P A R T 1

During our short trip to Thailand, we went along with Xiaoyi's daughter and son-in-law on a day trip to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is about 100km from the Bangkok City Centre and, taking into account the typical traffic of Bangkok, it is about a 2-hour’s drive by car.

I decided to write this article in three parts as there are three different stories to tell. The three parts could be sub-titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"...

THE GOOD

I actually did not plan to visit it because of its distance and the limited time we had in Bangkok; visiting this place would take one day out of our already busy schedule, but Xiaoyi’s daughter mentioned that they will be going there and that we are welcome to come along. I knew Xiaoyi wants to spend as much time as possible with them (and especially the grandchild) so we went along.

They hired one of those “limousine” taxis (a Toyota Quantum minibus with a luxurious interior outfit) to pick us up at 7 am for this day outing. In photography terms, this would already raise a huge red flag; leaving an hour after sunrise means arriving 3 hours after sunrise.

This was not an outing with photography in mind.

This specific floating water market is a very popular tourist attraction and as photographer one needs to search to find good photo opportunities. I was lucky to drift away from the crowd and came along a part that seems to be the place the locals lives, with houses and local restaurants next to the canals. This area is definitely the more photogenic part of this area and well worth exploring.

The photos I took in the part has a more rustic feel to it.

Buying vegetables for dinner

In part two I will tell you about "the bad" of visiting this market.

Here are a few more photos from the non-touristy area.