The Ampawa night floating market is a popular local Thai destination located in western Thailand, approximately 1.5 hours from Bangkok.
The plan was to visit the floating market at the end of a three day trip to Kanchanaburi, Thailand. You can learn more about that trip in my two posts titled, Traveling To Kanchanaburi Thailand and Hiking Erewan Waterfalls.
After talking to locals and a tour company we were told that it would take 3 hours to get to Amphawa from Kanchanaburi via public bus. Unfortunately, there are no direct buses to Amphawa floating market from Kanchanaburi. There are two transportation options that we discovered.
Option 1: Take a minibus going to Bangkok and stop half-way at a public bus stop to catch the #78. The price would be 150 baht or $5 USD for the minibus plus the price of a public bus to Amphawa on the second half of the journey.
Option 2: Take a public bus from Kanchanaburi to Bang Pae, then transfer to public bus #78, at a random stop 15 minutes from the Amphawa floating night market, transfer once again to a minibus for 20 Baht or $.66 USD.
Even though we would have only 1 afternoon/evening at the night market we opted to go via option 2. Looking back, we would have done things a little differently.
The total ride ended up taking 4.5 hours. After leaving Kanchanaburi at 2:45pm, we arrived to the Amphawa floating market at 7:30pm. One minor detail that we were unaware of, prior to departing, is that there would be a 45 minute wait between each transfer. That was sub-optimal. One positive aspect is the total cost was 77 baht or $2.36 USD.
Amaphawa Night Floating Market
Once we arrived to the Amaphawa Night Floating Market, we decided to walk around and explore. I had been to the market once before on a previous trip so it was not a completely new experience.
The amphawa market is a unique comparatively to other markets that you find in Thailand. The market is on both sides of a canal that feeds into the ocean. There are a few bridges that allow you to cross from one side to the other and give a good view of the canal.
There are long tail boats that offer tours up and down the canal to give you a different view of the market and search for fireflies. The long tail boats have large modified diesel motors on the back with a long metal shaft that is angled into the water with a propeller at the end.
Many food vendors cook in the boats and commonly serve fresh seafood to people walking by. We had not eaten dinner so we stopped at a long tail boat serving seafood and got squid, mussels, shrimp and fish.
It was really impressive to see the cooking operation in the boat as there was a BBQ inside the boat. The boats are narrow so everything has a special place and the cooks have to be cognizant because a wrong sudden move could be disastrous.
The market can feel very crowded at times and is unpleasant if you are uncomfortable in large groups of people. There are shops that sell a variety of handmade trinkets and everything in between. If you plan to visit the market then I would recommend going in the evening as the temperature are cooler and the market feels more vibrant.
That evening we stayed at Baan Pai Fah Resort, a nice guesthouse in the area. We called them and they picked us up from the night market. The following day they dropped us off next to the night market to catch a minibus back to Bangkok.
Overall, it was a great trip and visiting the Amphawa night floating market was a great way to end the trip!
