5 best floating markets around Asia

by Jessica Festa on

When traveling, it’s always fun to head over to the local open-air markets and gain some insight into the culture and their products. To make the browsing experience even better, some markets forgo street stands and set up shop right in the water. To see this for yourself, checkout this list of the five best floating markets around Asia.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market
Ratchaburi, Thailand

While there are myriad floating markets in Thailand, one in particular stands out for the rest. The Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is located about 60 miles southwest of Bangkok and is best experienced early in the morning before the crowds arrive and the heat gets unbearable. The market is very colorful and lively as merchants paddle down the canal in their canoes selling fresh fruit and vegetables which are usually grown directly by the seller. The market also has some history behind it, as Damnoenssaduak was the name of the canal made by military soldiers and local people during King Rama IV’s reign. Back then there weren’t rivers and canals, making transportation quite limited. This was a concern for the king in terms of the country’s economic growth, and the result is the canal that is now home to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.Cai Rang Floating Market
Can Thao City, Vietnam

Located about 3 miles from Can Tho City is the largest floating market in the Mekong Delta. Hundreds of boats gather to sell food, plants, fruits, and vegetables, hanging their goods on a tall pole so that potential buyers can easily see what is being sold. If you don’t want to drive the short distance from Can Tho City and instead want a more relaxing, scenic experience, opt to do the 12 mile boat loop. Just make sure to leave early, as the market begins at 5AM and closes before noon. Bonus: Seeing the sunrise over the Mekong Delta, the sky glowing orange as life on the river begins for the day, is a can’t-miss experience.

Banjarmasin Floating Market
Banjarmasin, Indonesia

The Banjarmasin Floating Market is located on the Barito River and takes place from 5AM to 9AM each morning. It is very traditional, and a way for locals to trade goods such as handicrafts, seafood, spices, fruits, and vegetables from boat to boat. To get there, the journey will take about 20 minutes by waterway.

Aberdeen Floating Village
Aberdeen, Hong Kong

The Aberdeen Floating Village is more than just a market (as you can probably tell by its title). On the Aberdeen Harbour reside about 600 junk boats that house approximately 6,000 people. These boat locals are mainly Tanka people who arrived in Hong Kong around the 7th-9th centuries and hold a long history of marine and fishing culture and tradition. To sample fresh seafood, you can visit one of the many boat restaurants, the biggest being The Jumbo Floating Restaurant which is a major tourist attraction that serves high-quality Cantonese-style seafood.

Srinagar Floating Market
Jammu and Kashmir, India

Every morning from 5AM to 7AM the Srinagar Floating Market takes place on Dal Lake as vendors go to buy, sell, and trade vegetables. Most of the produce has been picked only hours beforehand, so you know what you are getting is fresh. In fact, about 1,250 acres of land surround the lake and are used for cultivating veggies. A visit to this market will not only guarantee a cultural experience, but also beautiful scenery as the lake is lush with lotus flowers.

Zimbabwe has mixed success stopping rhino poaching

by Sean McLachlan on


Zimbabwe has seen an increase in rhino poaching this year, the government newspaper The Herald reports.

At least 23 of the 700 or so black and white rhinos in the country were poached this year, but authorities managed to arrest 37 poachers and horn dealers. Rhino horns are popular for folk medicine, especially in Asia where they fetch high prices. One tactic of the poachers is to poison water holes, which kills not just the rhinos but any animal that drinks there.

More than $4 million is being spent to protect the animals, the government says, including implanting radio transmitters into the horns of 100 rhinos this year.

Zimbabwe isn’t the only country facing this problem. The Huffington Post reports that South Africa is doing more to train park workers on how to investigate incidents of poaching. Several poachers were killed in shootouts with authorities earlier this year, but that didn’t stop 341 South African rhinos from being poached in the first 10 months of the year, more than in all of 2010.

Photo of rhino in Matopos National Park, Zimbabwe, courtesy Susan Adams.

