There are two kinds of trips that I love doing but
don’t often get a chance. These are boat trips and train trips. Well,
this weekend I had a chance to do just that and I must tell you that I
had a great time. For quite a few years I have heard stories about the
mysterious Maeklong Railway that runs from Bangkok to Samut Songkhram,
south-west of the capital. The railway is not part of the national
network and you won’t find any of the train times listed on the
timetable at the State Railway’s website. Not only that, but there is
only one narrow track which is broken about half way by a river. Here
you have to disembark and cross to the other side by boat. Then, at the
far end you will find that the train tracks double as a market! It all
seemed to good to be true and I had to take this journey before it
became a thing of the past.
We started our trip in Bangkok on a Sunday morning. For
most people, there are two well-known train terminals in Bangkok. These
are Hualamphong Station and Bangkok Noi Station. However, there is one
more on the west bank which not many people know about. It is called
Wong Rian Yai and is just south of the large roundabout of the same
name. It is easy to find the roundabout as it has a large statue of
King Taksin (no relation to Prime Minister Thaksin). However, the
station is so tucked away that you really have to keep your eyes peeled
as you are driving along. There only evidence that there is a station
is a sign in Thai.
We turned in and found that there were only four
parking spaces which were all taken. So we decided to drive further on
down this narrow road. On both sides were vendors selling food and
snacks to people waiting for the train. As we progressed the road
became narrower and narrower. It became so narrow that we were starting
to wonder whether we were going the right way. But we finally reached a
place where we could safely park the car for the day. The attendant
told us it would be 20 baht for the first two hours. I told him we were
going to Samut Songkhram and would be away for the whole day. This
seemed to shake him rather. Why would we want to take the train to
Samut Songkram when we had a perfectly good car? In fact he was right.
It would have been a lot quicker for us to drive straight there along
the main highway. In the end he compromised on a fee of 50 baht.
Trains leave Wong Wian Yai about every hour between
5.30 a.m. and 8.10 p.m. The first stretch takes you to Samut Sakhon,
which is confusingly called Mahachai by the local people. So, when you
go to buy your ticket, make sure you say Mahachai. Here you catch a
ferry to the other side and then buy another ticket to take you to
Samut Songkhram. This also has a second name which is more commonly
used by the locals. This time you need to ask for a ticket to Maeklong
(the “k” is pronounced as a “g” ). You really have to plan your day
well because the timetables don’t really match. Sometimes when your
train arrives the other is leaving. Other times you only have 30
minutes or as much as two hours! We decided to catch the 10.40 a.m.
train which gave us 110 minutes in Mahachai and 60 minutes in Maeklong.
I think there are only two or three train on this line.
You couldn’t really have more as it is a single track. The trains can
only pass when they are in a station. If you are feeling the heat, you
will be glad to know that the 10.40 a.m. train has an air-conditioned
carriage. The trip to Mahachai costs a whopping 10 baht. If you decide
to sit in the air-con carriage, the conductor will ask you for an extra
15 baht. About 60 cents in total for a one hour journey! Not bad when
you consider how much it would have cost me in petrol if I had driven
there.
The train left on time and we trundled out of the
station. After about 15 minutes we started to leave the big city behind
us and the concrete blocks were replaced by banana plants and
orchards. There were a number of brief stops along the way but none of
them lasted for long. A few times when we stopped the only evidence I
could see that we were at a station was a sign in Thai and English and
a small patch of gravel. As we approached most of the roads, the driver
blew his whistle and slowed down as he carefully looked both ways. He
then crossed the road. Many of these roads didn’t have any barriers to
stop the cars. Every now and then we were back into another community
or passed a few factories. But, most of the time we were in the
countryside. I must admit I was a bit like an excited schoolboy and
kept looking out of the window on both sides. (A small tip, if you do
decide to ride the air-conditioned car, you won’t see much out of the
dirty windows!)
