hua hin floating market!!

[Pleng]

Does everything have to be a Haven't you ever been to...Margate, Southend etc??? Paid over the odds for food and drink? Ice creams?

If you've spent your weekend going down to Margate, paying over the odds for food and drink is likely to be the LEAST o your disappointments :p

[pharvey]

Does everything have to be a Haven't you ever been to...Margate, Southend etc??? Paid over the odds for food and drink? Ice creams?

If you've spent your weekend going down to Margate, paying over the odds for food and drink is likely to be the LEAST o your disappointments :p

You're trashing Margate !!

[crazy88]

Only been to Margate once. Dymchurch was always a nice day out as a kid. Brighton and Worthing were always good for a night out once I got a bit older.


Crazy 88

[moja]

At least it is somewhere different to take visitors other than temples and beaches!

[Pleng]

Only been to Margate once

You wouldn't recognize the place now, trust me!

[dtaai-maai]

The Bridge market round the corner from soi 112 was supposed to open last weekend - anyone been yet?

[Nereus]

I went to the Sam Phan Nam Floating Market yesterday. That is the big one further West on Soi 112.
I guess if you need Tee Shirts this is the place to go! Plenty of parking and they seem to be still working on it. Access to the stalls a bit iffy if you are a bit disabled, and watch out for the train! The usual ignorant pricks on their motorbikes parking wherever it suits them, along with the charming Fortuner driver that must own the parking area.

Besides the proliferation of Tee Shirt stalls there are other places selling tourist nick knacks, and of course food stalls, and also a wine shop. I did not buy anything, but I would not say that the prices are exorbitant.

I have to comment on the wooden planks used for the "board walk", as I have never seen trees in Thailand big enough to cut planks the size used there.

Although there were a lot of people there, the stalls did not seem to be doing much business.
They have some Elephants there also, but they were not doing anything with them.

The provision of security guards directing traffic from the main road is to be commended.

[hollister]

Well about one or two months ago I read, that they used to be business partners who got into disagreement leading to each building a floating market. However one ended-up in a fatal car crash just recently. The car was totally destroyed. They must have chased him quite a bit at high speeds. Reminds me of that fatal crash in Paris.

[matthewnoel]

i rode past the site in feb,just trenches,be interested to see what theyve done?ill have a look next month.the mozies should be rife, wtf? floating market?for what?

[slivovica]

Someone compared this to Plearn Wan, but I think it's not quite the same. Plearn Wan is explicitly maketed as an open air museum, as something that recreates a HH of how it appearently has been in previous times (50's). Whereas it seems absurd to me to dig a big hole in the middle of nowhere and fill it with water and then put boats on it with people selling food & stuff as if this was a real floating market, when there are still real floating markets to be seen closer to Bangkok. The idea of a floating market is that both vendors and customers arrive by boat along the the dense network of canals and rivers. Here both arrive by land and meet on an artificial lake. Weird.

What audience do they target?

[STEVE G]

What audience do they target?

It's all aimed at the Thai Bangkok based visitor but considering what has been happening over the last month I would suggest that two floating markets and the planned Venice thing is probably not the first thing that Bangkokians want to see.

[caller]

It's all aimed at the Thai Bangkok based visitor but considering what has been happening over the last month I would suggest that two floating markets and the planned Venice thing is probably not the first thing that Bangkokians want to see.

Maybe they come for a glimpse into the future?

[hollister]

Someone compared this to Plearn Wan, but I think it's not quite the same. Plearn Wan is explicitly maketed as an open air museum, as something that recreates a HH of how it appearently has been in previous times (50's). Whereas it seems absurd to me to dig a big hole in the middle of nowhere and fill it with water and then put boats on it with people selling food & stuff as if this was a real floating market, when there are still real floating markets to be seen closer to Bangkok. The idea of a floating market is that both vendors and customers arrive by boat along the the dense network of canals and rivers. Here both arrive by land and meet on an artificial lake. Weird.

What audience do they target?

Well that whole man created experience works very well for Las Vegas, for Disney Land and many more. However they do offer a little more than 50 t-shirt vendors.

[slivovica]

It's all aimed at the Thai Bangkok based visitor

Thanks for the reply. Interesting. That reminds me that it seems Plearn Wan is also aimed at Thai tourists, though I did enjoy it for an hour or so. It provides some nice photo opportunities and opportunities to sample Thai sweets and other food that I rarely saw in other places in what is said to be a clean environment. And it has some interesting Thai ad posters and movie posters from the 50s. What detracted from the illusion, though, was that the ground floor below the wooden houses on stilts functions as a car park.

[traveller2]

[ What detracted from the illusion, though, was that the ground floor below the wooden houses on stilts functions as a car park. [/quote]


I noticed that too. It sort of limits the experience when you can see modern cars and motorcycles wizzing around beneath you.
But apart from that, it was nice.