Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Thailand

Back in Jan 2008, my main regret while visiting Bangkok, Thailand, was missing Damnoen Saduak Floating Market in Ratchaburi province. It was not in my initial plan anyway, but Rashid, my travel mate, was so keen that he actually pondering paying hotel's tour agent a premium for the visit. I was reluctant of course, so he suggested we went on our own.

From the few guide books that I brought along, I was able to gather the fact that, the nearest floating market that at least looks like the real thing, was Damnoen Saduak, situated some 105km away, southwest of Bangkok. Getting there was no easy thing! It's about 90 mins drive by car, and one can expect longer by public transport (about 2 hr). And the best time to visit is between 6am - 9am, before the tourist flowing in from Bangkok, and before the genuine fruit and vegetable hawkers on boat made way for the commercial souvenir vendors.

Anyway, on the day we were suppose to go, we both overslept and gotta gave it a miss.

So, I made this an itinerary on my family's subsequent trip to Bangkok in November the same year.


Getting there by bus:
There are public buses from Bangkok's *New Southern Bus Terminal (right), also known as Sai Tai Taling Chan locally, (Pinklao-Nakhonchaisi Road) to Samut Sangkhram Ratchaburi province, you can then walk along the passageway to the market, or take a boat to the market pier. Buses starts around 6am at an interval of 40 minutes. Journey takes about 2 hours and it cost 49 baht for air-con bus or 30 baht for normal bus.
*Note: Do not confuse with the old (New) Southern Bus Terminal, or otherwise known as Sai Tai Mai

Among others (515, 549), bus 556 from Suvarnabhumi Airport goes to the new Southern Bus Terminal. But to make the earliest bus, it is recommended that visitors take an early cab (abt 160 baht from city center) to the bus terminal or staying at a nearby hotel, such as Royal City Hotel.


Getting there by Taxi:
There is no point enquiring about this from Suvarnabhumi airport, the counter staff will advise you to take a bus from Southern Bus Terminal. However, it was understood that one way taxi from Bangkok city center to Damnoen Saduak cost about 1200 baht, but I manage to book a cab for a whole day (12 hours, 6am - 6pm) for 1500 baht. For those interested, I manage to have the lady cab driver's name (whom we call 'May') card here. As a simple courtesy, kindly offer her free lunch when you are having yours. We are so impressed by her service that we even engaged her service fetching us to the airport on the next day. But please note that this nice lady only understand very limited English, and quite a number of times, we had to resort to sign language~ LOL!



Reaching Damnoen Saduak:
Do not get suck in by the boat tour operator at the bus station. They want "Standard" price of 1000 baht for one hour long tail boat tour. Instead, walk outside the parking lot and turn left to town. A short 10 - 15 minutes walk and you will arrive at the bridge over looking the floating market. You can then hire a non-motor boat tour for 300 baht per boat per hour at the floating market. But be warn that Damnoen Saduak is quite large, paddle boat might be unlikely to cover the equivalent that motorboat can cover before the tourist flooded in (around 9am) from Bangkok. Anyway, we paid something like 300 baht per person (if I remember correctly) for the motor boat trip of 90 minutes.


Staying around Damnoen Saduak:
For those who wanted to catch the first light around Damnoen Saduak, so as to avoid the early rush from Bangkok, here are 2 convenience lodging around the vicinity. Otherwise, there is no need to stay overnight in Damnoen Saduak, as you can probably cover it within half a day.

Little Bird Hotel (Nok Noi) Tel: 032 254382

Moo 1/8 Damnoen Saduak

10 minutes walk for the market and close to banks, conveniences stores and café.

Baan Sukchoke Country Resort Tel: 032 254301

103 Moo 5 Damnoen Saduak

3 km from the floating market, have the staff call a tuk tuk or a boat (B400, up to 10 people) to go to floating market

Both don’t accept credit cards

Beside Damnoen Saduak...
In Bangkok, there is actually only one floating market, Taling Chan Floating Market, at Thonburi. But it only operates during weekends and is now rather commercialise. Take bus numbers 79 or 83, which cross the Chao Praya River to the Thonburi side of Bangkok. The market is located near the front of Taling Chan District Office. 9am - 5pm, weekends only.

Other floating markets include:
Bang Phli Market in Samut Prakan Province
Amphawa Floating Market in Samut Songkhram province
Bang Khu Wiang Floating Market in Nonthaburi province
Tha Kha Floating Market in Samut Songkhram province


I will not be touching on details of Damnoen Saduak or other floating markets. As I believe those interested can do their own research with more interesting findings, again I reiterate, the main purpose of this blog is to illustrate means of getting to various attractions. Other blogs or website will probably do a better job in introducing them.