We arrived in Mahachai on time at 11.39 a.m. The time
had passed quite quickly. We climbed down from the train on the
lefthand side. But there was no obvious way to leave the station as
there was another train blocking our away. This train was nearly full
and it looked like it was about to depart. However, people from our
train started to climb up into this train and out the other side. So,
we decided to do the same. We weren’t actually in a rush as we had a
full 110 minutes before the next train left from the station on the
other side of the river. I reckoned it would take us at least 15
minutes to cross. Call it 30 minutes to be safe. As we had plenty of
time I wandered to the area at the back of the train to take some
pictures of the market vendors. Can you see our train in this picture?
It has already been penned in and won’t be getting out in a rush!
I have been telling you about my recent trip on the Maeklong Railway in Thailand where my first stop was Samut Sakhon
(otherwise known as Mahachai). This city has one of the biggest fish
markets in the country and I enjoyed myself looking around and also
going on a boat trip on the river. The railway line from Bangkok opened
to the public in 1905. Along its 31 km length there are 18 stations,
though we didn’t stop at all of them. There has been talk of
discontinuing this service but I don’t think they will do so. There
were four carriages and some people had to stand up for the journey.
At Mahachai, we had to catch a ferry to the other side
of the river in order to continue our journey to Samut Songkhram
(otherwise known as Maeklong). We had to wait around for a while
because the times didn’t match up. They don’t really expect you to go
all the way from Bangkok to Maeklong. Actually, the second section from
Ban Laem to Maeklong doesn’t seem as popular. There are only four
trains a day and two carriages. But for me, it was the best section of
the railway.
Our train was due to leave at 1.30 p.m. We had 110
minutes to explore Mahachai. This is the last train you can catch if
you want to return the same day as the next train at 4.40 p.m. spends
the night in Maeklong! The only other trains are 7.30 a.m. and 10.10
a.m. When you go to buy the ticket you need to say you want to go to Maeklong. Don’t forget to pronounce it “mae-glong”.
This will set you back 10 baht for the one hour journey. This line is
slightly longer at 33 kms. If you arrive too late then you can buy the
ticket on the train. Or, if you do that boat ride I mentioned before
then you can ask your boatman to drop you off at Talat Phlu which is
the second stop on the line.
This section of the railways spends more time in the
countryside. The areas here is not so built up and the journey proved
to be more enjoyable. When you go, make sure you get a window seat on
the left hand side. There is more action and scenery on this side! It
isn’t long before the greenery makes way for the salt farms and
windmills. Saltwater is pumped into shallow, large ponds in the fields
and then left to drain. As we passed we could see dozens of people
raking salt into piles. At another place people were loading large
sacks of salt onto a truck. It was fascinating to watch them at work as
we trundled past at a leisurely pace. I made a mental note to come back
here by car to explore the salt farms.
The journey was over very quickly and we soon entered a
built up area. The outskirts of Maeklong. I knew that during the last
100 metres or so the train would pass through a market. Literally. I
know it sounds strange but this was my planned highlight of the trip. I
wanted to get pictures of the market stallholders pulling back their
produce as we passed through the market. It had always intrigued me and
I wanted to come and see for myself. For this event, I made sure I was
at the front of the train. The door to the driver’s cabin was open and
I asked him if it was OK if I took some pictures. He said “no problem”.
As we approached a corner he sounded his whistle a number of times.
Then, as we rounded the corner we were presented with the image in the
above pictures. I thought I would see people rushing to grab their
vegetables before it was run over by the train. But, they knew the
train was coming and everything had been cleared!
I took a few pictures here, then went back to my seat
to see if I could take some pictures of the people in the market from
my window. But, as they had pulled back their awnings, I couldn’t see
anything! In fact, we were so close that I didn’t dare to stick my head
out of the window. It wasn’t quite as I had imagined it but
nevertheless it was an interesting experience. A short while later we
arrived at the final stop on the line. In front of us was another river
blocking our way. There was a ferry here to the other side but sadly no
more tracks. The next train to leave was at 3.30 p.m. so we had about
an hour to explore the city. Not enough time to go on the river but
time enough to explore that market on the railways tracks.
By the time we had walked to the market at the rear of
the train everything was back to normal. The awnings had been pulled
back to give shelter from the blazing sun. All of the vegetables and
seafood had been pushed back closer to the line. If you look closely at
the picture, you will see that some of the seafood containers are on
wheels. For these they just pull them back to let the train pass.
