Floating Market, Thailand

After our New Year's Eve in Chiang Mai, we got up early and headed to the airport just to be delayed for three hours. I had only scheduled us in Bangkok for one day at the beginning of our trip and one and half day at the end of our trip because I knew we would get sick of it pretty quickly. By the time we got to our hotel in Bangkok, we were exhausted. Our hotel was absolutely incredible, one of the nicest hotels either of us had ever stayed in. We took advantage of our comfortable bed and took a nap and then went down the the buffet in the hotel's restaurant. We pretty much wasted one of our days in Bangkok, but we were ok with it.

We were back and forth on whether we should go to the floating market. I loved all of the pictures I had seen, but it was an hour away and a lot of reviews had said that it was not worth it. We decided to call the front desk to see what they suggested. They told us that the tours are a waste of money, but that we could rent a taxi for $60 and it would be ours all day and we could go wherever we wanted. We thought that this would be a good idea, so we booked it.

The cab came and picked us up in the morning and took us an hour outside of Bangkok to the town where the popular Damnoen Saduak floating market was. We pulled into an area that was not the floating market and we were slightly confused. Our cab driver introduced us to some very interesting people and told us they would help us get a boat to the floating market. They sat us down and quoted us $50 a person. We were in shock! We did not know we had to pay an extra $100 just to get to the floating market by speed boat. At this point, we were mad we had driven all the way out there and now were getting scammed. We told the cab driver and he said, "Oh, I didn't know you didn't want to do the 2 hour tour on a speed boat. I can just take you to the market." Ok sir, that is what we wanted in the first place. They were obviously in cahoots.

We finally arrived at the floating market where we were able to walk around the foot market, look at the floating market from above, and rent a rowed boat for $5. We were so happy to have finally figured it out and that we didn't let them scam us. We joked that it wouldn't be a Thailand trip without someone trying to scam us at least once.

The boat ride was a lot of fun and a bit scary. It was hectic on the waterway, with boats going in every direction. We were rammed multiple times and were afraid we were going to capsize. We weaved in and out of the different waterways looking at all of the souvenir shops lining the sides and looking at fruits and prepared foods in the boats surrounding us. The souvenir shops had giant hooks and would hook your boat and pull you over so you could look at their stuff. Funny and interesting, but it was harder to ignore the pestering this way.

The souvenirs were pretty much the same as they are all over Thailand. They were a bit more expensive, though. We were really tempted by some beautiful paintings, but we knew getting it home  wasn't realistic. There were also fruits and vegetables being sold in boats rowed by cute old women. There were lots of boats selling the typical coconut drinks and mango and sticky rice. There were boats of women making food in giant woks. It was interesting to see people sitting on chairs on the side of the waterway and getting food from a boat.

Overall, the reviews are correct. It is not entirely filled with boats topped with beautiful fruits and vegetables like it was many years back. It has become super touristy and is mostly centered around the sale of souvenirs. There are still some boats with beautiful fruit, but they are few and far in-between. I am still very glad we went. It was so interesting to see and it was a lot of fun. I would recommend it to anyone who is considering it, but I would recommend not taking the expensive speedboat tour. The $60 taxi for the day was such a good deal, because he took us wherever we wanted to go for the entire day!

Linking up with Bonnie and Tina for Travel Tuesday!