My love for the road in a vehicle I can't afford; visiting places with a plan I don't have (ripped from Baby Driver). Sipping in the way of life of people I don't know, jotting down the moments with my loved ones. Keeping close at heart the memories that will be made, and be reminisced about in years to come. For at the end, these treasures are more than silver or gold.
Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 3 |
Day 4 |
Day 5 |
Day 6
Day 3
For day3, I had planned to aim for a floating market. Alas, the floating market near to Bangkok were all weekend markets. I had mix answers from various people I asked. Some said open, some said no. The best chance was then to hit Damneon Saduak. it was confirmed to be open, even during weekdays. However, it was some 100 km away from Bangkok, not a short distance. But I was lucky that on my search on the internet, I came across this small blog by a backpacker that gave instructions on how to get their cheaply without going via the tourist booking route. That really saved us a alot of money. The trick was to go the bus terminal and take a specific bus. I was all game for the adventure and gave it a shot.
So early that morning, we took a cab to the bus station. From there, I saw the connecting bus. When we alighed from the cab, a plumb girl immediately approached me. Fearing that it was a scam, we avoided her. But later she kept asking if we were going damneon saduak, I said yes. She asked us to follow her. Indeed, she brought us to the right booth, and the payment was at the booth. So it was legit. The place was very reminscent of Larkin Bus Terminal. After waiting a while, our ride came up and soon we were on the way to Damneon Saduak.
The journey there was indeed long, and it took about 2 hours. We finally arrived at an open area (carpark) and stop in front of a sort of boat pier. There was a lady (friendly looking) who guided us on the packages they offered etc. She quoted 1200 at first...and later dropped down to 1000 baht for the family. From the backpacker blog, I knew that it was not necessary to take the package and we could just walked down 1 km to the main floating market and hire a paddle boat for 100-200 baht. However, seeing that the family was there, it was just more convenient to take the boat at that spot and have it bring us to the floating market. It also promised to send us back to the bus terminal for us to get the connecting ride back to Bangkok.
Damneon Saduak was really an eye opener and unique experience. Although we could see that it was 100% touristy (all the people there were mainly tourist), it was still a must-do experience. The sellers would hawk their fares along the "banks" and the boats with the "buyers" would ride pass them. If there were any interest, the seller would take a long rod with a hook to hook the boats nearer. At the peak periods, the canals were full of boats jostling each other for space.
Bus terminal
We were at the right place
Waiting for the bus 78
We got coffee here
Our tickets
Caption goes here
Tasty donuts
Aunty selling us the boat package 1200-2000 bahts!
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