Amphawa - life in a floating market
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2008
1
15
24
Trip End
Jun 07, 2008
Amphawa,
Thailand
Monday, May 19, 2008
I had read about Amphawa on one website, but it didn't feature in either the Lonely Planet book nor in the Travelfish guide so it was really hard to find out much about it, much less having a clue about where we could stay.
As we arrived in the township, it appeared to be very much a local town, help get us here. On arrival, we drove around briefly to find a guest house, but we couldn't find any signs in English whatsoever! We found one place that looked OK, but thought it was a bit pricey - and it was based on a very narrow canal that had pretty much dried up and looked very unappealing. We drove on, parked the car and went for a wonder. Walking through a restaurant, we came out the other side - literally on to a wider canal. We walked along the canal a bit and found this really cute homestay/guest house.
If was stifling hot and we were drenched, so after checking in we had a quick shower to cool down, then just lazed on the cushions on the floor alongside the canal. I have to say I never thought I would enjoy resting alongside a muddy-coloured canal in Thailand, but this place has a really nice atmosphere!
After we cooled down a bit, we wandered along the canal - and about 50m along we stumbled on the floating market that was just buzzing! Local vendors pull up in the longboats with their various foods and sell it to people alongside the river. This placed was packed out with people - all locals, or Thai tourists. We are the only whiteys to be seen around here. This is the first place we stayed where there are NO signs written in English - ordering food is a bit of a challenge!
We weren't quite game enough to order food from the boats, but did buy some fresh prawns, stir-fried with noodles for dinner - 25 baht each ($1) from the night market running alongside the river. It was yummy!
We jumped on a longboat for a tour of the canal and river for about an hour and a half. As the sun went down and it got a bit darker, there were 1000's of fireflies in some of the trees - it lit them up like a Xmas tree. A couple of times they turned the motor off and we just coasted so we could watch the fireflies - and it was neat to hear all the sounds echoing around the river - dogs barking, music coming from all directions, people splashing in the river, birds, etc. It was very serene - and more so for not being able to see the colour of the water!
We have decided to stay another night here.. so tomorrow we will explore around a bit more and just hang out in one of Thailand's best kept secrets!
(Now that I finally have some time AND a reliable PC, I tried to upload some pics of this area today - but somehow the PC seems to have eaten all the pics on my storage card. Fortunately I put in a new card today, so only pics for today have been lost. But this means no pics for the blog... grrrrrr!