Eco-tourism gets edible with the Ritz Carlton, Charlotte’s, giant green gingerbread house

by Jessica Festa on

The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte, in North Carolina, is taking their eco-friendly hospitality to a whole new level. From Thanksgiving Day through December 28, 2011, the hotel will showcase a life-sized “edible eco-manor”, designed by architects and made by pastry chefs using all-natural and organic ingredients. The structure will be 12 feet high by 14 feet wide by 10 feet deep and will also feature LED lights and a green “moss” eco-roof.

So what goes into making a giant eco-friendly gingerbread house?

  • 350 pounds of organic white, brown and confectioner’s sugar
  • 70 pounds of organic egg whites
  • 300 pounds of organic bread flour
  • 100 organic eggs
  • 24 pounds of molasses
  • Four pounds of salt
  • Four pounds of baking soda
  • 120 pounds of shortening
  • 24 ounces of cinnamon
  • Two gallons of organic milk
  • Eight ounces each of nutmeg, allspice and cloves
  • Nine ounces of ginger

This unique exhibit complements The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte’s, already eco-friendly programming. The property is LEED-certified, meaning that the hotel’s construction and design follows the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines. Some sustainable practices of the Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte, include building materials that use 30% less energy than most hotels, reduced water usage by 35%, a green, vegetated rooftop, recycling more than 80% of construction waste, and having bicycles as available transportation for guests, among other initiatives.

For more information on the hotel’s green programming, click here.

Visit the world’s largest indoor rainforest resort

by Jessica Festa on

While Europe isn’t typically known for it’s tropical rainforests, a visit to the Tropical Islands in Germany can show you that they do indeed exist on the continent. In fact, the world’s largest indoor rainforest is located right outside of Berlin in the town of Krausnick.

Located inside of a giant, 22,000 square foot dome, the indoor tropical resort is about the size of eight football fields and wins the title of the world’s largest indoor rainforest, as well as the biggest tropical sauna and spa complex in Europe. The complex is also home to more than 29,000 plants while cocktatiels, parrots, and budgerigars provide animal life for the space.

There are many other features to this tropical paradise, as well. Visitors can relax on a man-made beach, swim in the “ocean”, go mini-golfing, or partake in some overnight camping. For those who want a short break from the natural side of things, restaurants, bars, and shops are also located in the rainforest resort.

Green travelers will be happy to know that Tropical Islands is also eco-friendly, recycling swimming pool water to feed the plants as well as using natural UV light that seeps through the dome’s massive panels. Rain showers also occur naturally inside the dome, forming from the humidity found inside the structure.

For more information, visit the Tropical Islands website.

January is California Restaurant Month

by Laurel Miller on

As a native Californian and longtime former Bay Area resident, I have to confess there’s no place like home when it comes to the American food/dining/wine scene (New Yorkers, feel free to sharpen your knives…).

California’s always been progressive when it comes to food and drink, from the early days of the vaqueros and Gold Rush-era San Francisco, right up to today’s never-ending parade of talented food artisans, chefs, farmers, and mixologists. It’s only fitting then, to feature a California Restaurant Month.

In January, the second annual statewide celebration is back and better than ever. Presented by Visit California, nearly 30 destinations across the Golden State are creating special restaurant week or month-long promotions and deals, including celebrity chef, prix fixe, and wine pairing dinners, and a series of “Dine and Drive Itineraries” that map out the culinary and scenic highlights of specific regions. Included are “Wine Country Fresh,” “Food Lover’s Classic Coast Drive: San Francisco to L.A.,” and “A Taste of San Diego.” Participating regions for events include cities and counties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Coast, and Northern and Southern California.

If you’re worried about the calories, California Restaurant Month also offers travel tips on where the best skiing, surfing, hiking, and other outdoor activities are to be found, regardless of your itinerary. And that’s the thing about California. As my dad always said, “What other state offers so much diversity?” Whether bagging peaks, scuba-diving, camping in the desert, or having a blow-out shopping spree is your thing, California’s got it.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Stuck in Customs]