Cliffords like boats
Since we’re here for a long haul (and since one of us has a fresh hip), we’ve been intentional about pacing ourselves. Unlike a vacation when we’d be scrambling to see all the things in a short amount of time, we’ve put focus on balancing rest and sightseeing by choosing one big thing to do per day. Today’s adventure: the famous Damnoen Saduak floating market.
The market is located in the Ratchaburi province of Thailand, and is about two hours away from Bangkok. In order to make this trip, we worked with a tour company called Bon Voyage Thailand, which is who we worked with last year for our homestay in Phrao, and who our family is working this year for various activities in Chiang Mai. Ya’ll, if you’re ever in Thailand, we highly recommend working with this company! They take care of ALL the details from transportation that meets you at your hotel, activities and admission fees, knowledgeable guides that speak multiple languages, and they really make sure to give you a good taste of Thai culture along the way. One of the things we really appreciate about them is that they have relationships with tons of families in the areas where they give tours, and with that they make sure incomes goes directly toward those families.
Our day started pretty early, which was fine with us as our bodies are still adjusting to the time zone. We grabbed our beloved hotel breakfast (tomorrow late tonight’s post will just be about food), then the guide met us in the lobby of our hotel promptly at 7:30 along with our van for the day.
Thailand has pretty different standards in children’s transportation safety than we have in the US. It’s pretty typical to see families with babies and toddlers riding around on scooters with no helmets and the kids just hanging on — we’ve seen full families of 4 on one scooter, and it’s just the norm here! In prepping for this trip, it was pretty hard for me to fully let go of our US safety standards, so I did some research on travel car seats and bought us a BubbleBum backless booster seat. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s better than nothing and it fits our needs considering we’re not really in cars much while we’re here anyway.
The drive there was filled with 5 year old chatter. One would have thought that she’d never been in a car before, and we could tell that the plane ride here made her accustomed to having a screen in front of her at all times while riding. She requested to watch something like a million times, and we did our best to keep her occupied with car games. We played the color game, where she had to spot X number of things of the color we told her, we played a letter game, and we played I spy. Eventually, we gave her the mission of counting how many Thai temples she could spot, which then turned into how many photos of the king (Rama X) she could spot.
Our first stop of the day was actually in the Bang Khonthi district of the Samut Songkhram province, where we stopped at a coconut plantation. While there we learned about the production of coconut sugar and got the chance to sample it in a few different forms ranging from dried, warm and goey, as a drink, and (Miriam’s favorite) as ice cream. The production process was basically the same as what Adam and I had seen and learned about last year when we got to visit a cane sugar farm up in Chiang Mai. The place we stopped was definitely working in partnership with many tour companies as there were many buses and vehicles of tourists all learning about the process. This also meant that there were pretty nice bathrooms, but at the same time Miriam and I got a reminder in those bathrooms that we were indeed on a farm when we unrolled some toilet paper to find a rather large cockroach was hanging out there to say HELLO!
After getting back in our transport, we rode for about another 15 minutes to our next stop, where we boarded a long boat that would take us to the floating market. If you know us Cliffords at all, you know we love a good boat ride!
It was pretty neat to see the homes of the folks who live on the canals and to imagine how different their lives might be because of their location. It was also a bit unsettling to see occasional signs that had the image of a big snake as if warning us of something, but since all the words were in Thai we are unsure of what those signs were actually about.
Now I know they do this professionally and all, but I do need to give a big shout-out to all the canal drivers who are not only responsible for their passengers’ safety, but who navigate those narrow canals with big long boats that are powered by motors with giant rudder-like sticks to help them steer. It was quite impressive.
My hot take on the Damnoen Saduak floating market: It’s a tourist trap. Thai marketers put idyllic images out there of bountifully and colorfully stocked paddle boats filled with farmers going about selling their goods in a way that your brain almost automatically starts playing Morning Mood by Edvard Grieg. In reality though, the place gives full on Flight of the Bumblebee with vendors following you as they try to sell their goods, and most of the boats actually in the canals are filled with tourists. Also there were boa constrictors there, along with people trying really hard to sell you the opportunity to hold and take a photo with said boas. Hard pass.
On the plus side though, we DID get to try some mango sticky rice, and Miriam picked out a fan to carry with her—that thing has since served her well in the Thai heat.
After a short walk through the rest of the market, it was time to head back to our vehicle which had since driven to meet up with us. It turns out that part of the reason they give the longboat rides is because there’s minimal parking available at the actual market. The morning had worn the little one out, so an ample nap was taken on the car ride home. It must have been a good one because she woke up thinking she had a very sweaty bumper…turns out that smoothie you see in her hand above just made it’s exit while she was sleeping. Thank goodness the BubbleBum has a fairly absorbent cover to it and I was able to wash it in the sink upon arrival home. The rest of the afternoon was spent taking long baths in our gigantic bath tub, spending some time at the pool, and Korean BBQ for dinner (don’t worry, the next post will be all about the food).
One more note about the day: Adam was really proud of the shirts he and Miriam wore. He’s been taking Thai lessons for the last few months, and learned that the thai word for guava is the same word that Thai natives call foreigners — farang. When he learned this he designed their shirts, and was absolutely tickled every time a Thai person pointed and laughed at them (and there were many).
