Floating market in Bangkok??? Yes, why not???
There are several floating markets within driving distance of Bangkok, 2 of the better known markets are “Khlong Lad Mayom Market” and “Khwan Ream Market”.
We will start our first visit at Khlong Lad Mayom Floating market. It was recommended by a friend of mine who has been there before. This market is only open on weekends (Saturday and Sunday), between 9.30am-4pm.
Since it’s so close and in Bangkok, we are taking our big bike!!!
First of all we need to set up our GPS to N13.761728, E100.415683
But you don’t have to ride the bike to follow my trip. You can take a taxi! It only cost between 150-300 baht (depending on where you start in Bangkok) But beware of the bad taxi drivers, and make sure that they turn the meter on and you pay as much as you see from the meter! And don’t worry about the way back, there are a lot of taxis in and out all day at the market.
Arrived the Floating market!!! Not worried about parking early morning. They charge 20-30 baht for car parking but motorcycle can park for free! I saved 30 baht (for shopping) already!!!
We met our group here, my papa, Azi and Timur. And we are ready for breakfast.
There are many different types of food here! My mouth was watering since I walked in!
The market has 2 zones on the opposite sides of the street. We walked in zone #1, guess it should be the original zone since it’s called zone no.1! And it looks like it!
I would recommend you to walk and eat by the canal. There are many bamboo tables provided along the river for you to sit and eat.
And well, we started with food because we were all hungry!
After food, we found the boat ride dock in Zone#1, you’ll notice the bridge and lot of fish here and the long tail boats pick up and drop off here. The microphone guy is selling the tickets.
There are 2 options for boat rides;
Option1: Long tail motor boat, it’s about 50-60 baht per person and it takes about 1.5 hrs. to temples and another small local floating market. We didn’t take this option this time (wait until next!).
The Option2 is a ride in the paddle boat. It’s 20baht per person and it takes about 20-30 mins to go around the market and the lotus pond.
It was very nice and calm, relaxing in the boat. The paddle guy is non-English speaking but he is a real local for this area. He told me that I can ask anything I want to know about this market (really?)
He told us that this market is about 10 years old, he also showed us all the different kinds of trees along the canal.
We saw the local people that live around the canal and got a peak at what life is like for them. I can’t believe this is still in Bangkok.
The lotus pond is so beautiful, big pink lotus – good for photography. We padded around before we turned back to where we started.
During the boat ride, I can see that they are working on expanding the market. It’s popular, and it’s going to be bigger…
After the boat ride we checked the massage shop. We only had to wait about 20 minutes for our turn, it was so good.
Then we shopped for some food to take home. We were impressed by this floating market. It looks very “local” even though it’s listed as a Bangkok attraction, it’s not that touristy yet like “Damnuean saduak” (the original and the big floating market in Ratchaburi).
And if you are a foreigner, you might be the only foreigner around here.
For me, I feel like I can just come back anytime I want to eat… it’s a food paradise here!
It’s good and easy for a quick hop in a taxi to buy some food and take it home.
Overall, we’re glad that we did this trip, it’s one of easiest half day trips in Bangkok…
Travel Date: Sunday 2 Nov 2014
