If your time in the capital of Thailand is limited but you still want to experience a floating market in Bangkok, Taling Chan Floating Market can be an easy choice. You can easily visit it if you are staying in Bangkok on the weekend. Discover a detailed guide to Taling Chan Floating Market – one of the most popular floating markets in Thailand – and find the best way to tour this market in Bangkok.
Taling Chan Floating Market is basically a small market with a handful of boats cooking food around it. A number of stalls selling household goods and clothing can be found here too, but most of the market is dedicated to food, and that’s a really good thing. Be sure to go there with an empty stomach and try all the delicious food.
When taking a customized private long-tail boat hire on the weekend, the floating market can be included in the itinerary.
Location of Taling Chan Floating Market
Taling Chan Floating Market is located in front of Taling Chan District Office. This floating market is close enough to central Bangkok, and getting there is easier than getting to any other floating market in Bangkok.
Address: Khlong Chak Phra, Khet Taling Chan, Bangkok
Taling Chan Floating Market Opening Hours
Taling Chan Floating Market opening hours are Saturday-Sunday, from 08:00 to 17:00.
The market also operates on Thai public holidays with the same opening hours as mentioned above.
Taling Chan Floating Market Experience
Once you’re at the entrance of the market, you will see stalls selling mainly plants, seeds, and flowers, including orchids and bonsai trees.
Various Thai fruits, local snacks, and desserts are sold there too, so you can try some of them even before reaching the floating market area.
Food at Taling Chan Floating Market
Various traditional Thai snacks, fruits, drinks, and Thai food dishes that are worth trying while visiting Taling Chan Floating Market are listed below.
Snacks
There are plenty of traditional Thai snacks available at Taling Chan Floating Market.
Thai dessert made of sugarcane, coconut milk, pounded unripe rice, popped rice, peanuts, and sesame (Kanom Kra-Ya-Sart: ขนมกระยาสารท) - 40 baht/pack.
Delicious crispy Thai pancakes (Khanom Buang: ขนมเบื้อง) - 25-30 baht/set.
Sweet Pandan pudding topped with shredded coconut (Khanom Piek Poon: ขนมเปียกปูน) - 20 baht/piece.
The shredded coconut and palm sugar mix is covered with steamed flour and coconut cream mix and later wrapped in banana leaf (Kanom Sai Sai: ขนมใส่ไส้) - 20 baht/7 pcs.
These three traditional Thai snacks will be good for a start, but your journey to the tastes of this floating market should also include other delicious snacks.
Fruits
You can enjoy many delicious Thai fruits at Taling Chan Floating Market as well. At the market you will definitely notice:
Dragon fruit (Gao Mung Gorn: แก้วมังกร) - 60 baht/kg.
Thai La-Mood (ละมุด), or sapodilla, is a sweet Thai fruit with a grainy texture and black, inedible seeds in the center of it = 50 baht/kg.
Nam Dok Mai Sweet Mango (Ma-Muang: มะม่วงน้ำดอกไม้) - 100 baht/kg. This kind of mango is traditionally served as Khao Niaw Ma Muang (Mango Sticky Rice).
Depending on the season, you can also find other fruits sold at the floating market.
Drinks
Not only fruits are sold at Taling Chan Floating Market. A wide variety of fresh juices is on offer here too. Fresh Coconut - 30 baht.
Fresh orange juice - 25 baht.
These fresh juices might be well known and easily found all around Thailand, but at this market you can find a much bigger choice of juice.
Herb juices - 15-20 baht/bottle.
Thai Food Dishes
Various Thai food dishes, including a good choice of seafood, are sold from the boats and stalls at Taling Chan Floating Market.
You can find many different types of noodle dishes being served here. The price starts from 30 to 65 baht.
Fried mussels with egg and bean sprouts, eaten with sweet chili sauce (Hoy-Thod: หอยทอด) - 40 baht.
Dining Area at Taling Chan Floating Market
In the area of the floating market, you will find a floating platform with traditional boats docked near it. Various foods such as grilled seafood, Som Tam (papaya salad), and noodles are cooked on these boats.
The floating platform is a dining area of the floating market. People just sit on the ground of the platform and enjoy eating various delicacies there.
Here you will get a unique experience of eating food on the ground while being surrounded by the locals. However, we would recommend you get there before 11:00, as later the market can get very crowded and most of the dining area can be occupied by local people.
Activities at Taling Chan Floating Market
The floating market offers various other activities for the visitors.
Animal Release for Making Merit
You will see live fish and turtles being sold near the river, as merit-making by releasing a fish or another live creature to freedom is believed to be a good thing to do by Thai Buddhists. Releasing a soft-shelled turtle (20 baht/pc) should bring you a long life, setting a pond snail free (20 baht/pc) will attract happiness, expecting good health should release a climbing perch (20 baht/pc), and giving freedom to an eel (10 baht/pc) should bring success in money, work & studying.
Fish Feeding
Here you can buy a loaf of bread for 12 baht and feed the fish in the water. You will be surprised how big they are and how many of them can get into a small feeding area. The aquarium of fresh fish at the supermarket will look very spacious after this!
Thai Massage
When you get tired of shopping and eating, just relax and enjoy a traditional Thai massage for as little as 200 THB per hour at the premises of the floating market.
Taling Chan Floating Market Boat Tour
For those who are interested in sightseeing, boat tours from Taling Chan Pier to the surrounding area are organized. There are few optional boat tours at Taling Chan Floating Market:
1. Boat tour visiting 3 floating markets
During the trip these 3 local floating markets are visited by boat:
- Taling Chan Floating Market
- Wat Saphan Floating Market
- Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market
Time: Starting at 09:45 (3 hours)
Price: 99 baht/person
2. A tour to the temple Wat Koh
This tour includes a visit to:
- Thai-style house
- Temple
- A small banana and coconut plantation
Time: 1 hour
Price: 69 baht/person
3. A visit to Artist’s House at Khlong Bang Luang
Time: Starts at 13:30
How to Get to Taling Chan Floating Market
Taling Chan Floating Market can be easily visited independently. However, you can also take a customized private long-tail boat hire on the weekend and include the floating market in the itinerary.
To visit the floating market independently, depending on your location in the city, you can take a bus or a combination of Bangkok metro and other means of public transport.
For more details about all transport options, check How to Get to Taling Chan Floating Market from Bangkok.
Tips
Sample bite-sized Thai foods while exploring the lively Taling Chan Floating Market. Enjoy a fun and tasty adventure on this Bangkok Bite-Sized Food Tour at the Floating Market.
Taling Chan Floating Market and Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market are not that far from one another and can both be visited on the same day. Even if Taling Chan Floating Market is much smaller, it gets more tourists. If the atmosphere at Taling Chan Floating Market won’t feel authentic enough, head to Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market and experience real local shopping there with even more traditional Thai foods to choose from.
If you are looking to visit a Bangkok floating market on weekday, your only choice is Damnoen Saduak. The best way to visit it is this combined Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway Market tour, which is the most popular day trip from Bangkok.
