Imagine floating like a pearl on a beautiful yet busy Thai river, buying groceries and greens for dinner, and then buying a sarong or shawl to wear to a festival.

Most readers of this newspaper are accustomed to doing their grocery or luxury shopping at strip malls, boutiques, thrift stores, and giagantic department stores like Macy's, Myer, Bergdorff's, David Jones among others. But do the readers ever get tired of the same old malls, same identical type shops, stores? Yawn? Nothing out of the ordinary.

If that is how some readers feel, then your next stop shop should be the city of Bangkok, Thailand, the land of the breath-taking magenta orchids, beautiful women, mouth watering cuisine, colorful attire - and the best part? All of this can be found at the floating markets in Bangkok!

One of the most famous images of Thailand, and one of the most visited tourist sites on the outskirts of Bangkok, is the famous Floating Market. The original and most promoted Floating Market, Damnoen Saduak, is located 110 kilometres from Bangkok in Rachaburi province.

Your writer stopped over in Bangkok on the way to and from studying in Italy and was blown away. The writer is of the belief that one of the first stops a traveler should make in Bangkok is one of the floating markets.

Imagine floating like a pearl on a beautiful yet busy Thai river, buying groceries and greens for dinner, and then buying a sarong or shawl to wear to a festival. Well such is life at Bangkok's world famous Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.

There are many floating markets and riverside markets around Bangkok. Some of these are new and others have been revived. The traveler can easily make a day trip out of visiting a floating market.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, found in the Ratchaburi Province of Thailand is the market to go to if you want that picture perfect postcard shot. In order to avoid the other hundreds of foreigners who pour in however, the visitor needs to be at the market by 9 a.m. and there will be a traffic jam of tourist boats.

Getting to the Floating Market took your writer two hours from Bangkok, but this will vary depending on traffic conditions. It is recommended that, if your time in Bangkok allows you, to do this tour at the weekend to avoid spending an unnecessary amount of time in traffic.

Your writer has noted that the canals which now make up the Floating Market were initially built in 1866 on the demand of His Majesty the King of Thailand to assist in easing communication in the province. The actual Floating Market started in 1967 and today thrives with masses of tourists from all over the world.

What the traveller will note is that canals in and around Bangkok are an important method of transport and help to facilitate communication between different areas of the city. To this day many people still live along the canals and frequently use boats as a method of transportation from one point to another.

As anyone who is familiar with the loves of the Thai people, they will know that food is a very important part of Thai culture. On a visit to a floating market such as the one your writer went to, you will see mobile food stores selling anything from fruit, Som Tam, Pad Thai, barbequed chicken, and other delicacies moving around floating markets, on the streets just as an ice cream van does in most western countries. You will frequently see boats moving from house to house selling different wares.

At these 'wet markets' selling fresh produce is very common, so if you hope to see many Thais buying their daily needs at the Floating Market you will not be disappointed!

Most people visiting the Floating Market are foreigners and Thai tourists, but it does offer visitors an excellent opportunity to see something different and take some great pictures of what is truly a Thai icon.