Damnensaduak Floating Market
Damnensaduak Floating Market is perhaps the most colorful representative among all the floating markets in Thailand.
General Information
Located 5km east of Ratchaburi, the market is best accessed by car or shuttle bus from Bangkok (from Southern Bus Terminal). Cabs and shuttle boats run from the Damnensaduak boat pier. Of course, you can book a tour at the tourist office in Bangkok. But to see the market in all its glory, you should come as early as possible in the morning, and for this purpose leave Bangkok at five in the morning. Then you will catch only traders in the market. From nine o’clock begin to arrive organized bus tours, and then there is little to see what is so famous for floating markets.
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While Bangkok is almost devoid of the floating markets for which the city was once nicknamed the “Venice of the East”, Ratchaburi province has retained a market – not without the support of Thailand’s tourism authorities. At Damnensaduak, you can imagine the kind of bustling life that Bangkok used to have. To accommodate the huge crowds of tourists, the market, which had existed since 1856, was moved in 1984 from its former location on the Tonkham Canal to the Damnensaduak Canal. Floating markets are more than just a place to stock up on everyday goods; they have an important social function of socializing and sharing news. Merchants gather here from near and far.
The waterway system is complex and intricate, consisting of two hundred canals connected by side channels. On the narrow channels there is a lively trade. Women in their small boats, filled to the brim with a variety of goods, deftly dodge the clattering motor boats. All the riches of Thai agriculture are for sale here: fruits and vegetables, fish and meat. Of less interest are the souvenirs, the usual array of tinsel sold here for more than anywhere else in Thailand.
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