We booked a tour on GetYourGuide to visit the Maeklong Railway Market and Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. We have been so impressed with all of our tours booked online in advance (we also used TripAdvisor)- everything has worked out perfectly with pickups and the tours have been better than we imagined. This one was no exception!
We got up at 4:30am so we could meet our tour guide, Victor, at Central World Mall at 5:45 (a 15 minute Bolt ride from our hotel).
We got in a van and drove an hour and a half out of Bangkok – the kids all got a nap.
We stopped at a little strip mall for a bathroom break. The kids were excited to see a Krispy Kreme donut shop, but they were closed still. We could have eaten a full Thai buffet next door though. You’d think the donut shop would be open by 7:30… Oh well.
On the way to the railway market, Victor explained some of what we’d see and experience today. He had the greatest accent and a happy personality and wanted to make sure we all had a great day.
We were dropped off at a village railroad station — literally just some railroad tie stairs beside some shacks with tons of stray dogs around.
We rode the train for 35 minutes through the salt and shrimp farms and more tiny villages until we reached the Maeklong Railway Market.
It is one of the wildest things we’ve ever seen. The shops literally line the tracks and have awnings that go over the tracks. When the train starts coming, the shopkeepers pull the awnings back and move their merchandise back a few feet, and all of the shoppers and tourists crowd as squished as they can be against the shops so the train can move slowly through.
We leaned out the window and gave high fives and got in a lot of people’s photos and videos and pretended to shop for their phones.
It takes about 10 minutes to go through the 400 meter market and people are taking selfies with the train the whole way.
Victor made sure we got to go into the cab of the train to see the forward view too.
We stopped at the station and got off, then made our way back through the market as the shopkeepers put their awnings back up and spread their wares again. It was a crazy crowd of people all walking down the railroad tracks!
This is a local market where a lot of the villagers from miles around will come to do their regular shopping, plus a ton of tourists of course. So, there’s a mix of everything for sale – souvenirs, clothing, fruit, seafood, chicken feet, spices, etc. Big buckets with live fish and eels about to get cut up. Fish scales flying everywhere. Durian & jackfruit being peeled. Lets just say that the smells were a bit overwhelming.
We bought some whole mangosteen and starfruit to eat later (when we could wash it!). The souvenir shops were full of similar items that we’ve seen in Chiang Mai and were more expensive, so we just enjoyed the experience.
15 minutes later, the train blew it’s whistle– time to head back through the market. This time we were the tourists on the side of the tracks trying to find a place to stand far enough away from the train. The space between the train and the wall of the shop was only about 2 feet!
The craziest thing is that the shops were built AFTER the train tracks were already there. The people chose to run their businesses like this and it’s been going on for probably 50 years. Crazy is the only way to describe it!
Next stop was a roadside stand where the locals were making coconut sugar. Victor demonstrated for us how they take the coconut flowers (which look like giant ears of corn) and juice them, then boil the juice for 3 hours using dried coconut shells and husks as the fuel for the fires, then scoop out the paste and let it dry in little bricks of sugar.
We got to try the flower juice – the funniest comment from another tourist: “Wow, that’s so sweet. Do you add sugar to the flower juice to make it sweet?” Hmmm, not sure you understand where the sugar comes from.
The coconut sugar is pretty good too – kind of like maple sugar if you’ve ever had that, but harder pieces. It had a little bit of a burnt/toasted flavor too. Not sure if that’s because it’s cooked over the open flame or if it’s part of the natural flavor. Some of us liked it, others were not fans.
We also got to try shredding a fresh coconut and squeezing it to get the milk.
Next stop was the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. We were put in a boat with a guide to paddle and started going through the market.
There are shops on both sides with their shopkeepers sitting crosslegged right on the side of the water. Some of them have hooks on poles and they will pull your boat over and keep you there while they try to get you to buy something. Superman made the mistake of pointing at a hat…. The lady told us $800 baht. We said no thank you, we weren’t really interested. She dropped the price by 100… Still not interested…. Eventually she said “$200. Please help me.” And we felt so bad that we bought that hat.
There are other shops on boats that come alongside. Lots of people selling beer (no thanks), lots of coconut water & coconut ice cream ($60 baht and delicious!), and random meats, coconut pancakes, souvenirs, etc. Our driver seemed to steer us toward his friends, including his daughter. We can’t imagine spending hours every day crosslegged in a cramped little boat trying to eke out a living by selling trinkets and street food. Such a hard life.
