Written by Deniss Peld, Sunday, 17 October 2010 05:48 here
It was one of those days when you feel like you want to discover and learn something new. Thailand offers a lot of different activities for those kind of purposes. Me and some other travelers and locals met together on Saturday morning to find our way to a award-winning floating market neat Bangkok. We took a taxi and after 20-minutes ride we arrived to the great food market!
Khlong Lat Mayom floating market was a winner of the Thailand Tourism Award of Community-based tourism in 2007. It was opened in November 2004.
The market gives locals a chance to sell organic vegetables, freshly cooked food and home-made deserts and prides itself on being a green market. The friendly green market has various sellers offering unique artwork and handicrafts. Hidden among the arts and crafts stores is a miniature maritime museum where visitors can see model boats and learn how to make them for free. Visitors can also take workshops in painting and clay modeling.
While there, we enjoy a 1-hour relaxing boat trip along the canal. We did several stops. One in a museum and another one in an orchid farm! The flowers were incredible! Colors and smells – it was just a perfection! You can buy an orchid, too. If I am not wrong, it was around 160 Baht (€4).
The land used by the market is on the edge of a coconut plantation. Visitors can walk along a market out trail in the plantation.
I enjoyed this place a lot! Seeing all these huge fish in the canal jumping on each other when you throw them a piece of white bread, seeing all nice smiley ladies with hats selling bananas and other fresh fruits on small boats, eating delicious Thai food and sweets and of course well organized tours with guides showing a coconut plantation, a river village, a museum and an orchid farm. Unfortunately guides spoke only Thai, but our local friends translated to us everything, so it was quite interesting!
