A Unique Shopping Experience at Damuern Saduak Floating Market

Located 104 kilometers southwest of Bangkok between Nakhon Pathom and Samut Songkram is where you can find Damuern Saduak Floating Market. It is one of the most heavily promoted floating markets at Thailand.

Tour Fee:                      750 Baht (500 for the Crocodile Farm + 250 Baht for the Floating Market)

Duration:                       Full Day Tour

Attraction & Sites:         Damuern Saduak Floating Market, Free Lunch at a Floating Restaurant and Samphran Elephant Ground and Crocodile Farm.

The main attraction at the floating market is the wooden canoes laden with multi-colored fruits and vegetables, paddled by women wearing wide brimmed straw hats. It has become an iconic and alluring image for Thailand tourism.

Like my Full Day Tour to Ayutthaya and Bang Pa-InSummer Palace, I also availed my tour to Damuern Saduak Floating Market at Canary Travel and Tour Agency. The van picked me up at NapPark hostel at around 7:30 in the morning.

To my surprise, the Korean couple whom I met in Ayutthaya Tour was also on the same van with me. So we chatted while on our way to the floating market. The girl talked mostly about Kim Soo Hyun and how she adored him very much. She even taught me how to pronounce basic Korean words! On my part, I invited them to visit the Philippines and told them how crazy the Filipinos are with Korean Dramas (or is it just me? LOL).

We arrived at a pier where there are motor boats waiting to tranport us to the main platform of the floating market. Upon boarding the boat, a stranger will take a photo of you. Don't get scared, give your best pose and your sweetest smile. I assure you, this will benefit you at the end of your tour at Damuern Saduak Floating Market.

Meanwhile, I personally enjoyed the ride to the floating market as I was captivated by the local houses and how their ways of living were affected by the canals/river. Each house that we passed by has its own dock for their private boats/canoes and a ‘receiving area’ for vendors and visitors.

The floating market was like any other market - it was noisy and crowded (mostly tourist)! Certain spots (bridge-like decks) are allotted for tourist to take a souvenir picture of the floating market. So position yourself and wait for right timing to get the best souvenir photo.

The items sold at the floating market consist mainly of souvenir items (refrigerator magnet, key chains, souvenir shirts, etc.), food and drinks, fruits and vegetables and other items that can also be found at Bangkok for cheaper prices. I am not sure though, since I did not try haggling with the vendors and just asked them how much each item costs.

I was given 2 hours to roam around the floating market but was not able to exhaust it all. I decided to go back to our meeting place thirty (30) minutes before the agreed time. I was approaching near the meeting place when a woman approached me and offered me a saucer with my photo laminated on it. I was really surprised! and later realized that this was what the photo-op at the beginning of the tour was all about.

She initially offered me the souvenir-photo-in-a-saucer for 250 Baht, to which I declined. She then lowered the price to 200 Baht and later on lowered it again to 150 Baht. I still declined her offer and went to the benches near the meeting place. I was smoking a stick of Marlboro Lights when the same girl approached me again and insisted that I buy the souvenir-photo-in-a-saucer. So being the gentlemen that I was, I tried to lower the price again to 100 Baht and said to her that that was the only amount I can give her. I was surprised when she said yes since it was more than two times lower the original price.

I was quite happy with my purchase of the souvenir-photo-in-a-saucer since I was not able to buy anything from the floating market (just food and cold drinks). In conclusion, my short visit at Damuern Saduak Floating Market was filled with memories and experience on the unique shopping setting of the place.

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