Dragon Temple, Maeklong Railway Market and Floating Market
Highlights
- Watch the awnings fold back off the rails as the train comes through Maeklong market
- Ride the train yourself, through the stalls, after watching it from the platform
- Longtail and paddle sampan into the Damnoen Saduak canals where the produce boats trade
- See the Dragon Temple: a pink seventeen-storey tower with a green dragon wound around it
- Stop at the Samut Sakhon salt flats on the drive out
- Leaves from the Khaosan and Rambuttri area, not from across the city
Description
Three places west of Bangkok, none of them much like the others, in a single day out of Khaosan.
Pricing
Adult
Age 12+
THB 675Child
Age 4-11
THB 675- 07:15
Check in on Soi Chana Songkhram
The office sits at number 104, in the lane running between Khaosan Road and Rambuttri. Check in by 07:15. If you added hotel pickup, the van collects you earlier and you get your time the evening before.
A ten-minute photo stop in Samut Sakhon, where seawater is let into shallow pans, left to evaporate and raked into white cones along the roadside.
Talad Rom Hup is a fresh market built along a live railway line, and you walk the track itself between the stalls. When a train is due, the guide puts the group in position on the platform. The awnings retract, the crates come off the rails, the train passes at walking pace with barely a hand’s width to spare, and the whole market reassembles behind it. You then board the train and ride it through.
A longtail runs you out along the main canal, then you transfer to a paddled sampan for the narrow side khlongs, which is where the boats actually trade rather than pose. Afterwards there is free time on foot along the covered market on the banks.
Time to eat at the market. Not included, so it is your choice and your money. Bring cash.
Seventeen storeys of pink tower with a green dragon coiled from the base to the roof, and a large seated Buddha in the grounds. This is a functioning temple in Nakhon Pathom rather than a tourist site, and it is markedly quieter than the two markets. Time here to walk the grounds and take photographs.
Drop-off at the office on Soi Chana Songkhram, or at your hotel if you added pickup. Arrival is around 16:30 and depends on traffic coming back in.
Included
- Air-conditioned van and driver for the full day
- English-speaking guide
- Train ride through the Maeklong Railway Market
- Longtail boat at Damnoen Saduak Floating Market
- Entrance to Wat Samphran
Not included
- Lunch and drinks
- Hotel pickup and drop-off, available as a paid extra when you book
- Personal expenses and anything you buy at the markets
- Gratuities
- Cash in small notes - the markets are largely cash-only
- Clothing that covers shoulders and knees for the temple
- Sun hat and sunscreen, most of the day is outdoors
- Comfortable shoes you can slip off at the temple
- A refillable water bottle
- Booking confirmation, printed or on your phone
This tour starts at a fixed meeting point. Please make your own way there.
Lampoo Ocean Travel office, Soi Chana Songkhram
The office is at 104 Soi Chana Songkhram, the lane that runs between Khaosan Road and Rambuttri Road in Phra Nakhon. Coming by river, take the Chao Phraya Express Boat to Phra Athit pier and walk five minutes east past Wat Chana Songkhram. From the MRT, Sanam Chai is the nearest station, about fifteen minutes by taxi or tuk-tuk. Check in by 07:15 for a 07:30 departure. The van does not wait.
This is a long day and a good part of it is spent covering ground. The three stops sit on the western corridor out of the city, roughly sixty to eighty kilometres away, so there is real van time between them and the return leg lands in Bangkok traffic. Damnoen Saduak divides people, and it is worth knowing which side you are likely to fall on. It is the most photographed floating market in Thailand and it is also thoroughly commercial: the canals get congested, the longtail engines smell of petrol, and the stallholders are practised at selling to visitors. If you are picturing a quiet local market, this is not that. If you want the photograph and you can take the crush that comes with it, it delivers. Timing at Maeklong belongs to the railway rather than to us. The guide works the published schedule so the group is in position before a train is due, but if the service runs late, the stop stretches to match it. Lunch is not included at any stop and there is good food at both markets, so bring cash. Card acceptance thins out quickly once you are off the main street. Wat Samphran is an active temple: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off where signed.
FAQs
Both tours visit the Maeklong Railway Market and the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. This one adds a third stop, Wat Samphran, the dragon temple in Nakhon Pathom, and it leaves from the Khaosan and Rambuttri area rather than from The Old Siam Plaza. It is also the cheaper of the two, because the price is based on meeting the group at the operator’s office rather than being collected from your hotel. The Old Siam tour is the shorter day and includes hotel pickup as standard. If you are staying near Khaosan and want the temple as well as the two markets, take this one.
That is the point of the stop and the guide plans the day around it, arriving before a scheduled service so the group is in position on the platform. The trains are run by the State Railway of Thailand and do sometimes run late, in which case the stop simply lasts longer. You also ride the train yourself, so you see the market from both sides. It is not something we can contractually guarantee, because it is not our railway.
It depends what you want from it. Damnoen Saduak is the biggest and most famous floating market in Thailand, and it is genuinely photogenic, but it is also busy and set up for visitors: the canals get congested with longtails, the engines are loud and smell of fuel, and the vendors sell hard. Travellers who go expecting a quiet working market are often disappointed. Travellers who go for the spectacle and the photographs usually come away happy. The covered market along the banks is the better part for food.
Wat Samphran is an active temple, so shoulders and knees need to be covered for both men and women. A t-shirt and long shorts or trousers is fine; vests and short shorts are not. You will be asked to take your shoes off in some areas, so slip-on shoes save time. The rest of the day is hot and mostly outdoors, so bring a hat and sunscreen as well.
No. There is a break to eat at the floating market, where there is a lot of good and cheap food, but you pay for your own. Bring cash in small notes, because most of the stalls at both markets do not take cards.
Yes, hotel pickup and drop-off is available as a paid extra when you book, for hotels within about ten kilometres of Khaosan Road. The standard price is based on meeting the group at the Lampoo Ocean Travel office on Soi Chana Songkhram, between Khaosan and Rambuttri, which is why it is the cheaper option. If you add pickup you will be given your collection time the evening before.
No. The minimum age is 4. Every passenger needs their own seat, the operator does not carry infant or child seats, and children are not allowed to travel on an adult’s lap. It is also a nine-hour day with a lot of time in the van, two crowded markets and a boat, which is hard going for a very young child even setting the seating rule aside. Children from 4 upwards are welcome and pay the same price as an adult.
Yes. Cancelling or moving your booking to another date is free up to 24 hours before the tour starts, and anything you have paid is refunded in full. Cancellations made less than 24 hours before the start time are non-refundable, and no-shows are not refunded. If we have to cancel, for example for weather or safety, you can move to another date or take a full refund.
