"What a perfect time to travel in Thailand!" I said to my dad when I knew Sam, a man from Australia, gonna visit me in Bangkok. I am Thai but I don't really travel in Thailand that much. The reason is I was in a lust of Western world. It made me forgot the beauty of Thailand for a moment, actually, for years. Sam travelled to Thailand several times but never been to floating market, historical parks or some of beautiful temples before. So I decided to make the exclusive trip for him. My plan was to take him to Damnoen Saduak floating market first, which is located in Ratchaburi, and then headed to Samut Songkram, since it's near to each other. To go there you can take a van at Century, near Victory Monument. For this trip my dad was a driver because my mom and my sister wanted to go there as well. No problem, right?
My house located in very outskirts of Bangkok, thus we all had to left house early. I don't know why my dad asked my sister to put on GPS for him. Y'all know how perfect of the GPS is. The route on the map wasn't the main road, a lot of turns but paid off with a lot of greeny scenery. I napped along the trip, suddenly my dad stopped the car. I was drowsy from the nap. My dad called my name and asked Sam to get out of the car. In what purpose? I didn't know. My dad pointed out many piles of roasted coconut. Mamma mia! I didn't see this stuff for forever! It's so rare item to find in Bangkok and I'm pretty sure foreigner person like Sam never see stuff like this before.
The price of roasted coconut is very good, 15 baht each or around 0.41USD. My dad bought a couple of them for us. Good Lord, it tastes amazing like the first time I tried it. I don't have to ask Sam about the taste because his face told it all. The sound "ummmm" and then "it's good" from him guarantee that roasted coconuts will be his new favourite food.
When our stomach is quarter full, my dad continued driving to Damnoen Saduak floating market. There are many "floating markets" in Thailand, like literally more than hundreds, but the actual floating market is not that many. Damnoen Saduak is one of em. Not too long I saw many foreigners stood on a bridge taking photos. That was a moment when I knew I was at the floating market. After parking the car, I told my dad the meeting point then me and Sam started to discover the floating market.
The named "Damnoen Saduak" came from the name of the canal dug in the reign of King Rama IV. He had the canal dug to connect the Taachin River in Samut Sakorn Province and Maeklong River in Samut Songkram Province together. The market open from 8-11 am, even though it's very short period but hundreds of tourists come here everyday. The stuff that mongers sell are very various, for example, fruits, coconut ice cream, Thai sweet sticky rice with mango, souvenir etc. Normally tourists gonna sit in small rowing boats and buy stuff.
Since it's very touristic place, the price is extremely high, for instance, the coconut ice cream should cost around 35-40 baht, but at the floating market, the price is 60 baht. You might think it's still cheap, if you convert into USD or Pound, yet you can't think like that. Always think like Thai. No Thai gonna pay 60 baht for an ice cream. It's too much. Anyway, I felt very hungry. Doesn't have to ask Sam if he's hungry because he eats every 45 minutes. We decided to have noodles for lunch. 40 baht per bowl, that's little pricey. What about the quantity? Omg, it's like for kids eat. The quantity of the noodle was little. You scoop 3 times and you're done! I didn't have many choices so I kept eating that tiny noodle with disappointed face.
8 minutes after that I wanted to get into the boat. The boat I got in cost 600 baht per boat. At the beginning, I turned away from that price because it was just me and Sam and it will cost us 300 baht per person. The most expensive boat ride ever. Abruptly, I had a very fascinating idea. I gonna share the boat with another tourist! Luckily, there was a couple from the State wanted to share the boat with us. I was worried they will think I am a scammer lol. The way they looked at me was a bit like that. I don't blame them because my country is famous about that. When we sat in the boat, I felt like I was one of the most valuable tourists they gonna ripped off. First 15 minutes it was cool. I bought the coconut ice cream. I spoke Thai to seller so she gave me a discount. Approximately, I paid 50 baht for a coconut ice cream. For the two American people, who join the same boat with me, they paid 60 baht. The taste was good for my Thai tongue, however for foreigners, the taste was beyond fantastic.
So what happened after that 15 minutes? I called it a moment of ripped off. I know I said a lot of negative things about my own country and I shouldn't but all of my words are real. Every single shops sell 99% similar stuff and overpriced. If you see this shop sell souvenir, next 3 shops you gonna see the same thing, and repeat it 20 times. Sometimes, the mongers use a large hook to pull your boat in and hound you to buy their stuff. Me and Sam interested in nothing. Unlike the two Americans, they bought some stuff and though they bargain the price, I still think the price was still high. Of course, I recommended them to go to Jatujak Market instead. The boat brought us only the shop area. We only visited a place made sugar palm, however there are still the same souvenir like the other shops. While we were at the sugar palm place, I talked with the two Americans. They are from Georgia. They came to floating market by Uber. I don't know how much they paid but I guarantee you, it wasn't cheap at all. They are very nice people. I don't want them to have negative idea of Thailand therefor I told them the trick to bargain so they can get cheap goods.
The boat trip took us 2 hours. It can be shorter or longer depends on how many stuff you wanna buy. When we almost reached the pier, the person who control the boat asked us for a tips. I'm not a mean person but I didn't wanna tip her. Sam made a very good point about tipping. Those two American bought stuff from the shop, she gonna get some percent from it plus her normal salary. Basically, she gets a lot of money without our tip. Eventually, she got 60 baht tip from us, 40 baht from Americans and 20 baht from me. That was the end of our Damnoen Saduak floating market trip.
I would recommend for some tourists, who never seen floating market before. It worth to visit once. Don't forget to bargain a lot, if you wanna get stuff from here but at Jatujak Market, they have exact same stuff plus cheaper! Try coconut ice cream because a lot of foreigners find it very yummy. Do not take photos with snake at the floating market because it's pricey, 500 baht. I suggest to go to Snake farm in Bangkok. You pay 150 for the entrance fee and at 11 am on Saturday and Sunday they have snake show, at the end of the show, you can take a photo with snake without extra charge. Same snake but less pricey. And so at last, keep hands inside the boat at all time, don't rest them on the side.
Gallery:
