praised me more in Thai and chatted even faster. Nonetheless, that little bit of language seemed to provide an inroads with these people and garnered additional smiles and feelings of welcome which I appreciated.

The markets themselves were fantastic. Although there were a number of vendors selling plastic tchotchskies for tourists to take home to the dog sitter, there were an equal number of vendors whose market was primarily the local Thais. These sold fruit, flowers, soup, fish and breakfast items.

Some of the vendors were mobile all morning long, making their rounds to sell their food and flowers. I admired the talented and graceful way the Thai vendors manuevered their boats through the water. One old man who was selling hot coconut pancakes even cooked as he paddled. An even older grandmotherly-looking woman paddled a much smaller boat than the vendors. It closely resembled the tiny white water kayaks used for playboating, only made of old wood. Granny was the Thai canal version of the Little Old Lady from Pasadena as she zipped in and out among the larger boats. I wouldn’t have been a bit surprised to see her do a cartwheel with her boat. They were all truly most impressive.

flipping pancakes while paddling through the market

The floating markets are all about the pictures … and the food. I enjoyed some delicious food. Tiny dollar size coconut pancakes, sweet melt-in-your-mouth mango and sticky rice, some spicy tom yam noodle soup, and many more munchies than I can possibly remember. As more boats moored up on the sides of the canals, I noticed several of the vendors whose boats were caught in between others would pass their wares out to customers via buckets on long poles and collected their money the same way.

All in all, It was a lovely day and well worth the hassle of traveling through Bangkok to experience this unique event.

monk collecting alms and giving a blessing

Unfortunately, there’s not nearly enough room here for all the photos I took so I invite you to see some more in my photo gallery page of this blog.To see a video of my floating market experience, click here.

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If you want to visit the market, I would suggest getting to Damnoen Saduak the evening before as most morning buses from Bangkok don’t arrive until 8:30 when the best action has passed. Stay at either Little Bird Hotel (just tell your bus driver “Nuc Noy Hotel” and he’ll practically drop you at their door. Prices are 250 Baht fan/ 350 Baht aircon) or the very scenic P Guesthouse which is actually on the main canal (from the main bridge, walk down the left side of the canal about 200 meters) Rooms there are 300 Baht per person).

If you make it a very early morning and start walking to the market at 6 am, you’ll be rewarded by seeing monks in their tiny wooden boats collecting morning alms at the houses that line the canals. Turn left at the main canal in the market area (it will be obvious) and have a little breakfast canalside while you watch the market start to wake up. You can hire a boat to paddle you around the neighborhood of canals that make up the market for 200-300 baht per hour. I would recommend waiting until 7 am or even 7:30 to actually start your boat tour, however, as there’s not much action outside the main canal until that time.