Floating Market Bangkok

: www.YouTube.com

Getting to the Floating Market takes between one and a half to over two hours from Bangkok depending on traffic conditions. We recommend, if your time in Bangkok allows you, to do this tour at the weekend to avoid spending an unnecessary amount of time in traffic.

The original canals which now make up the Floating Market were built in 1866 on demand of His Majesty the King of Thailand to help ease communication in the province. The actual Floating Market started in 1967 and today thrives with hordes of tourists from all over the world.

Canals in and around Bangkok are an important method of transport and help to facilitate communication between different areas of the city. To this day many people still live along the canals and frequently use boats as a method of transportation from one point to another.As food is a very important part of Thai culture, you will see mobile food stores selling anything from fruit, Som Tam, barbequed chicken, and other delicacies moving around Bangkok, on the streets just as an ice cream van does in most western countries. This also applies to the canals where you will frequently see boats moving from house to house selling different wares.

Thailand does have Tesco's, Carrefour, Leading Price and other major supermarkets all around the country and most communities will have there own 'wet market' selling fresh produce, so if you hope to see many Thais buying their daily needs at the Floating Market you may be disappointed. Most people visiting the Floating Market are foreigners and Thai tourists, but it does offer visitors an excellent opportunity to see something different and take some great pictures of what is a true Thai icon.
We recommend travellers to organise a tour to enjoy the Floating Market. Most tours will pick you up from any of the hotels in Bangkok and the tour normally starts around 06:30 (slightly later at weekends due to the lack of traffic). You need to verify that it is in fact the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and not another, and you should clarify what the tour price actually includes, and how many people will be in your tour.If you use a reliable and well known company such as Asian Trails then they will be able to accommodate your every need, and create a tour which best meets your expectations. Asian Trails also has some of the best tour guides available in Bangkok.


Most tours to the Floating Market will include some side trips, such as a visit to the Sugar House where you will see how Thai's make sugar from coconuts, a visit to the Teakwood Handicraft Center, where you can marvel at how Teakwood is carved into artistic masterpieces and also a visit to the Rose Garden where lunch is normally served followed by a truly excellent cultural show. If you have time and still enough energy then the Crocodile Farm is also not far from the Rose Garden and saves you having to travel all the way back again.
Perhaps the only question that remains is - is it worth spending half a day minimum on a tour to and around the Floating Market? What we would say to that is if you have sufficient time, and have looked at the pictures and feel it would be of interest then definitely, we don't recommend though, that you take a tour to the Floating Market instead of visiting some of Bangkok's other great attractions, such as the Grand Palace etc. For us some of the other major attractions in and around Bangkok would take priority.

Pattaya floating market

PATTAYA FLOATING MARKET, TUCH AND FEEL THE ATTRTACTIVENES OF THE THAI WAY, THE THAI CULTURE, AND THE THAI WISDOM

Four Regions Floating Market in Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri is the latest attraction for tourists visiting Pattaya.

Sitting by Sukhumvit Road that connects Bangkok and Sattahip, it is spread over 67 rai and built at a cost of 350 million baht. It had a soft launch last month and will formally open to tourists shortly.

Owned by local tycoon Warida Sae-eung, 34, it claims to be the biggest floating market in the eastern region featuring 111 shops selling food and specialties from all parts of the country.
Some 80 boats will be on standby to ferry tourists around the compound linked by a network of canals. The compound also features model farms, sunflower fields and a museum, due to open later, where on show will be rare pieces of crafted wooden products, and after dark there will be troupes performing dances native to the four regions of the country.
There is no entrance fee and the market opens daily from 10am to 11pm.
For direction and more information, visit http://www.pattayafloatingmarket.com or call 038-706-340.

By car
Pattaya can be reached in a 2.00-hour drive along Bangna-Trat Highway via Bang Pakong, Chon Buri and Si Racha. However, visitors can avoid Chon Buri by opting for Highway 36, the new route of Chon Buri - Pattaya - Rayong or motorway from Rama 9 Road.

By bus
Air-conditioned and non-aircon coaches regularly depart from the Eastern Bus Terminal (Ekkamai), Northern Bus Terminal (Mochit) on Kamphaengphet Road and Southern Bus Terminal on Borommarat Chonnani Road throughout the day.
Departure times and fares may be obtained from:
The Eastern Bus Terminal, 0 2391 2504, 0 2391 8097
For taxi : Eastern Bus Terminal
The Northern Bus Terminal, 0 2936 2852 to 66, 0 2936 3666For taxi : Northern Bus Terminal
The Southern Bus Terminal, 0 2894 6122
For taxi : Southern Bus Terminal
There are also air-con buses that go directly from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Pattaya. Buses run daily from 6.30 to 19.00 hrs. For information, contact the Public Transportation Centre at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, tel. 0 2134 4099, 0 2132 9171.
Besides, there are bus services to Pattaya available at most hotels in Bangkok. Contact the tour desk at your hotel for details.

