First of all, it takes a long, long time to get there. Our guidebook didn’t actually tell us how long, but it took the better part of three hours. The best time to see it is at 6am or 7am when it opens. Buses don’t even leave from Bangkok that early in the morning, so Bangkok day-trippers are forced into arriving when the locals have left and the tourists have taken over.  There are tour companies that run trips from most of the hostels, but they don’t get there till late in the day either.

If you want to travel by yourself, the way it works is that the bus will drop you off right at the end of the market, where you can get a one hour guided tour for about $10. You head out in a boat and are driven from one tourist trap souvenir stall to another. There is no escape – we were at the mercy of our non-English speaking driver who didn’t seem too interested in deviating from the route.  There is a tourist trap coconut plantation you can see, a tourist trap alligator farm, etc. all offering souvenirs made in China at a good price for you my friend!!! I wonder if when we finally visit China they’ll actually have home-made souvenirs?  Anyhow, by the time we’d done all that there wasn’t much time spent in the actual floating market and it was even later in the day!

Anyways, perhaps our experience would have been better if we’d made it in time to see the traditional vegetable and fruit vendors early in the morning before the souvenir-from-China vendors took over, but given the amount of effort required to get here, we can’t see that it’s worth it, at least not as a day-trip. We would have been much happier wandering wat to wat in Bangkok.

Getting back wasn’t that easy. We got a songthaew (a truck with covered benches) back to the town, then we had to wait on the street (although we weren’t sure which side) for a bus headed to Bangkok. Fortunately a store-owner helped us sort it out!