Sawadee - part 4

prior to me going to bangkok, i researched on the flower market available.
found two mentioned in Lonely planet and Rough guide. they are the pak klong talat and thewet market.

the guide book didn't really give awful lot of details. upon googling, i found that the best way to get to the markets were via WATER transport.

anyways, we took the BTS to Saphan Taksin and started from there. With BTS and MRT, there is some ENglish spoken so it was really easy. our challenge started at Saphan Taksin. There is no English available. there were 2 tour operators there but none of them list Thewet. And I refused to be touristy and wanted to travel the "LOCAL" way.

after reading the map very carefully, i took down the pier number for Thewet'.
we tried to ask somebody how to take the 'local' boat but to no avail. we decided to just wait for the boat and tell the conductress where we go. that worked. the boat ride was 13Bht for any length of direction. Took us about 30mins to get to thewet which is the 15th stop.


(Saphan Taksin station, there were stalls, seller of all sort like hair accessories, fruits, this particular lady is selling kuehs; ppl going on the 'local' boat. there were a variety of boat at the pier. note the one with fancy roof, those are provided by the hotel to their guests . there are some famous hotel that are located across the river, ie the Hilton ..finally a charter boat that will take you 'anywhere' i imagine' i see westerners chartering them and going up stream and downstreams )


sights we see along the chao phraya.

anyways Thewet is just a little place by the river. It has its market and the flower market is just two minutes walk from the pier.


saw these fishes at the thewet pier. i saw thai feeding bread to this fish. wonder if they will cook them or it's an offering thing?



stalls selling eels/water snake? No idea what it is. There's also 'escargos' for sale.


the row of flower market is made up of about a dozen of stalls with plants neatly arranged in very small area.
there were also shops selling fertiliser, pots etc..i was very impressed at how tidy everything is.vendor makes full use of space available to them.have to say some of the stuffs that they sell are quite rare in Sibu.

check out orchids and how creative Thai go, growing them in shells. cabbage plant that looks like a huge flower. i thought these are only available in gardens with 4 seasons.
ball of hanging plant, more orchids, cannas, water lily, me with various orchids.

1st row: more pics on thewet flower market. there're cactus of all sizes and types for sale. check out the colourful sand/mix sold. imentioned before the massive variety of plant for sale. there's also trailing plants that looks really beautiful and the shop make it look like caring for those plants are easy.

2nd row: i never seen these plants before, they are like cactus/succulent of some sort. probably similar to euphorbia. more orchids. cattleyas seem to thrive in Bangkok. cactuses from different angles.

3rd row: more orchids. i wonder how the vendor transport everything home. or whether those plants stay day in day out at the same position. tropical green plants were abundant in thewet.
finally jake taking pic of one of the stall. notice the utilisation of every inch of the space available. there's no real boundary marking one stall from the next.



we then proceed to the market. there is both dry and wet sections. we bought some rambutan and ventured into the market.

pics: dried,smoked fish of all sorts for sale; me in the wet section while jake in the dry section;
varieties of tomatoes for sale; as we walked out of the market, we crossed a bridge and on the bridge, more fishes left to dry; the man was also smoking the fish (the short walk wasn't pleasant to smell) the river that separates the market (left) and the flower market(right); one of the Wat at Thewet and the monument in the same compound.