Floating Market

The next morning came quickly and I had overslept. The one extra beer or the quiet alarm must be to blame. We met up with Puvania (I think mispelled), EH, ThongDech, and his wife. We rode with Puvania, who recently purchased a Chevy car, maybe a Taurus. The cars over here are very expensive and have different names. He is still a fairly new driver and it's a bit worrisome because the driving over here is something else. Yet, he drove very well and had no problems. It was a 2hr drive out of the city to get there and the place closed at noon. We arrived around 10am and managed to get setup with a boat. Thongdech and his wife didn't go on the boat because they had Mathew (young son) with them. Mathew is his English name and I didn't catch his Thai name but they called him Thew. The boat was bigger than expected and had a top that provided shade which was much appreciated. The engines on these boats look like they were literally pulled out a car and modified. Look at the pics and you will see. They have a very long prop with a propeller on the end that had been modified. In the open areas between the markets, they get going pretty fast and are very loud. As we approached the market area, the driver cut the engine and we floated up to the many boats that were selling things. There were a lot of older women and young kids selling fruit and full pineapples to drink. Other boats had people with grills and pots for cooking food right there on the boat. Generally, on the outer stands or outer boats, there were people selling hats,purses,and various hand made products. Most were very cool but you do start to see the same products showing up at the different locations. Puvanai bought what almost looked like a sour cream taco with a shell. It was actually something with coconut and had a sweeter taste, not too bad. The way you buy something is kind of like you buy at the ballpark. You point and call over to the person. Then they pass the food across a couple of boats and you pass your money across the boats again. Of course this is all happening while the boats are floating along the canal. We continued this routine as we found some gifts we liked or ran into a traffic jam of boats. Once we went through the market area we were dropped off at a gift shop with more goods. There they were cooking coconut sap and offering free samples. It was pretty good but I can't describe the taste. After the shop we headed back to our dropping off zone and our floating market started winding to an end. We met with Thongdech and had some lunch while Mathew explored all of the cool things around. Thongdech has worked in many places and traveled all over the world. He is a very valuable asset to the team. After lunch, we headed back to the cars and went back towards the city to another temple. Jeremy and I slept in the car as we needed a little rest.

Floating Market Pictures