We went to the Ayothaya market and had a horrible experience. For starters they have a "200 bhat foreign person fee". Anyone who is a Thai national gets in free though. Yet, they let in any person of Asian heritage in for free even if they were not Thai, and singled out the Americans and Europeans to pay. The market is like Disneyland, and is crowded and not cultural at all. Plus, they have elephant riding and chain the elephants to a fence which is completely inhumane. There are much better ways to spend your time in Thailand!
We thought we might pop in after our visit to the temples in Ayutthaya, we decided not to bother paying the 200 Thai bhat per person to enter. It was laughable! You want to charge me to buy items? Not only did I find the elephant rising deplorable but I felt like it was a rip off for tourists. Chatachuk was a great market, I would advise skipping this one.
Upon arrival in the ancient city our group wanted to visit a floating market. The tuk tuk drivers brought us to this place. We were not aware that there was an entrance fee and a boat ride. So we piled on to a small boat that took us around a small floating market set up for tourists selling cheap local tidbits. Nothing great or particularly interesting.
Wanted to go to Ayutthaya and to a floating market but we didn’t have enough time to do both, so on the advice of our tuk tuk driver, we went to the “floating market” in Ayutthaya. Paid 200B per person and got a ride on a boat for 10 minutes. There were no vendors from the water side to buy things from, although there were a few vendors who were floating on a boat, selling to people on the land. The market was very small. This would have been a waste of time even if it was free! DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THIS TOURIST TRAP!
This place is a complete scam. Our tuk tuk driver described a 'floating' market. 200 baht per person for an 8 minute circuit and the shops are not selling while you're in the boat. Avoid!!!!
