The Floating Market - Day 15

After our New Year's celebration, we didn't get a lot of sleep, as we were picked up at 6:45 am for the hour and a half drive out of town to the Damnoensaduak Floating Market. Yes, it's a bit of a drive, but it is worth it. Besides Muay Thai, this is my only other MUST for things to do if you're in Bangkok (though Wat Pho and the Royal Palace are well worth their admission).

The market was unlike anything I've ever seen. True to its name, this market lived on a canal. We climbed in a boat and were paddled around from stand to stand as vendors called out us. If we wanted something, we called back to them and they would either help pull the boat over or quickly exchange money and product as we floated by.

The two other passengers in our boat weren't buying anything, but I saw something that made me think of a friend, and made an impulse purchase. It's truly an impulse purchase because you only have about 5 seconds to decide whether you want something or not and then it's passed you by. It was very exciting.

Traffic jam!

The colors. The beautiful women with the fresh fruit on their boats.

This market was female-centric. Almost all of the vendors were women. Women paddled the boats down the canal, no motors, each boat having at least four passengers. And these women were not young. I was impressed.

After the boat did a lap around the market, we climbed out and then walked through the part you could get to by foot.

Frying bananas is a three woman operation. I thoroughly regret not eating those bananas.

There was so much food. Boats were lined up along the edge of the canal, filled with cooks and their freshly made soups and noodles. At this point in the trip, my stomach wasn't very happy, so I didn't eat nearly as much food as wanted to at this place.

This lady was the Paula Deen of noodles.

We tried coconut dumplings that one woman had formed individually between two tiny cups. They were cold and had a flan-like texture. Normally, this isn't my favorite, but these were pretty good, sick stomach and all.

Stacks of the little cups on the coconut dumpling vendor's boat.

This tastes better than it looks :)

After walking around for a little bit, we took a motor boat around the "neighborhood" and saw a bunch of the local houses. It was pretty and peaceful and made me happy to see a thriving community living on water, a vast difference from the Tonle Sap Lake.

The van took us back to the hotel and we walked a few blocks over to Cabbages and Condoms for lunch. As its name implies, they promote safe sex and provide health centers for the community, so another good cause to support. The courtyard of C&C was beautiful.

We went during the day, but I think it would be very romantic at night. We didn't take photos of the food, neither of us felt well, but the food was good.

Sunset near our hotel.

After chilling at the hotel for a bit and watching Fashion TV, my new favorite channel hopefully coming soon to the U.S., we took the subway to Sirocco.

This location was used in The Hangover II and the views were stunning.

Bangkok is huge and sprawling. It's the largest city I've ever been to and the skyline showed that. NYC has an amazing skyline, but this one was massive.

The drinks at Sirocco are pricey (think $15-$20 per drink), but the view is great. Stay up there for an hour, savor a single drink, take in the city from all sides and it's not a bad price to pay.

On the way back to the hotel, we made a quick pass down Soi Cowboy, a seedy row of strip clubs which came about when the G.I.'s were stationed in Bangkok during Vietnam. Neon neon everywhere. Bourbon Street met the Sunset Strip and together they created younger strippers.

The strangest thing about Soi Cowboy was that we wouldn't have known it was there if we weren't looking for it. You turn a corner and bam! There it is. You turn off of it, and it's as though it never existed.

We stopped at a noodle stand nearby and I had the perfect egg noodles for dinner. Perfect for my upset stomach and they were so delicious. I could eat those noodles everyday.