Maeklong Railway Market and Floating Market

Two markets, two ways of understanding how trade works in the delta. The first is pure curiosity: at Maeklong the stalls sit directly on the railway line. Eight times a day a bell announces the train, the traders fold their awnings in seconds, the carriages pass within inches of the crates, and everything reopens behind it as if nothing had happened.

The second is older. Damnoen Saduak, dug in the nineteenth century to link two rivers, has remained a market on the water. You move through it by rowing boat, among vendors in conical hats offering fruit, fried noodles, banana fritters and soup cooked in the boat itself. The route also takes in quieter canals lined with stilt houses and coconut gardens.

The start is early, and deliberately so: after ten o'clock the canals fill with motorboats and the atmosphere changes. Bring a hat, sunscreen and some cash for buying on the water, as the vendors do not take cards.