Today, Piyawat, Francois, and I played tourist. We drove about an hour outside of Bangkok to visit the Damnoen Saduak floating market. We had heard that it would be touristy, and it was for sure. But it was kind of fun too.
When we arrived at the canal around 8 AM, there were many boats already in the water. Most of them were being rowed by old women who were selling all kinds of foods and goods from the boat.
We rented one of these wooden boats for one hour for 300 baht (US$7.50) to take us around the canals. It was fun to pull up to another boat to order noodle soup or pomello fruit or fried bananas. But at the same time, it was extrememly annoying because there were shops set up on both sides of the narrow canal and the shopkeepers kept trying to sell us the usual tourist souvenier crap that you see at tourist spots all over the country.
Eventually, though, the boat rower eventually believed us when we said mai ao talat (we don't want the market) and he tooks us down the canal far enough to where there were no shops. It gave us some idea of what Bangkok used to be like -- no roads, no cars, just old houses built over the canal with coconut and banana trees behind them. It was very peaceful and beautiful.
