The Floating Market

We have seen some memorable sites this weekend. Sunday is coming to its end here and we are settling in for some rest after 2 eventful days. We'll start with one of Saturday's highlights.

The floating market is one of those sites that comes highly recommended by locals and expert travelers alike. Bangkok has several floating markets and the best way to reach them is by - you guessed it - boat. We set out from the hotel at 9am and caught a "tuk tuk" to the sky train station. A tuk tuk is a 3-wheeled miniature taxi that is common in Asian countries. They have different names in different countries, but the concept is the same. Once we arrived at the train station, we bought our tickets to the river with a plan to travel the river by boat while stopping at markets and Buddhist shrines. We bargained on the riverside and ended up taking a private long-tailed boat ride up the Chao Phraya River and through the small canals to nearby villages and markets.

One of our stops brought us to the large floating market pictured here. The canal widens at this particular spot and a plethora of food and craft vendors line the banks on a combination of air filled 55-gallon drums, boats and good ole' fashioned docks. As you can see, some local food can be had by shouting your order down to boat vendors. They promptly fill your request and pass the bowl(s) of food up to the docks in a basket attached to the end of a broomstick. Drop your money in the basket, take the food and enjoy!

I struggled to select from the local dishes because the waters around the market were swarming with fat, delicious catfish. Look closely at this photo and you'll see the pandemonium in the water. It is here that catfish are released for luck and ignored as food. Instead they are fed and left to grow into hefty, meaty creatures that mock westerners like me that savor the flavor of a freshly fried catfish. For this reason I was forced to flee in hunger to the shoreline's makeshift craft shops. There you may find many local crafts and religious trinkets that capture the essence of Thailand. The entirety of Bangkok differs significantly from what we call home in the USA. But of all the places we've seen in this city, the floating markets and villages alongside the canals are the brightest representation of an historical, tradition-rich land.