The only part we didn’t like about the floating market is that half of the boats are paddle and the other half are long tail motor boats. The drivers of the motorboats are so impatient and downright dangerous. They will turn on their motor for 5 seconds and ram through the crowd of boats ahead of them (seriously, don’t put your fingers/hands outside the boat, ever). If they ever had a chance with open water ahead of them, they would lunge forward and create a wake that rocked the rest of the boats around them. The motors have a propeller at the end of a 5 or 6 foot pole extending out the back of the boat (hence the “long-tail” part of the name). They are constantly raising and lowering the propeller in and out of the water as they navigate and get waaaaaay too close to other boats and people with that thing. Not to mention the clouds of exhaust coming from the motors…. Anyway, we told Victor we wished that everyone there had to use a paddle boat instead. He agreed with us.
We enjoyed a yummy lunch at a Thai market, followed up with the best mango sticky rice we’ve had yet! Seriously, it was so amazing we could have eaten until we exploded. Victor says it’s because here they use fresh coconut sugar, fresh coconut milk, and pick the mangoes from a local farm. So good! They also color the rice – Blue from Butterfly Peas, Green from Pandan Leaves, Pink from Dragonfruit. It doesn’t change the flavor much at all, but it sure looks pretty!
While we were eating a Thai girl, maybe 9 or 10 years old, came up to the table with a package of souvenirs she was selling. She came right to my side and said “Mama, please you buy.” I said “No, thank you.” Then she made the saddest pout face with puppy dog eyes and said “Please Mama!” I said “You’re very good at this, but sorry, no thank you.” Superman says I’m stone cold- he would have given her some Baht just for the face she made.
After lunch we had a few minutes to wander around the market and take some photos. There are street performers there with giant snakes that you can pay to take photos with, and a lady with a sugar glider (she called it a flying squirrel) that she let us pet but no photos. The vendors here are more pushy than in Chiang Mai… So be prepared to say no thank you a lot and don’t be afraid to walk away.
We thoroughly enjoyed the tour to see these iconic Thai markets and immerse ourselves in the culture. Highly recommend going if you are ever in Bangkok!
We got dropped off back at the mall and walked through it (7 stories of shops!), then made our way a block away to find a phone repair shop. Superman’s phone is still going crazy with the SIM card not working. They ruled out that it isn’t a problem with the SIM, but with the phone itself. We debated going back to the mall to find a cheap phone to buy so he has something for the rest of the trip… He had the idea to just purchase an eSIM from an online provider (a month of service for $9) and thankfully that worked! Back in service again!
We gave the kids a chance to swim in the pool at the hotel while we figured out the phone stuff & rested from our early morning. Then we got ready and headed to the Bangkok Thailand Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is gorgeous, clean, and peaceful!
Superman and the girls were able to go inside and do baptisms and confirmations (thankfully there were plenty of English-speaking missionaries inside!), while the little kids and I wandered the grounds and drew pictures in their journals.
Superman and the girls said that inside the Temple is gorgeous and absolutely silent. No traffic noise, sirens, honking, etc. even though it is right on a busy street. So peaceful.
There is a second building on the Temple lot that houses the mission office, MTC, chapel, and I’m pretty sure it also has hotel-like rooms for people coming from all over SouthEast Asia to go to the Temple. We met a Senior Missionary couple from the US who were serving in Nepal and had brought a family from there to be sealed. So cool! They showed us how to get across the busy highways through a tunnel system to get to the malls for dinner.
The kids were super excited to find a Burger restaurant– it took us about 15 minutes to make sure we got the order right for everyone, and then they all came with mustard and onions anyway. Haha. The burger was also pork, not beef. Close enough. The ice cream cones were good at least.
We decided to go back to our hotel via the metro system instead of by car. Google maps is a great way to figure out which train line to use. There are kiosks in the station that allow you to pick your destination and buy multiple tickets at a time (New York City should do this!!). You do have to use cash only. The machine spits out little tokens that you use to get through the gates. DON’T LOSE THESE or you can’t get through the exit gates at your destination!!! Thankfully Superman had watched a YouTube video that showed this so we were prepared. To exit, you scan the token and then drop it in a slot and the gates open.
If nothing else, the kids are definitely learning how to navigate around a big city! Tomorrow we tackle water taxis.
