20090308 - Damnoen Saduak, Nakorn Pathom

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market situated 110 kms west of Bangkok. It's very famous among tourists to see the old style and traditional way of selling and buying fruits, vegetables, etc. from small boats. The best time to reach there is around 8-9am because it is not too hot at that time. Usually the floating market will closed at around 11am.

My cousin wanted to go to the place alot but due to the location where we stay it's hard to go out so early to take bus to the Floating Market. The day before that, I have asked my Thai friend to help out. He called up the previous taxi driver again - Mr. Dhan who left his contact to us last Friday. He promised to pick us up at 7am and 1700 baht for round trip.

He was lost again on his way to my friend's house. He was late for an hour :( When he saw us coming out from the house, he was so surprised because he never aspected that his customer were us. Hehe... He even show us the picture he took for us in Ayutthaya.

Along the way, I fall asleep again. Waking up too early. The day before, there was an outage :( Everytime I went for vacation, must have some outage... I think I can't go for vacation next time:( The taxi driver seems to be very happy. Today he talked alot compare to last trip. He even brought out the Thai-English-Thai dictionary. This time it's easier for us to chat. We show him the word we want to express and he teaches us some Thai words.

Along the way to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market we can saw alot of salt fields. It took around 2 hours to arrive at the floating market. It was already very hot at that time. This time the driver became our tourist guide. We gave the driver a treat on the boat ride. We were being cheated. 500 baht for 3 person and it only took around 30 minutes for the boat ride :(

After the boat ride, we have lunch at the stall near by as we're starving already since we do not have breakfast. "Padthai" again for my lunch. The one I took yesterday at Chatukchat Market was much more delicious. After the lunch, it's time to sleep again. It took another 2 hours to Nakorn Pathom. (he missed his way again)

The driver brought us to another palace which is not in our itinerary - Sanam Chandra Palace (พระราชวังสนามจันทร์). It's just a stone throw from (พระปฐมเจดีย์) the Phra Pathom Chedi.


Phra Pathom Chedi is the highest Chedi in Thailand with a height of 127m and the largest pagoda in Southeast Asia. It was under renovation when we were there.

The driver asked us to pay 2 Baht and gave us a bowl full of coins (1/5 satang). Then we just go around the table and put all the coins in each of the gold and silver color bowl. Although we do not know what's that for, we just followed.

When we was on our way back to Bangkok, there was accident and cause the bad traffic jam. It took around 1 hr back to Bangkok. Our last destination was Grand Palace in Bangkok. When we reached there already 3:40pm. It was a bit too late where the counter closed at 3:30pm. They have different admission time for local and tourist. We even beg the guard to let us in but they refused and asked us to come tomorrow but today will be our last day in Bangkok...

They have different entrance for Thai and tourist thus we got lost again with our taxi driver. I have to call up my friend again to inform the taxi driver that we'll wait at the car park. It was our regret that we can't visit the Grand Palace:(

When the taxi driver came out, he shows us the pictures he took with his cell phone. The palace was really grand and fabulous. When we reached my friend's house, we found that she was not around. Thinking of going to airport after bath but since my friend is not around we just go directly since the taxi driver can fetch us there. Although it's 3 hours earlier from our flight to Chiang Mai...

Without saying goodbye to my friend I just left with regret. Really appreciate her help and kindness borrowing me her cell phone during my stay in Bangkok.