Local markets are usually busy, bustling places of unfamiliar noises and smells, but this market is even more challenging being conducted on boats laden with produce instead of stalls and frequented by people in boats. To make things even more difficult the edges of the canal are crowded with houses from one end to another. Every morning hundreds of people take to their motley assortment of river crafts and buy, sell or exchange their goods, mostly fruit and vegetables.

The market starts early and gets crowded by tourist groups after 9 o’clock so it’s best to visit before 8 if you need to hire a boat, which is really the only way to experience the market properly - if you’re looking for the traditional Vietnam of pointed hated farmers this is a good place to find it. The region is known for it’s malacca grapes, mangoes, bananas, coconuts and Chinese grapefruits. The Damnoen Saduak canal was actually man made, built as a transport route in around 1866. Most people here are farmers making use of the canal for irrigation as well as commerce and transport. Some farmers have dug smaller channels off the main canal for easy access, there are more than 200 canals of all sizes now running off like blood vessels and veins.

Written by  Emilie Stokes.

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