Damnoen Saduak, the floating market
Whatever the theme of the Thai markets, there is one component that is always repeated in all of them: food. Any Thai who has a motorcycle or a cart can surely improvise a portable kitchen on top of them where they can prepare street delicacies that exude scents of ginger, curry, garlic, coconut... There they make their _khao maga_l (fried chicken in coconut), ped dang (roast pork with rice and ginger), luk chub (vegetable-shaped sweets), aromatic rice, pomegranate, mango or durian juices (a large fruit that is very pestilent but with intense and delicious flavor). Don't hesitate to try it, the cuisine is delicious and it's wonderful to eat it just like they do, in the middle of the street.
Among that multitude of markets there are four that anyone who spends a few days in Bangkok (something really recommended) has to visit:
1. Patpong night market.
Yes, it is very touristy, but it is still a great plan for a night in Bangkok of street snacks , a roadside massage and an acoustic concert in a beach bar with Thai beer in hand. It is located in Silom, one of the most rogue areas (for night life) of this city. When night falls, from the beginning of Silom street you begin to see clothing stalls on both sides of the street (not sophisticated: t-shirts, bags, somewhat hippy pants...) and, among them, carts or motorcycles appear -cook turning the meats and aromatizing the place with the coconut essences.
Along with these street stalls, the shops, restaurants and bars in the area also remain open for a good part of the night. What has been said: here you can abandon yourself to another of the Thai charms that are the massages in the middle of the street, but then you have to sit down in one of the places in this area, they really are a surprise. Among all, I recommend one where you will find a fantastic seafood cuisine and at a very good price. Is named Tom Yum Kung : an open-air room, with large and very simple tables, and a menu that you cannot miss the plate of prawns and scallops in spicy sauce (truly delicious) and the fried chicken wrapped in vine leaves (sublime), among others. It is open from 18:00 until after midnight. It is reached by Skytrain, at the Sala Deam stop (Silom line).
two. The Flower Market (Pak Khlong Talat) .
Is market delicacy open from early in the morning until late at night. Hours and hours with people sitting at tables that act as mobile shops, weaving flower garlands for their gods. The market occupies the streets of Chak Phet and the adjacent ones, close to the Royal Palace. You have to go through the alley that forms between one and the other stalls and then one begins to be possessed by the aromas of jasmine and the perfume of incense; for the color of the market and for the beauty of those small temples that each Thai sets up in his shop, feeding their gods with juices and fruits and flowers, many beautiful flowers.
It is also eaten in this market. There are, like in all the streets of Bangkok, those street food stalls and shops that sell chillies, spices and kitchen gadgets. We recommend that you stop at one of those street restaurants and peck something right there, Particularly delicious are some fried fish that are sold by weight. It is a very good snack to take it standing up while you walk through those aisles of flowers.
3. The Floating Market.
You have to get up early, and a lot, to arrive at the right time to Damnoen Saduak , perhaps today the most popular market among curious tourists. It is about a two-hour bus or taxi ride (about 80 kilometres) from central Bangkok and, to see the market in action, you have to be there before 8am . In our opinion, it's worth it! He leaves behind the big city and its enormous buildings and appears in another world, a world he inhabits with views of the Khlong channel : humble wooden houses in the shape of stilt houses, surviving the cold of the canal.
Your taxi-boat will take you calmly through that other Thailand, completely fascinating, and as you go you will meet the Thais of that area who go along the canal with their pinnaces tuned in the shape of a floating restaurant, selling fruits and vegetables of the day or cooking in their boats the typical dishes of the national cuisine. Spicy soups, hot peanuts, vegetable noodles, coconut chicken … Let's not forget that we are in a very touristy place today, which is why it is inevitable that your little boat-taxi will take you directly to a shop, located on one of the sides of the canal, full of extravagant souvenirs. If you go by bus, at six in the morning one leaves from Thonburi station (Bangkok). When you reach the Damnoen area, on one side of the canal, there is a boat-taxi stop that will take you around the floating market.