Some of the most enduring images of Thailand are of the country's floating markets. Regardless of their authenticity or practicality, the postcard-perfect setting is a boon for international and domestic tourism. While the famous Damnoen Saduak and Amphawa markets continue to attract visitors from all over the world, Bangkok has been treated to its own "temporary" canal bazaar this month, during the Talad Nam Festival at Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem.
The small but hugely popular floating market began with great fanfare on Feb 12, with PM Prayut Chan-o-cha presiding over the opening ceremony. The market is located near Government House and functions as both a nostalgic attraction and an example of urban re-evaluation.
The market is also the latest manifestation in the long and topsy-turvy history of the canal, one of the best-known in the city.
Since its opening, visitors seem to be drawn to one attraction. There is almost always a long queue to board a mini cruise that runs from a small pier near the Orathai Birdge, near Hua Lamphong Railway Station, to Makkawan Bridge near Government House.
The barge carries about 20 visitors down the 163-year-old canal. The cruise is free of charge, and allows little-seen views of buildings, temples and bridges spanning the canal. The 3km trip takes approximately 20 minutes. Scores of row boats from which vendors sell food await the boat's — and more specifically, the tourists' — arrival at Makkawan Bridge. Stalls offering locally crafted products, as well as an orchid market, line the canal's banks.
The atmosphere is similar to that of Amphawa market, and the selection of food is an array of simple Thai dishes — noodles, Thai-style coffees and milk teas, fried mussels, coconut juice and various Thai desserts. Visitors crowd near the small, plastic rafts, which sway as they float on the water. There are not many shops, nor much of variety in regards to food selection, but people nonetheless seem to be having a good time.
Many visitors admitted that they visited the event solely because they wanted to take the mini cruise.
"The market is rather small and the goods sold there are quite plain and rather expensive," said one visitor.
"I just want to travel by boat like people did in the old days," said Sarithorn Songdam, who had already taken the cruise once and was on her way for a second round. "Riding a boat on the canal is different from walking or driving by it in car. It is more pleasant, and you will see it from a different perspective."
Before the Talad Nam Festival, Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem had been overlooked for decades. The canal dates back to over a century ago. It was dug in 1852 as an outer dyke for Rattanakosin Island. The project was an initiative of King Rama IV, who wished to expand the city area and create additional trafficking routes for the shipping of goods from the Chao Phraya River to inner Bangkok.
Chinese merchants and labourers were the main settlers along the arterial canal, which opened in the early 1900s. The canal grew quiet and subsequently rarely used when roads and cars replaced boats, and became polluted by wastewater from ramshackle textile dye shops during the late 1960s. That image of the canal — of soupy water thick with garbage — remains the public perception today. The pollution in the canal was so serious that the waterway was declared by the government a cultural conservation site in 1967. The Fine Art Department enlisted Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem as a national cultural heritage site in 1976, banning construction and changes to the canal.
Turning the once-dirty canal into a tourist site isn't a new idea. Former Bangkok governor Bhichit Rattakul floated an idea for the cruise canal nearly 15 years ago.
Bhichit's team invited landscape architect Assoc Prof Ariya Arunin to propose a design for developing the cruise facility. The project wasn't realised "because the riverbank is too steep and the canal at that time was used for flood draining purposes", said Ariya.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, however, followed part of her recommendation by planting flowers along the canal, improving its image for a few years, until the former — now late — Bangkok governor Samak Sundaravej abandoned the project, leaving it to be treated as a water draining route.
The canal cruise — and, with it, the floating market — have become a reality, albeit only until the end of the month. Despite its popularity, some observers question the sustainability of the scheme.
One of them is Ariya, who is a lecturer of landscape design at Chulalongkorn University.
"The floating market lacks authenticity and looks like a scripted activity for marketing promotion. A real floating market does not need large inkjet banners to lure visitors," she said.
"Floating markets in Thailand are often located at the junction of a river or canals," she said. "Traditional Thai-style floating markets are often public space where people come to change transportation modes, for boats to refill petrol, for commuters to find food to eat and for goods to be delivered and shipped."
But what is the identity of real talad nam, or Thai-style floating markets? A floating market — or even the fresh traditional markets that are becoming popular in Thailand — seem to be gimmicky tourist attractions, an experience recreated to appease a collective nostalgic longing of the urban middle class.
The most authentic floating markets, according to Ariya, are the floating market in Amphawa district in Samut Songkhram province and Damnoen Saduak in Ratchaburi.
"Despite these two places becoming huge tourist magnets, locals still use the canal and market daily, making it sustainable and less pretentious."
Bangkok does not have a floating market in real sense, she added. Yet there are a several spots in Bangkok where the BMA can help promote sustainable floating markets, such as Khlong Bang Luang, in Bangkok Yai district, and the section of Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem near the once-famous Thewes Market, where trees and potted plants were sold.
But for many visitors to the Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem market, authenticity seems not to matter. Despite the steep canal banks, passengers on the cruise eagerly crane their necks to look at the mansions and buildings along the canal. They might not have seen these places before, breathing life into the deserted waterway and the buildings along the route.
The water does not smell — the city's garbage collectors make sure to scoop up all trash. Fresh water has been routed in to rejuvenate the canal, in all its derelict charm. Workers at Bo Bae Market wave to the cruise; it's likely that they have never before seen a boat carrying recreational passengers in the canal. Meanwhile, tourists look at the canal, trying to visually absorb everything. But despite its popularity, the BMA still considers the waterway crucial for drainage and has no plan to repeat the floating market or the cruise next year.
Tourists and Bangkok residents, it seems, will enjoy what they can, while they can.
The Talad Nam Festival at Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem will run until Sunday.
The canal cruise.