However, other people have to literally carry their vegetables away
from the tracks. The market vendors are actually on either side of the
tracks. It is the customer who has to walk down the middle of the
tracks. This is probably OK for Thai people but I had to keep ducking
as there wasn’t much headroom here.
As we went along I took quite a few pictures and also
bought some seafood for my meal that night. As I asked for the price in
Thai the vendor was taken back and started asking me a bunch of
questions. Where was I from? What work was I doing? How long had I been
in Thailand? Then, as I walked on, I could hear her excitedly telling
other sellers all about me. It was so obvious they don’t get many
foreigners down here. Actually, that reminds me. When we were in
Mahachai, a Thai family came up to me waving their camera. Of course I
thought they wanted me to take their family portrait. I often volunteer
to do this. However, the mother wanted her picture taken with me! Now,
that hasn’t happened to me for a long time. I remember when I was
backpacking across China more than 10 years ago I used to have people
lining up to have their picture taken with me. But not so much in
Thailand.
After about 100 metres we reached the end of the
market. We bought some iced coffee here near the road then turned
around and proceeded to walk back through this fascinating market! We
could, of course, walked back along the road, but a market like this
was just too good to miss. Back at the station we still had about 20
minutes before the train was due to leave. It was actually our train
and I noticed that a lot of the people that had come with us were
waiting to go back. Thinking we had plenty of time we sat down and
ordered a bowl of noodles each. There didn’t seem to be many people on
the train so we didn’t think there was a rush to find a seat. That was
our mistake.
With only five minutes to spare, we went to buy our
tickets and then boarded the train. It still wasn’t full but people had
reserved their seats by putting plastic water bottles or shopping on
their seats. Unfortunately, all the best seats had already been taken.
A lesson to learn for next time. If you do this trip then make sure you
reserve your seat for the return journey before you get off. My seat
this time was near the rear on the lefthandside. I had my back to the
engine. I was thinking about going forward again to take some more
pictures when I suddenly had this brainwave. Why didn’t I take some
action shots from the rear window! This way I would get some pictures
of them pushing their produce back to the tracks as we passed.
This turned out to be an excellent idea though with one
small problem. The window was not only dirty but the sun was shining
straight into my eyes. Not so easy to take pictures but then I had this
other idea. Why not take a video? So, I ended up with this excellent
one minute video which I posted yesterday over at our sister site thailandvideoblogs.com.
This worked out really well. As we passed through the market, you will
be able to see on the video, the market vendors pushing their produce
back to the tracks. I made a note that if I ever returned here, I would
take pictures from the rear of the train as we arrived so that I
wouldn’t be shooting into the sun. Then, when we left I would shoot
from the front.
The return journey passed very quickly. However, it
wasn’t uneventful. About halfway back, the train started to slow down
(not long after passing under the main highway from Bangkok) and people
rushed to the windows on the lefthandside. I couldn’t see what was
going on at first. Then someone tossed out a bag of cucumbers. Then
about 30 monkeys ran towards the train. I have never seen so many
monkeys in one place. That was fun. After we had watched them for a
while, the train continued on its journey back to Mahachai. At the
terminal station, we followed everyone to the front of the train and
walked the short distance to the river to a different pier. I guess
this was a special boat put on for people from our train. As the trip
was slightly longer it cost 5 baht instead of 2 baht.
Back in Mahachai we had about an hour to wait for our
train. This was just long enough to walk around and to buy some
refreshments. You know, I had a really enjoyable day. It was tiring for
sure but it was fun and certainly a wonderful experience. I really want
to do this again and I have already made plans. The next time I will
drive down to Mahachai earlier in the morning to see the fish market.
And then catch the train to Maeklong where I will spend longer in order
to explore more. That way I can be there when a train arrives and
passes through this wonderful market.
The next time you are in Thailand, make sure you find time for this train trip.You won’t regret it.
Also visit the PHOTO ALBUM and the VIDEO ALBUM .
Do you need help in planning this trip? Visit the Paknam Web Thailand Forums for free advice 24/7.
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