Floating Market, Samut Songkhram, Thailand

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Geo: 13.3288, 99.9275

I booked a day trip with my Guest house to visit the Floating Market about an hour outside of Bangkok. (The pick up was at 7am! I guess the market is only open in the morning. Ugh!) I understand floating markets are an endangered form of exchange in Thailand as many village people are migrating to use larger markets in the cities. So there are fewer of these left, and I guess that this one is still thriving because it's only an hour from Bangkok and our tourists dollars help keep it a float. Get it, keep it a float, hee, he, aww mannn ok. While there were many Thais there doing business with other Thais they day I was here. The locals were not ignorant to the fact that us tourists like to come here to see the market. There were plenty of stalls selling trinkets and locally made handicrafts directed toward foreigners. Hey if we are helping to keep the tradition alive I guess it's cool to buy my souvenirs here.

Tha Kha Floating Market In Samut Songkhram
The Tha Kha floating market takes place on the 2nd, 7th, 12th days of both the waxing and waning moon of the lunar calendar, and also operates on every Saturday and Sunday from 6.00 a.m. to noon. This is a rendezvous of vendor boats that carry local food, vegetable, and fruit for selling. Boat rental services are on offer for traveling to the villages and fruit orchards around Tha Kha Floating Market. Visitors wishing to go the Tha Kha Floating Market can go by car, taking the Highway No. 325 (Samut Songkhram - Bang Pae), take a right turn at Km. 32 and proceed for another 5 Kilometers.

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Photos

My lunch being made to order
I was searching for just the right boat to get my lunch from and then I saw this man. He is frying these little veg dumplings right on his boat! They smelled SO ridicously great I knew this was it.

And the sauce, Mmmmmm
I've fallen in love with rice noodles since I've been in Asia. They are a really different alternative to egg or flour noodles, and SO yummy.
They're made from big sheets of rice starch. When you buy them at the market from the noodle monger (why not?) they cut the sheets into noodles for you; Any size you want depending on the dish.
These dumplings were made from the rice sheets, and I was so excited to try it in a dumpling form.

One more sauce, for good measure
I'm mad that the labels didn't show up in these photos, because these two sauces were just crazy good. I'm guessing that they were soy and oyster sauce, but I'll never know!

Tah-Dah!
Served in a little bowl made from a folded banana leaf, and little 'to-go' chopsticks. I even found a lady with a cart selling Thai Ice coffee. Can life get better than this? This photo is capturing perfect bliss. Mmmmmm, AAaaahhhhhh. *rollercoaster smile*

The Main Canal
After lunch, I changed from the little canal / little boat to the main canal and a larger boat. Here on the main canal were the homes of the people at work in the market.

Comments

[joannesp]

From Mom Your photos are sensational.Phones are out here because of the bad storm from yesterday. You need to call me cell if you cannot get through. I have a faulty USB port which is making the Skype connection poor. Check out the p
hotos I posted on Kodak site. Our houses were on the news last night and will be back on at 5pm today. What a mess! But no one was hurt except our beautiful old trees. Later......Mom