Bangkok - Klongs

Bangkok no longer has an authentic floating market. Most of the canals (klongs) cutting through the city were either drained and filled because of the risk of cholera they posed, or converted into badly needed roads. Only in Thonburi do one or two vendors still set up shop on the klongs in the early mornings. Even so, a boat trip along the waterways remains an absorbing experience, best embarked upon from the landing-stage near the Oriental Hotel. Here, especially in the morning, a multitude of craft wait to ferry sightseers across the Menam Chao Phraya and through the tangled web of little and not so little canals. The time to go if at all possible is in the morning or the late afternoon when life along the klongs is at its most colorful and varied.

In order to see the kind of floating market which still existed in Bangkok up to a few years ago, it is now necessary to make the journey to Damnoen Saduak.