It was almost 5.30pm when we arrived at Khlong Daen. We drove here according to the direction that Waze directed. We parked our car near the police station. Then, we walked towards the bridge.
Khlong Daen Market is located in Khlong Dan Sub-district, Ranot, Songkhla. It is also connected to Ramkaew Sub- district, Huasai, Nakhon Si Thammarat. Khlong Daen is situated at the main intersection of three canals, which are Ranot Canal, Cha-aud Canal, and Pakpanang Canal.
Such three canals flow along to the end then merge into a small canal named Khlong Daen, which is considered a natural boundary of two provinces. It used to be prosperous in the old days. At that time, this market had the long row houses along the river.
There were many merchant boats from other places and the local culture called “Pook Kleaur” which was the significance culture of the southern people since Khlong Daen people were “Kleur Muang” who worked as the trading connectors between “Kleur Kaun” and “Kleur Lay”.
The change happened after there was the gravel road. A lot of Khlong Daen people moved to town so that the rental row houses were left alone, the house stilts could be seen around the community as the evidence of the prosperous time.
The old buildings along the canal in the market area are well kept. We walked on the wooden bridge which was built for the market visitors. This floating market only open during Saturday, and that is the reason why we arrange our itinerary that we are able to come here on Saturday evening.
There are mainly eatery stalls that sell all kind of Southern Thailand street foods or local street food. The stalls at one side of the wooden bridge and there are low tables and chairs for market visitors to have their dinner at the side of the river.
The first stall that we came to is selling fried tapiocas. basically is fried sweet potatoes for the Malaysians. Then we came to the fried food stall. Be it fried chicken or fried Wanton, it is ultimately irresistible normally for me. And they can make it abundantly scattered across the streets and lanes in Thailand would be fried food.
Thais are very inventive with their frying and it seems like that thy will fry just about anything: seafood of all kinds (shrimps, fish, squid), meats (pork in many forms, duck, chicken), kanom (bananas, bread, dumplings), appetizers (shrimp and fish cakes) and even leafy vegetables (such as holy basil – bai kaprao).
Alvin ordered a set of braised Pork Knuckle Rice and we shared among ourselves, as we want to taste more different kind of street food that here have to offer. The pork knuckle rice indeed is the most delicious that we had tasted so far!. We love it very much!
There is one street food that we were quite surprised that can be found here is the Banh Khot which we thought is the Vietnamese street food. We found that the Banh Khot here is much more savoury than the ones we had in Saigon, may be the it is filled with lots of toppings such as fried shrimps, squids, oysters, spring onions, carrots and they fried it more crispy. It looks much more attempting!
After then we came to a unique place which is a living house which turned into a museum – Khlong Daen Museum Learning Centre. The owner of the Museum is a retired teacher himself.
There are display items that from the early days of the Khlong Daen living, such as the fishing equipment from the fishermen, cooking utensils, agriculture equipment and so much more.
Around 7.00pm there was a dance performance which is performed by the children in the village. This Monora Thai traditional dance is the highlight of the floating market too. The dancers dance on the wooden bridge that can be seen by the visitors at both side of the river during they are having their dinner beside the river.
This is one of the reason why we want to come to Khlong Daen Floating Market too. It is a brand new experience for us as well. The street light at both side of river lighted up when the sky become darker, the whole evening scene of the floating market seems so beautiful and nice! The place is getting crowded by the people that visiting.
We left about 7.30pm as it was late and tired for us as our itinerary was started at very early of the morning. We back to our hotel at Ranot.
Khlong Daen Floating Market looks more charming during evening when all the street lights and the stalls are lighten up. It is such a nice place. We found out that we are the only tourists there and we were please with the local hospitality.
