Forget your average market stroll. At Damnoen Saduak, vendors ditch pushcarts for pole punts, hawking their wares from a technicolor flotilla. Imagine this: you’re cruising down a canal in a long-tailed boat, dodging pineapples precariously piled on bobbing sampans. Keen-eyed aunties in straw hats barter with tourists over glistening mangoes and fiery chilies, their voices weaving a melody with the chug of boat engines.
This ain’t your grandma’s farmers market. It’s a full-on sensory assault, a kaleidoscope of sights, smells, and sounds. Sure, it’s touristy, but that’s part of the charm. You can snag a selfie with a grinning vendor sporting a souvenir squid hat, or snap a pic of a boat overflowing with pad thai that looks good enough to eat (and it probably is!).
So, if you’re looking for an authentic Thai experience (with a healthy dose of wacky), then ditch the air-conditioned malls and dive into the delightful disarray of Damnoen Saduak. Just remember to brush up on your bargaining skills – you might end up with a boatload of bargains (or a stray pineapple lobbed in your lap)!
Located about 100km outside of Bangkok, the Damnoen Saduak Floating Markets are about a 100 years old and have hundreds of sellers floating around the canals on canoes. They sell fruit, vegetables, spices, cooked foods and tourist souvenirs.
I love fresh food markets because of the amazing smells, local produce and colourful fruits, vegetables and diverse people.
Even though I scored a lifetime supply of Saffron at a bargain price*, I ended up paying in one form or another. I snacked on some dodgy spring rolls from a canal boat that pulled up alongside of us. It gave me a stomach bug which took almost 3 weeks to shrug off when I got home. Also known as a post-holiday rapid detox diet.
*So it turns out my ‘Saffron’ was actually Safflower – a cheap knockoff worth practically nothing. I discovered this after trying to cook Saffron rice that never changed colour. Had my haul been real Saffron it would have had a market value of $6,500! (Paid $3 for it).. so yeah.
