Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Today was A DAY.

We had a few things on our to do list for the day and decided we would get up early and make the trek out to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market first thing! Well I’m just going to spoil the ending and say do not make your way there by yourself. I implore you to just book a tour group to take you because it is, putting it nicely, an adventure.

We took a small tuk-tuk to the skytrain, and then rode to the end of the line which really felt like we were on the outskirts of the city but nope! Not even close. From here we took a taxi to the bus terminal which was basically a few food stalls surrounded by little counters acting as berths for the buses – which were sometimes buses and sometimes vans. Departure times are a suggestion at best. It’s more like ‘when the bus is full we will go.’ We met a lovely Spanish couple who also seemed a bit confused about the process of getting to what is quite a popular tourist attraction. Why so difficult?!

Our van finally left and over an hour and a half later, with a few stops to pick up random boxes of cargo, we arrived at…. still not the floating market but instead a pier where you then have to rent a boat to get to the floating market. Since it had taken us like 4.5 hours to get here we missed the bulk of the market! Boo! We rented a boat with the Spaniards anyway and the driver turned on his little makeshift engine and started us down the Mae Klong River canal. I say ‘makeshift’ because every boat had something attached to it that was like a franken-engine (frankengine?) of mixed parts that looked like they were ripped off of other machines and glued together.

We floated by stalls selling all the usual tourist fare and knick-knacks at hugely inflated prices, some underneath a lush green canopy. A few of the food stalls and beer stalls were almost enticing enough but we floated away before we could make a decision so it was kind of hard to tell! It was clear that some of the shop owners were in cahoots with some of the boat drivers as more than a few coins changed hands between them. Our boatman stopped at random shops and even though we weren’t interested he stayed long enough that if we were easily pressured we might have bought something. Some of the merchants literally hooked you in with a long hooked stick and then got annoyed when you didn’t want anything or wanted to haggle.

We did see a few of the classic little boats with old women selling homemade food and wearing big straw hats (the real attraction here) but it seemed like most of them had packed up and left already.

The mossy water logged houses all along the canal stood on stilts that had clearly been there for at least a generation or two. We saw a huge nile monitor lizard skulking underneath a ledge and a macaque walking along a porch fence. It was much more rural out here and even though we didn’t get to see exactly what we came for it was worth it all the same. It always seems to be that way when I travel with little to no plan!

We opted to take the easiest way home: a bus and then a taxi which isn’t even more expensive so don’t ask my why this wasn’t the original plan. We’d spent so much time travelling today that the sun was setting and we were exhausted, still having not tackled most of our list!

I was determined that we would still get at least one more thing in today so we grabbed a taxi… and on the way to Lumphini park it was side-swiped by a city bus. (Don’t worry Mom we’re perfectly fine we barely even noticed!)

We had to get out and decided to just walk the rest of the way to Lumpini Park for a little relaxing and fresh air after being stuck in hot vans most of the day. The park was lovely and manicured and had two sides to the pathway depending on which way you were going- exactly the kind of orderliness I needed after that mess of a day! (The giant Nile Monitor lizards on the edges of the water not withstanding….)

My friend Pauline sent me on a mission to try Crying Tiger steak so I found a restaurant near the park serving it – the waitress didn’t speak any English so I think I got the right thing?? It was absolutely delicious rare cooked steak that you dip in a spicy Thai chilli sauce. I’ll have to try it again elsewhere and compare to make sure I got what I was supposed to! Garrett ended up unintentionally ordering a spicy dish as well and did a little crying of his own through dinner!

Despite the day going inside out, backwards and upside down on literally five different types of transportation we still had a good time. And I only got hangry once! So that’s a win in my book.

Sav