By train
The State Railway of Thailand offers a train service departing Bangkok's Hua Lamphong Station at 06.50 hours. (Mon-Fri). The journey takes about 3.30 hours.
For details, call the State Railway of Thailand, 1690, 0 2223 7010, 0 2220 4444 (RSVN),0 2220 4334, 0 2621 8701.
For taxi : Hualamphong Station

So spend a day wandering around the many Thai buildings, selling local and traditional Thai goods, handicraft, wood carvings, Thai herbs, silk & cloth weaving, take a boat and paddle around the market, see the scenery from the water, a remarkable experience. Visit the Wood carving museum, the beautiful sunflower field, and enjoy a delicious meal and drink from the many vendors cooking and selling fresh food from their boats. The Pattaya Floating Market will make your trip to Thailand a pleasure, and a memory you will treasure.

DAMNOEN SADUAK FLOATING MARKET

Damnernsaduak is believed to be one of a well-known and an attractuve travelling sites. Historically, Damnoenssaduak was actually the name of the canal dug in the reign of King Rama IV by the military men and the people of Rajburi, Samutsakorn and Samutsongkram Province directed by Phayasrisuriyawong, the minister of Defence. In those days without rivers and canals, transportation was almost motionless; King Rama IV with his great concern over the country's future economic growth, he finally had the canal dug to connect the Taachin River in Samutsakorn Province and Maklong River in Samutsongkram Province together.

Nowadays Damnoensaduak is one of a provincial district of Rajburi Province. Most people live densely along both sides of the canal from one end of the canal to another.The majority of this people are agriculturists. They grow several different kinds of fruit and vegetable for examples oranges, grapes, papayas, cabbages, bean, onion and etc. The land in this area is naturally fertile. Apart from providing transportation, Damnoensaduak Canal also provides farmers with adequate water for agricultural purposes for the whole year around. More than 200 small canals were dug by local peasants to connect with it to get water to splatter their land. Moreover; these small canals also become protitiouus ways of taking their agricultural products to the markets in neighbouring provinces and Bangkok.

Day in and day out from about 8 a.m. to about 11 a.m. the Floating Market is routinely crowded with hundrreds of vendors and purchasers floating in their small rowing boats selling and buying or exchanging their goods. What they purchase are particularly food, fruit and vegetable which mostly brought from their own orchards. They usually travel on their small rowing boats. however; today the long-tailed boats pushing by engine become very popular. People tend to use them instead. Anyhow because of the shortage of fuel today long-tailed boats are quite unavailable compared to a few years ago.

*** Damnoen Saduak in Ratchaburi about 109 kilometres south of Bangkok or approximately 2 hours drive.

How to Get There

By Car: From Bangkok you can take Highway No. 4 (Phetchakasem Rd.) and turn left at Km. 80 for another 25 kms. along Bangpae-Damnoen Saduak Rd.

By Bus: There are public buses both air and non air-conditioned leaving from the Southern Bus Terminal. Pinklao-Nakhonchaisi Rd. for Damnoen Saduak every 40 minutes from 06.00 hrs. onwards. Fare is around Baht 49 (one way) for air-conditioned (tel . 435-5031) and Baht 30 for normal buses (tel. 434-5558). The most suitable time to be at the market is from 08.00-10.00 hrs.

Arriving at Damnoen Saduak, you can either walk on the passage along the canal on the right hand side or take a both at the pier nearby to Floating Market area at the price of Baht 10 per person. Those who want to see all the three of the Floating Markets, Ton Khem, Hia Kui, Khun Phithak may hire a boat at the price of Baht 300 per hour. It is recommended that the fare should be settled before starting off.

The visit to this market, especially noted for its fresh fruits from surrounding orchards, can be combined with a tour of the great chedi in Nakhon Pathom or Rose Garden which is on the same route, the show time at the Thai Village in the Rose- Garden is at 15.00 hrs. and admission fee is Baht 190 per person. This trip can be arranged through a travel agency or tour counter in most of the hotels in Bangkok.