Long before there were roads, many Thai villages were linked by a network of small canals called khlongs. Families used wooden boats to get everywhere. So it made sense to sell things from boats too - and that is how floating markets began, hundreds of years ago.
At a busy market like Damnoen Saduak, dozens of boats float side by side. Each one is piled high with one kind of thing: a boat full of bananas, a boat full of pineapples, a boat full of bright yellow durian fruit, a boat with a small charcoal stove cooking noodles. The cook hands a bowl across to your boat without anyone getting out.
Most floating-market sellers are women, often wearing wide round straw hats called ngob to keep the sun off. They paddle their boats with one long oar, standing or sitting at the back. Many learned to handle a boat as small children, helping their grandparents.
Floating markets are mostly open in the very early morning, before the sun gets too hot. By 11am, the boats are mostly gone - and the canal goes back to being a quiet, leafy place with herons watching from the banks.