Ampawa Floating Market

Ampawa Floating Market is a famous floating located in Samutsongkram province in Central Region, not so far away from Bangkok, about 1.5 hours drive. The highlight of Ampawa is the firefly watch at night. Ampawa is an evening market while the more famous floating market, Damnoen Saduak Floating market is a morning market. However, both places have their own charms. They share some similarities but they are pretty different in my opionion. You've been with me to Damnoen Saduak Floating market twice when Hiro's parents visited and Wakaho and her boyfriend travelled to Thailand.

With Wakaho and Masanobu in 2008
http://namrinbussayadilokskul.blogspot.com/2008/08/namrin-with-her-japanese-friends.html

With Hiroto's parents in 2006
(The story is too old. I haven't re-posted it)

My mum, Sin, my younger brother, Tip, Sin's girlfriend and I went to Ampawa market together. We finally snuck out of chaotic Bangkok during state of emergencey. We first stopped at Kunlin (meaning familiar taste in English) Seafood Restaurant for lunch. It was a cool restaurant. It's next to muddy area where it is worm shell farm. I closely inspected mud and found that there are millions of little crabs out there. I also found my lovely mudskipper! The real mudskipper! I'm so glad to see the live mudskipper with my naked eyes! I have been fond of it for a long time. So cute! :-)

Kunlin Restaurant
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=90542&id=592112018&l=ec7b31cb8f

In the late sunny afternoon, we reached Ampawa. We took a ferry to get into the market which were full of people but the officer said it's not as busy as New Year on 1st Jan. We stopped by Museum of Thai Desserts for the first stop as we expected that's going to be chilled in there (air con) but it's too crowded inside so the air con is not cool. However, I took quite many photos to present you how Thai desserts are like. We may not see everything they presented in the museum nowadays but most of them are available in Thai people's lives. I wish you could test it too!

Museum of Thai Desserts
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=90632&id=592112018&l=24d2dec9ab

Because it was extremely hot my brother and my mother didn't bother walking around. They wanted to find some shades and relax. So we split and we said that we would be back to a certain meeting point to catch a boat to see fireflies.

I walked around on my own and found a lot of nice things for you guys especially for whom are outside Thailand. There's a lot of things to window shop but because it was packed of people, my walking speed was slow. There are 2 sides of the river and I could finish only a side. This means one day I have to come back to this place to check out the other side of the river.

In the late evening, we were in the line waiting for a boat to see fireflies. It's 60 baht/person for 1 hour and 10 mins. It's great! We saw fireflies along the way. Not all the time though. The river is broad so you need to keep on your eyes open and spot on "Lampoo" trees or Sonneratia caseolaris plant (If anyone knows its common name, pls let me know). Fireflies sometimes get together at a few trees/plants and blink as if those plants are decorated with little stars. It was breathtaking how nature creates such a beauituful thing. Unfortunatley I can't take a photo because it's too dark. However, I shot some videos which I doubt whether they worked or not and after checking, 2-3 videos work! So I post it here at the bottom of this blog.

To visit Ampawa, if you have time, you can stay over night a home stay too. The market finishes at about 9PM so you can enjoy your whole afternoon eating, shopping, spotting on exotic stuff until late night. However, we planned for a day trip so we went home after firefly trip.

It was a good hot day with a few complaints from my brother and my mother that they didn't want to travel during Songkran again LOL. I didn't want to but my time is running out so I want to see more of my own country.

Sixteen more nights to sleep in Thailand in 2009


Ampawa Floating Market
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=90635&id=592112018&l=2e9a866cea

Firefly Video