In the past, people travelled by horses, ox-carts, elephant riding or walking when they lived on land or up the mountains. However the people who lived nearby rivers or canals, they would use the rafts from woods or from bamboo. Rich people could travel by boats. The rivers and canals are one way of transportation before we have good roads and highways to connect places to places. Thus we wouldn’t count the transportation by air which started in Thailand in 1920 Ad for the airmail post office.

Thailand also uses the rivers and canals to connect places to places. Different communities in the ancient times had used the boats as the vehicle to take them around. These included the royal barges for the kings as well as the noble people in the old days as well. For the locals when the villages or the communities got bigger and bigger, they started the marketplace where the ancient people could gather around in some spots as well as moving markets which could move around in the different communities where rivers and canals could access which most of them settled along the river bank as it is one way of the transportation. Selling their crops and products also as the taxi from places to places. In the present, the time had changed and the towns had become more developed, there were construction sites and many new buildings. The roads replace the old ways of transportation. It would be only the people who still live close by the rivers or canals that still keep their way of life using the boat. 

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is one of the examples of using boats in local life. The communities still connect each other by the small canals from houses to houses. Then they don’t need to pay for the gas as they are still using the rowing boats. They row the boats with their products along the canals and stop by if there is someone to call them to stop shopping. This kind of view could be seen here with sellers on their boats, traffic in the canals and busy shopping. This is one of the Thai ways or Thai tastes you could find in Thailand instead of the temples, ancient cities, tradition and of course the sun, the sand and the seas. 

When the time has flown, from the rowing boats to the long tailed boats with the engines have replaced some of the rowing or paddling boats to make it more convenient or even faster.  No matter of the changes, the rowing boats or the paddling boats still can be seen in present which very nice as the vendors paddle their boats with full load of the food, fruits and other stuff and still keep the old traditional for the new generation as well as us who love to see the Thai local ways.

Add Damnoen Saduak on your visiting bucket list to Thailand! See and enjoy the local lifestyle!