The Floating Market

Fruit fruit and fruit galore. Imagine, rowing along a narrow canal, seeing a fully equipped longtail boat spit roaster, a canoe filled array of colorful orchids, a full boat load of 5 pound mangos. . . A little bit of heaven for me of course. What was once a true form of conventional Thai market, the floating market has morphed into a modern "working" market for the tourists. While tourism is a lovely benefit for the wonderful Thai people, it has taken over as a personality in many of the time-honored rituals of Siam. Traditionally, floating markets were easy ways to get products from the remote villages to a denser concentration of buyers up-river. The results of fruit filled boats floating up the river was a panorama of color and texture, bartering and selling, all the typical noises in a crazy market with an added twist of beauty. Years ago, as tourism started to flourish in this exotic country, the scenes of the water borne trading was just the sight an adventurous traveler strove to find. Today, a working market all the same, much of the trading is strictly done for the benefit of the onlooker, both in sight and hopefully in currency. The purity of the market remains, but the scene is packed with foreigners and cameras capturing a bit of the past in every photograph. I’ll never forget my canal trip down into the market. Excitement at every turn, and pure elation as I saw the mango boat approach. TWENTY BAHT yelled the mango lady as I had to decide between the grabbing the wallet or snapping the picture - considering I needed to hold on in the rocking boat. our “Row-master” was kind enough to pull aside and temporarily dock with the mango boat so she could cut me a fresh one to accompany my sticky rice. Twenty baht (50 cents) well spent.