This morning we woke up really early to go to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market which is a two hour bus ride west of Bangkok. Floating markets used to be very popular in Thailand but not so much any more. We were told there are only a few true floating markets left, and many of them are for the tourists, to show them the old traditional ways of selling various goods from small boats.
It was definitely something that Jess and I have wanted to check out the whole trip. Along the river and the canals there are many old traditional Thai houses on stilts. The bus from Bangkok only cost us 140 baht round trip ($4.30). We hired a boat and a driver at one of the side canals for 400 baht, and we’re taken around the market for almost 1.5 hours. Some people have little shops set up along the river while others, mostly old ladies, sell fruit, vegetables, Pad Thai, sticky rice, drinks, etc. from their own small boats and paddle up and down the market. Some of the boats even made soups and other noodle dishes and were like little restaurants, so cool! The market was pretty busy, and there were even many traffic jams on the river! I found it really funny when someone wanted to sell us something they would use this long wooden hook to reach out and grab the edge of our boat and pull the two boats together. The floating market is only open in the morning from 7-12pm, and we were there at the busiest time. It was a lot of fun floating down the market and trying to bargain from the boat. Some of the stuff was overpriced but then again it is a tourist hot spot. We had some great sticky rice and mango with coconut milk- its become one of our favorite things here!
After our boat ride was over we wondered around some of the shops and we also went to a coconut sugar plantation/factory. We tried this really sweet coconut and honey candy that was delicious, I wish I could bring some home, but don’t think it will make it.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Kao San area and relaxing before going out and enjoying out last night in Bangkok. Jess got Chivcken on a stick for dinner and I had Pad Thai. We both got sticky rice and mango again for dessert, we cant seem to get enough.
Jess and I decided to go all out to celebrate our last night in Bangkok and the end of our trip together. We went out and met some really nice guys from Brazil and hung out with them at one of the street bars and we all went dancing together! While we were at the street bar two little kids, an 11 year old girl and her 6 year old brother came up to us trying to sell us roses. There were about 20 little children that we saw going up to tourists in restaurants and bars trying to sell them roses and souvenirs. I couldn’t believe how young they are and that they are out so late!! But I do have to say they are very persuasive and would make great business people, its just too sad that they have to do this instead of sleeping and going to school. They all speak English well and come up to you and put a 100 baht bill on the table and say things like lets thumb war, if you win you get the 100 baht if you lose you give me 100 baht and buy a rose. Or they would go up to the boys “pretty roses for your pretty roses”. They were very persistent and didn’t leave you alone until you bought something, and they almost always won the thumb wars (mostly because they cheated, but who is really going to accuse a little kid of cheating)!
Later we happened to bump into Oliver and Marios, two guys we met in Phi Phi and hung out with them for the rest of the night. By the time we headed back to our hotel it was almost 3am, and there were still children out on the streets selling their roses! Most of the vendors were gone and the bars closed, but the few that were open were swamped with hungry drunk tourists, they must make a killing because the street was definitely a hot spot for backpackers who were drinking until all hours of the night.
Time for me to go to bed!
Love,
Katie.
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