“It’s 500 Thai Baht per person for the boat ride”, the boat owner said without blushing. “The taxi driver just told us it was 300 Thai Baht per person”, I protested. I wasn’t making this up. I wanted to see if Jok’s friend was taking us to the right place so I checked ahead of time. I didn’t argue when he said 300 baht per person, knowing he’s taking us to the farlung boat dock, at least, that was the cheaper end of the farlung price. Traveling with a blonde-hair husband that looks nothing like Thai, 300 baht wasn’t bad. The boat owner gave the taxi driver a look, he agreed. 300 baht per person and he assigned us this lady that was probably in her early 50s to row our boat. “Jim probably will end up doing some work too, maybe we should have paid full price?” I thought to myself.
The canal that leads to the floating market was narrow, narrower than I would have imagined. Our boat rower pulled over to the side of the canal to let a motored, long-tail boat pass right after we made our first turn. The waves that the motored boat stirred up, made me concerned that the greenish brown water will splash all over us. It didn’t, so I took the first breath of relief. Jim was still holding his breath because the boat was very unstable and I was rocking it by trying to take photos… Another six to seven motored long-tail boat passed by us before we reached the shops on the canal. (How come our boat was not motored and the motored ones always have the right-of-way?)
The shopping was quite interesting. The boat rowers will row the boats next to a store along the canal, the merchant who speaks multiple languages will guess your nationality, advertise in that language, then switch the language if she realizes that you are from a different country. So, I didn’t say a word so that we didn’t get harassed. Needless to say, that didn’t last long. We were coerced, we gave in, and bought a couple of purses, a dress, food, and some beers. Haggling was fun though! Everything we purchased was more than 50% off! (I checked prices with Angie later and I got them for good prices) The best purchase was the boat noodle for 30 baht! The noodle lady covered all of her ingredients, spieces, and seasonings under a cloth. She mixed the noodles, threw in the cooked meat, and ladled the soup in the bowl only when there's an order. The cool thing was that the cooking and service were all done from her boat. Hence, the boat noodle. You enjoy the noodle on the comfort of your own boat and the boat rower will return the bowls after you leave. It was a small bowl of noodles but it was delicious! I had two and half bowls by myself (half of Jim’s that he didn’t finish) and I think that surprised the skinny Thai ladies including the boat rower! Beers were enjoyed with the noodles. Aparently, riding under the influence with an open can wasn’t a problem at all!
The traffic was horrible in the canal. Yes, traffic. Boats that carry food, drinks, tourists, locals, and produce compete for space in the narrow canal. We got up close and personal with merchants and boat riders. Tourists were snapping pictures (including me), merchants were selling, rowing, and sometimes cooking, and locals were going about their day… Jim bought some coconut infused pancake snack from a boat that was four boats away from us stacked right against one another. The pancake lady skillfully passed the pancake snack to the merchant next to her boat and we were encouraged to pass the money to the boat rower next to ours... The transaction was complete efficiently with boats going about their own directions. We ate the coconut pancake snack in amazement of this orderly chaos.
I couldn’t take the heat anymore so we headed back to our car after 2.5 hours. On our way back to our dock, we saw people’s way of life on the canal. Kids playing along the canal, people lying in the hammock underneath their homes, boats parked in their boat “parking lot”, and women washing dishes in the canal. NO!!!! They didn’t just dip their dish in that dirty canal. But they did! Jim and I looked at each other and braced ourselves for a violent stomach ache after having consumed the boat noodles.
At this time, in the middle of the canal, we were solicited by our boat rower to tip her before we reached the last turn back to the boat dock. We dutifully complied.
This was a fun trip. It was hot, curious, exotic, dodgy, different, and very interesting. I’d recommend anyone to come to the floating market in Ratchaburi Province. Make sure you pay the Thai prices, go to the Thai floating market first, bargain for your purchases, and prepare your stomach to stomach some yummy boat noodles.
2 comments:
i love reading about your trip! its so fun.
i am having so much fun!!! wish i can do this for a living!!! :-D
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