Southeast Asia Day 1:
After a very long trip to Bangkok, it was hard to sleep in. My internal clock was all jumbled up, so I found myself awake at 3 am unable to get back to sleep. After an hour I finally went back to bed and settled in until about 6 am.
First thing in the morning we went for a walk around our hotel (the Dewan Hotel). We planned to find a tour to get to the floating market a little over an hour away. We must have looked like tourists because as we passed by a taxi stand, someone was there to offer us a 500 baht all-day tour by private taxi to the floating market and railway market. I wondered what the catch was because that was about 18 dollars for the entire day. There’s no way we would even cover the cost of fuel… but then again there are other ways these taxi drivers earn a living… tour companies pay them to drop them off for their tours.
We decided to go ahead with the offer and hopped into the taxi with a driver that spoke very little English. It took about 80 minutes to get to the starting point for the floating market. We were promptly dropped off at the “Number 1” boat tour at 10 am, which was openin
g time. It was a tour company parking lot where they sold you on various pricey tours. We opted for the 2500 baht floating market tour which was only about 2.5 hours long with a private driver. We didn’t feel comfortable paying a bit more for the elephant rides or wanting to stop at the long-neck women’s village. I didn’t realize until later that these tour companies pay the taxi drivers their day’s income to drop people off here.
This tour was well worth it. Our boat driver took us along a maze of canals for hours
. There were stalls against the canal selling artwork, t-shirts, carvings, and clothing. We bought a few overpriced souvenirs for our kids (make sure to compare prices before coming) before realizing that the haggling prices are more than double what you should settle on. Our boat driver had his preferences of shops to stop at. He would mostly drift slowly and only stop if we pointed at something interesting… that is unless it was someone he knew at which time he would stop until we motioned him to move on.
A bit famished from not having eaten breakfast, we stopped at a small restaurant perched on the edge of the canal for some Thai food. It was probably the most expensive Thai meal in Thailand, but it was also the most delicious, and after sharing a plate of Pad Thai, we couldn’t resist ordering another entree.
We continued through the canals until we came to a coconut sugar farm. It was more or less a large souvenir shop, so we didn’t stay very long. The most interesting part of the tour was the main floating market village where dozens of shops lined the canal. There were ladies of all ages including many seniors cooking food on their small boats or selling fresh fruit and produce from their boats. It was a unique experience to motor along these floating market canals that have been around for over a hundred years.
We continued along and stopped at a Buddhist temple with a massive reclined Buddha statue. Before long, however, it was time to head back. It was interesting to see many humble houses along the shore on stilts. People have been living here for hundreds of years. Since then, over a dozen other floating market villages have sprung up, but apparently, this is the original one.
Our driver drove us about 30 minutes to our next stop, the “Railroad Market”. We, unfortunately, did not spend enough time however at the floating market because we arrived at 1 pm which was an hour and a half early for the train. The Railroad Market is located along an active railway track. The market vendors have their awnings, produce, souvenirs, and restaurants lining the railway tracks. The only path for pedestrians is the railway track itself.
A few times a day, the train comes through, and all of the vendors need to retract their awnings and move the tourists behind a faintly painted red line. With lots of extra time to wait we enjoyed an air-conditioned restaurant with free WiFi as we waited for the train. Right on schedule at 2:30 pm, announcements were made on a loudspeaker, and the vendors pulled back their awnings for the approaching train. Some just covered their produce with tarps as the train slid along the track literally over top of their goods that went up to the track. After a minute the spectacle was over, and the vendors quickly set up again, and there was just a little path left to walk on to leave the area.
The drive back to our hotel took about 2 hours, much longer than expected due to a thunderstorm and downpour. It was a relaxing ride to end our busy day.
As we got out of the taxi, the driver told us we could pay him whatever we wanted. The day before our airport taxi offered the tour for 1600 baht ($45 US). This was offered at 500 baht ($15 US). We opted to pay $50 feeling guilty to have had our own personal driver for 8 hours.
In the evening around our hotel, the streets came alive with roadside food stands selling all sorts of Thai food and smoothies. It was a bustling area and lots of fun to walk around and watch people. We had a less-than-exciting meal at a nearby open-air restaurant. It was hard to compare to the delicious food we had at the floating market. After dinner, we selected from one of many places offering Thai massages. For 500 baht we selected a deep tissue massage that was one of my least favorite massage experiences. Perhaps I should have just gone for the foot massage.