Floating Markets of Damnoen Saduak

Bangkok, Thailand

The real floating market is the one at Damnoen Saduak, around 110 kilometres west of Bangkok. A trip to this Thai phenomenon is like traveling back to the ancient times of the Siam Kingdom, where colourful clad merchants paddle along the narrow canals.

We will pick you up in the early morning from your hotel lobby and accompanied by your guide and driver, we head out in the direction of the Ratchaburi province to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Markets, one of Thailand’s icons. It will take approximately 2 hours to reach the marketing and buzzing place is at its best in the early morning before the crowds arrive and the heat of the day builds up.

The Damnoen Saduak Floating Market dates back to 1866 when King Rama IV ordered that a canal 32 kilometres long be dug at Damnoen Saduak to connect the Mae Klong and Tacheen Rivers (his reason for doing so lies in the fact that the quality of the soil on the banks of the canal is excellent for growing many kinds of fruits and vegetables including Malacca grape, Chinese grapefruit, mangos, bananas, and coconuts). The Floating Market is an ideal place for tourists to see the old style and traditional way of selling and buying fruits, vegetables and other from small boats. Tourists will also be able to see traditional Thai houses and the way locals use boats in their everyday lives.

During your visit, there will be lots of activity and bargaining is part of the fun of the sale. The market’s popularity among visitors has grown over the years and outside the traditional means of selling and trading food and drinks, souvenir shops around the market are home to some of the best local handicraft one can buy.

After our visit to the market, we head down to the rural Maeklong Station Market, a different, yet more intimate place to see the various fresh fruits and vegetable produces from the region displayed here. Before heading back to Bangkok, we admire the largest pagoda in Southeast Asia; the Phra Pathom Chedi in Nakorn Pathom. This golden-tiled dome of the Chedi towers almost 116 meters into the air.                

We head back to Bangkok where our guide and driver will drop you off at your booked hotel in the Thai capital.

Traveler Reviews

Review by:   Patrick D,    January 2016
must visit ! and consequently very popular, crowded and less authentic

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