Floating Market in Damnoen Saduak
Aleksandar Todorovic / Shutterstock.com
The Floating Market (floating market) in Damnoen Saduak is just over 100 kilometers outside of Bangkok and is on the agenda of many tourists and visitors to the Thai capital.
Some Thailand visitors may say that it is too touristy, but that does not alter the fact that it remains a unique experience. I would therefore recommend a visit to the floating market to everyone. The Floating Market in Damnoen Saduak is not the only one in the Bangkok area, but it is the most famous and it is on the program of every tour operator in Bangkok.
Klongs
The merchants sell the merchandise (fruit, vegetables and souvenirs) from their boats and paddle through the many Klongs (canals) that intersect. Part of the charm is that most traders dress in traditional dark blue clothing with the iconic triangular straw hat, favored by Thai farmers. Bring your camera, because you can take nice atmospheric photos. Although you will encounter many foreign tourists, you will also find locals. Damnoen Saduak is a real market.
Excursion to the Floating Market
I'm not normally a fan of guided tours, but I have to admit that there are clear benefits of having someone else organize and program everything for you. The Floating Market in Damnoen Saduak is not very easy to reach. When you decide to book an excursion and let a guide show you around, you will save a lot of effort.
puwanai / Shutterstock.com
Market in the canal
Most hotels and booking offices in Bangkok can arrange an excursion to the Floating Market for you. The buses have an English-speaking guide and usually stop along the way, giving you the chance to spend some money at the roadside stalls. When you have arrived at the market, the typical Asian boats will take you through the labyrinth of canals to the 'Talat khlong' (which literally means 'market canal'). The tour groups usually arrive at the same time, which can detract from the experience. Yet it is still funny to pass the obligatory smiling, waving children and villagers before you reach the actual market.
At the market you will have the opportunity to buy fruits, Thai delicacies, handicrafts and souvenirs as the merchants paddle along with you. Always keep your hands and arms inside the boat. The canals are narrow and the boats sail close to each other, so that they regularly bump into the side. There are walkways and bridges that overlook the entire market and there are, like everywhere else in Thailand, plenty of places to buy some food. The market starts at 6.00:22.00 in the morning and continues until about 9.00:XNUMX in the evening. Most tour groups arrive around XNUMX:XNUMX AM. On the way back to Bangkok, most tour buses stop at two more places, the city of Nakhon Pathom and the Rose Garden Country Resort, both of which are nice to visit.
On your own to the Floating Market
It is also possible to visit the market on your own. For this you need to plan a few things in advance. The earliest bus departs at 6.00:2,5 AM from the Southern Bus Terminal in Bangkok. In about XNUMX hours travel you to Damnoen Saduak and you are there well before the tour groups arrive. If you want to visit the market at 6.00:XNUMX in the morning, long before it gets busy, there is no other option than to spend the night in Damnoen Saduak.
About this blogger
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Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
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Find entrance quite expensive and very touristy
I fear that this reposted story has been outdated by the less beautiful reality.
Six months ago I was at Damnoen Saduak, hoping to see the same beautiful pictures that I remembered from about five years ago, exactly as described in the story.
Unfortunately: no more fruit and vegetables, no more paddling salespeople with rowing boats and i(conical) hats. Only rows of permanent stalls with all the same tourist souvenirs, which you are sailed past in a boat. Okay, admit it, there was another lady with a rowing boat and she was selling... beer (at 11 o'clock in the morning). And…..tourist souvenirs.
Damnoen Saduk has gone the way of Khaosan Road in my experience: people still go there for the memory of what it used to be, but now it is just a nightlife street that is no different from other nightlife streets. Damnoen Saduak is still different from other tourist markets in that sense because you look at it from the water, but you don't have to make the trip for the merchandise, because you can find it at every (tourist) market.
“Everything was better in the past”, unfortunately applies to the floating market of Damnoen Saduak….
A few months ago, at the invitation of my parents-in-law, we all went to that floating market.
We live near the city of Chonburi, so it's a bit of a drive for us. The drive there was anything but pleasant. A lot of congestion around Bangkok, especially the part where major road works have been going on for years. A lot of narrowed lanes where a lot of crazy people race past like crazy. Luckily I didn't have to drive myself, but I still wasn't really comfortable.
I estimate that we were on the road for about 2 hours. Once there, the disappointment was great. Nothing to do at all. Hardly any boats seen. Just a few shops along the side of the water, many of which were closed. After an hour we had already seen it.
Almost a 5 hour drive for, if you ask me, a big 'tourist trap'. No, this is no longer necessary for me.
A year ago I was there too, with nothing to do at all. Fortunately, a few km away an opposite experience: Amphawa Samut Songkhram. You don't have to go for the floating market there, although I read that it is available from Friday to Sunday from 12.00 noon to 18.00 p.m. In Amphawa you are along the waterfront where the 'walking promenades' take you past many nice things. Nothing obligatory tourist fare like Damnoen but the nice atmosphere of wooden houses along the waterfront complete with bridges. You can also take a boat trip where you sail partly up the river and cross small canals, the last time you saw several monitor lizards in the water. Amphawa is really nice.