Mae Klong Railway and Ampawa Floating Market
Posted by Stuart at 03:38 PM on August 17, 2008Personal car, taxi, train, boat, motorcycle, train, tuk-tuk, motorcycle, boat, tuk-tuk, bus, taxi, skytrain, motorcycle.
Those are the modes of transportation (in order) that we took on a long day-trip out of Bangkok last weekend.
My friends Eric and Kevin were in town (from San Francisco and Dubai, respectively) and they wanted to get out of Bangkok and see something new. So I took them and Eric's Thai friend Yun on the famous "Train to Nowhere" that I have mentioned before (with a few pictures of my trip two years ago), and then went to see the fireflies near the Floating Night Market at Ampawa.
We started our day with a big breakfast at Bug and Bee on Silom (love those Belgian Waffles!) and then taxied over to the Thonburi train station at Wong Wian Yai. From there, the 10-baht (30 cents), one-hour train ride took us out of Bangkok to Maha Chai, in Samut Sakorn province.
We exited the train in the big Maha Chai market but were only half-way to our destination. To continue the trip, we had to cross a river on a ferry, and then catch the next train on the other side of the river for another 10-baht, one-hour ride to the end of the line at Mae Klong, in Samut Songkram province.
The best part about this train ride is that the end of the line goes through the middle of the the Mae Klong market. And I do mean the middle! The narrow pathway through the market is actually the train tracks, and so produce and fresh meat are literally inches away from the train as it slowly passes through the stands. I took a video of this amazing "only in Thailand" event and will try to post it here soon.
Unfortunately Kevin decided to head back to Bangkok at this point (I guess that was enough adventure for him) and so the three of us (Eric, Yun, and I) put him on a bus and then hailed a tuk-tuk and went for a delicious outdoors seafood lunch on the Gulf of Thailand at Don Hoi Lot.
So far on this trip, I had been playing tour guide as I had been to these places a few times before. But our next stop was a new destination for me - the Anpawa Floating Market. After filling up on fish, shrimp, squid and beer, we made our way over to Anpawa on motorcycle taxis. Luckily for us, it was a holiday weekend, so there was a huge street fair in addition to the usual activities at the market. What fun!
This floating market is famous for the night-time boat rides through the canals to see the fireflies. I had heard about this for some time, but this was my first chance to see them for myself. And even though I have fond memories of chasing fireflies on hot summer nights in Florida, I have to admit it was pretty cool to see them here in Thailand. All along the canal, hundreds of fireflies would be illuminating certain bushes. And the amazing thing about it was that the fireflies would blink in rhythm, making the entire bush blink on and off in perfect time. It was as if someone had strung up and plugged in some Christmas lights.
The only problem with our trip was that we were not really sure exactly how we were going to get back to Bangkok. Around 7:30 PM, someone told us that the last bus went back at 7. Opps. But mai bpen rai we decided to live in the moment and worry about how to get home whenever we were ready to go.
And amazingly, a few hours later, it worked out fine. We just caught a tuk-tuk out to the main highway that leads to southern Thailand, and waited for about 10 minutes before waving down a bus on the way to Bangkok. Of course, when I am in a bus on a long road trip, I hate it when it stops to pick up random passengers on the side of the road. Just take me to my destination ASAP please! But this night, for once, I was glad that hitch-hiking on buses is possible in Thailand.
