Trip To Thailand – Day 5

Friday was supposed to be my last day in Thailand. My plane was scheduled early Saturday morning, in fact, just 25 minutes after midnight, so I had to leave the hotel around 9 PM. I had little time to do anything else than the scheduled tour to Damnoen Saeduk.

This time the pick up was scheduled even earlier than yesterday, at 6:30 AM. Exactly at 6:30 AM a young lady appeared in the hotel lobby and explained me she is my guide for today tour. “What happened to the other girl?”, I said. “Well, we’re different agencies”, the young lady answered and I suddenly had a bad feeling. It was confirmed when I got in the little van: this was not my yesterday group. They somehow managed to switch cars, guides and groups in a totally chaotic way. Well, I was starting to get used to the way things are happening in Thailand, so I get a seat near the window and prepared to sleep. The ride to Damnon Saeduk was around 1 and a half hour.

Damnon Saeduk – Thailand Floating Market

We arrived at the floating market around 9 AM. In the car I learned that this floating market – which basically consisted in a large water canal network – was built by man 100 years ago with the same purpose as the name: to serve as a market. For many years it did, and people did their shopping out of their boats but in the last 20-30 years things have dramatically changed. Modern Thailand do has super-markets and people are doing their daily shopping in modern locations. Sits like Damnon Saeduk are only used for touristic purposes.

I was soon to find out this as I saw that all the merchandise that was sold on the boats. Cheap souvenirs, plastic bags and all kind of small overrated artifacts. The whole feeling was one of sadness and boredom. Locals seemed somehow bored of this game and guides were only preoccupied to show us as many shopping places as possible. The only natural stuff that was sold was food prepared on boats.

But the place in itself was really fantastic. I decided to not tune into the overall vibration of sadness and boredom, and focused instead on people faces. In minutes I realized that this is a big opportunity to make some of the most interesting protraits I ever made. And, without further ado, here are the pictures:

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