The Amazing Thailand, Tourists' Haven

S Kunjabihari Singh *

'Floating Market' - Damnoen Saduak Floating Market at Bangkok, Thailand :: August 2015

A commercial coined 'Amazing Thailand' was noticed a couple of times in the TV with a Western -looking man actually getting amazed at a couple of tourist sites and select scenes of Thailand. Included in that capsule, one of the around 4 or 5 captivating ones, the one with herds of elephants was really eye-catching and amazing too.

In the past, years back, much before the appearance of such capsules, I had seen in a visit to Bangkok, in one of the many spots the tour organizers took us, was at a place I forgot now, where elephants were made to play football nicknamed, 'world cup football'. I recall also that those days the World Cup Football match was on.

I was impressed how they had succeeded in imparting such a grueling training schedule for a group of about 10 or 12 elephants to actually chase, kick a football and more amazingly, kick as a team.

Experiences of the kind mentioned above and many others, well, add to the charm generated by this country. In a recent visit to Bangkok, we made a point to see what was known as, 'floating market', in Pattaya city. We had in the past seen hoards of boats manned by women, laden with merchandise, eatables like fruits, toys and other fancy items to attract visitors not in Pattaya of course.

So the one in Pattaya tempted us adequately to have a try, as were on the hunt for something new, something typical. The road journey from our hotel 'ibis siam' in central Bangkok, often called Siam Square to Pattaya took about 3-4 hours.

I had been to Pattaya in the past, then, could remember the extensive, white sand, sea beach, with a lot of Westerners basking in the sun, enjoying beer and barbeque-prawn. I had seen the 'coral island', though not as impressive as they attempted to portray. I had not heard of the floating market then.

This time around, we six of us made a point to explore what this often-talked-about, floating market was all about. There were a lot of formalities to enter, unlike other tourist spots, details of Pass Port even, perhaps the sea-side was open the other side for possible escape, I was not sure.

Finally when we entered the complex, we found it to be only a conglomerate of shops erected in the midst of water, mostly selling eatables, some with souvenirs, sometimes some portions of the water like a canal, truly to be categorized as 'dirty'. The foods appeared to be fresh mostly poultry- based or pork and were attractive.

For ones feeling at ease with beef some choices were there. Though all kinds of sea-foods including prawn, squid were there, fish as we relished was only in some. My wife had to undergo the usual discomfort faced elsewhere in Bangkok in not having much of a choice of varieties of fish. We affording to go at ease with poultry or sea-food based preparations had a hearty deal.

Two corners, in the entire shopping- cum- eating complex, stood out heads and shoulders above the rest. These were truly amazing though didn't figure in the elaborate commercial capsule thought out by the Tourism Corporation of Bangkok. One, more amazing than anything else as far as I was concerned, was the little pond-like enclosure, of the size of about 4 and 5 feet or so in area, with a depth of about 5-6 ft, where captive fish, like the golden carp, though small, were stocked.

What was most amazing was the sight of these golden fishes sucking milk, really greedily, from bottle nozzles pushed to their mouths. It was exactly like kids sucking milk from feeding bottles with rubber nozzles pressed in their mouths. How come fish savoring milk from nozzle fitted bottles? That was what was amazing about.

The idea, the initial training, the trial at feeding the fish individually by keeping it hungry, with milk in ones and what a tedious and perhaps rigorous exercise it could be and after some familiarization, releasing all such fishes in the captive pond as tourist attractions.

These Thais, though appear to be not very intelligent, like any of us, the Mongolian look and all that features, flat nose, broad cheek, narrow eyes and all that, are really innovative. The tourists on the go, more so the children who accompany their parents, had to enjoy this ambience where dozens of golden colored fishes flocking around the, again, dozens of milk bottles pushed by the visitors.

In the ultimate analysis, the stall owner was the gainer that too doubly, though of course, the visitors do too. For one, he did not have to spend on food of his actors, as they were, and for the second he sold milk to others for feeding his fishes. The visitors had robbed him of this basic responsibility of feeding.

The owner earned from selling milk to the tourists for feeding his pets. I think, 100 Bht. each bottle (around Rs 250), was charged to the visitors waiting for taking over his responsibility. And yet, it was a hot cake for the visitors. A young boy would go for at least, two feeds, for sure.

The next on my wonder-list was another fish-business, though couldn't be classified as 'fishy'. Here, two or three small enclosures of about 3X3 square feet with depth of, may be, 2.5 feet or so were full of small varieties of fish, almost resembling 'eel' fish, similar to our 'Ngakrichou'.

A tourist can remove his shoes and socks, immerse knee deep in the water full of the eel fish sitting on the edge of the make-shift pond where cushioned seats were laid all around. One had to pay 100 Bht. and can relax for an hour. The fishes kind of, rob the soles, of the outer crumb on the different parts of the leg, the ankle by gently pushing or rubbing their mouths, said to be eating out the outer crust, crumbs in the process.

It was for one, relaxing to have multitude of eel fishes eating up dirt or crumbs or rubbing their mouths on the skin and for the second, after zigzagging along the different corners of the complex of floating market, to relax with both the tired legs immersed in water to gain some lost energy. One could also add to the coefficient of relaxation by sipping a soft drink or a hot cappuccino, as one chose, all at the benefit of the owner.

The tourist won't mind pinching his pocket so long he got amused. We got it in full measure to the extent of remembering and even attempting to share it with the prospective tourists.