Floating Markets

Sunday February 16th

We did breakfast the easy way today – went into the 7-11 and picked up a few things that resembled food.  A good ‘budget traveller’ move, but not very adventurous, I know.

We had hoped to get a taxi out the front of the hotel to take us to the Taling Chan Floating Markets, but the taxi driver told us there was nothing there and he would take us to the big, original Khlong Latmayom.  Despite us telling him that we wanted to go to the one nearby, he was insistent so in the end we walked away and put Plan B into effect.  This was to try for a taxi near the railway station.  Our problem was, at that stage of the game, we didn’t know the name of the market so communication was difficult.  Once again we were told there is nothing at that market and there are protests there but the driver would take us to the Khlong Latmayom Markets [insert Marj Simpson growl here].

We’d read a couple of reports from people who’d got taxis from the next station along, so we walked there (wasn’t far at all) and asked at the ticket office for the name of the nearby markets.  The lovely young lady wrote down in Thai the name of the markets and said that it should cost roughly 100 baht by taxi.  Bless you, young lady.

Armed with our piece of paper, we went out the front of the station and found a driver who was willing to take us.  It was further away than we’d thought, but the cost was only 107 baht so we assumed we were at the right place.

The problem was, we couldn’t see any water anywhere and this is a requirement for a market that floats.  We saw a couple of other western tourists, asked the way and headed off in the right direction.  Much of the market is actually on dry land, but after passing through many stalls selling delicious looking food, cold drinks, souvenirs and crafts, we finally came to the part of the market that floats. 

Delectable sights and smells

Interesting musical instruments making interesting music

The rest of the band

The floating part is the dining area of the markets.   The cooking is done on boats by the side of a large floating pontoon.  The cooks seem to manage quite well without the usual restaurant facilities and they prepare some wonderful dishes.

Floating kitchen

Not much room, but some really good food comes from these boats

We sat down and John had some satay something-on-skewers and I had the salad that accompanied it.  Both were delicious.

Yum!

Keeping cool or impersonating a floor rug?

Long tail boats - for water-borne rev heads

Big engine for a little boat

Have I got something strange on my head??

While we were eating, we watched some boys swimming in the river.  The river is dark brown, has rubbish floating in it and looks like the last place in the world I’d like to immerse my body, but they didn’t seem to mind.

Noooooo! Don't do it!

We went off for another wander around the stalls and somehow made our way back for another round of satays with salad.

When we’d eventually had enough, we attempted to catch one of the long-tail boats, but it turned out that they were all on tours from the main river and were only taking their tour customers.  Plan B again.  We went up to the main street, buying the cutest little bananas on the way, and flagged down a taxi.  We showed the driver the address of the hotel and he waved us away.  Thanks buddy.  The next driver was much more obliging and took us right to the end of our street for 109 baht.  The advantage of getting dropped at the end of the street was that we were able to smugly walk past the taxi driver who wouldn’t take us where we wanted to go this morning.

iPhone sized bananas

Thai motorcycle gear.  I'm sure the gear that John
and I wear would crack them up

Thank you!  That's the plan

Then, creatures of habit that we’ve become, we grabbed our Kindles and headed for the pool where we stayed until we had numb bums.

We loved the Vietnamese Restaurant so much last night that we went there again for dinner tonight, but tried other menu choices.  Yep, happy to report that everything we’ve eaten there is fantastic.  If you’re ever in Bangkok and feel like a change from Thai food, try the Hanoi Kitchen.

This one speaks for itself

We have an early start tomorrow to head for Phuket, so we got a couple of things for breakfast from the 7-11.  It took us a while to research times and methods for getting to the airport but we’ve now got it worked out.  I hope.  All will be revealed tomorrow.