n the centre of the Ayothaya Floating Market is the most traditional section, where small meals are cooked on boats and served to customers sitting on decks next to them. As you move outwards to other parts of the floating market, things become a bit more like a fair. I see Thai women feeding fish from a bottle so they look like suckling calves, a mother paying about 20 baht (60 cents) so her daughter can feed grass to some water buffalo, and a clown making balloon animals for the children. At one point, a mummers show passes through with adults and children, dressed up in garish costumes, throwing jokes and jests in Thai at all in their way.