Going where I’ve never been

Let’s revisit the transportation topic for a bit, shall we? This past weekend Gabe and I decided to check out the floating markets. Whereas this used to be a very viable form of market, thanks to local ‘wet’ markets and grocery stores they are not longer needed. They are, however, great for tourism and thus still exist. A floating market is exactly that – vendors paddle their longboats down canals selling all sort of food to anyone who waves them over and wants it. Some carry loads of produce while other have entire ‘kitchens’ on their boats (yes, wooden boats) where they cook up pad thai, grilled squid, noodle soup – everything!

Damoen Saduak is “the” market that everyone goes to, but I’d heard that it has gotten so touristy in recent years that it’s no longer worth visiting for anything more than a photo op. With a bit of research, however, I found that there was a smaller, much more local and much more authentic market called Tha Kha in nearby Amphawa (located about 100km from Bangkok). Of course there are buses departing every 20 minutes, every day to get there, but after stumbling across someone’s blog description of a ‘secret’ railroad in West Bangkok that also went to the area, we had to try it!

The Mae Klong railway is the shortest stretch of track in the country and isn’t connected to any of the other rail lines. It literally starts off the side of the road, hidden in a market, and runs once every hour to Maha Chai. Once you get to Maha Chai, there is a river. Instead of building a bridge, they decided to just end the tracks. Oh, these tracks also happen to be in the middle of another market, and the vendors have to move all of their stuff out of the way each time that a train comes in!

So anyways, supposedly this track ends, you get off, take a ferry to the other side of the river where the tracks begin again and take you all the way to Samut Songkhram (also called Mae Klong), the home base for going to Amphawa and/or Damoen Saduak. Now that you have an idea of what we had in mind, let me summarize our journey for you:

10:00 a.m. – We embark on the 25 minute walk to the Bang Po pier where we board a riverboat.

11:15 a.m. – We get off of the riverboat at the last stop in south Bangkok and get a tuk tuk to take us across Thaksin Bridge to the rail station.

12:15 p.m. – The 10 baht train leaves for Maha Chai; we enjoy rural scenery and try to ignore the incredible heat for an hour.

1:10 p.m. – The train pulls into Maha Chai and we manage to find our way to the ferry.

1:30 p.m. – We get on the 3 baht ferry along with some other people and a ton of motorbike drivers.

1:35 p.m. – We get off the ferry and ponder where to start looking for this mystery train station. My directions said ‘down a soi, near the 7-11’…

2:00 p.m. – Using trial, error and our 20-word Thai vocabulary, we find the train tracks at the very end of a soi, through a field, literally in someone’s overgrown backyard. There is a group of people hanging out at what I guess you could call a station, laughing and explaining to us that the other train wouldn’t come until 4:30. They try to get us to have a beer but we leave, finally understanding why the people who gave us directions kept shaking their head and holding up four fingers, and hoping that we can get a bus instead.

2:30 p.m. – After trying to communicate that we are looking for a bus to many different people (all of which keep telling us ‘rot fai! Ban laem, See!’ – go to the Ban Laem train station, train at 4), we finally find some motorcycle drivers who, with lots of pantomime, are able to inform us that there are buses back across the river! We are glad to finally have it make sense, because we KNOW that the buses exist! Apparently this town is waaayyyy too small for such a thing.

3:00 p.m. – After eating some delicious khao pad moo (fried rice with pork) from a woman who gets a kick out of the fact that foreigners have stopped to eat (this town doesn’t see too many), they can order in Thai and they like it spicy, we get back on the ferry and head to the other side again.

3:40 p.m. – After nearly an hour of asking about buses to Mae Klong and having everyone point us in all sort of different directions, we find one. Apparently there is a bus coming, which is why some people point one direction (wait down there) and other people point the opposite way (it’s coming from over there). Word seemed to have gotten out that the farangs need to go to Mae Klong, because by the time a taxi driver stops to inform me that we want bus 481, every person that we pass points to the end of the road and says “481, to Mae Klong!” Needless to say, people once again made sure that we got where we were going and we boarded the bus with no issues.

4:30 p.m. – The hot and sunny day has turned into a (wonderfully) cool and (unsettingly) stormy day. Luckily we’re on a bus and it has an inexplicable 20 minute stop at a gas station, which is just enough time for the worst of the rain to pass.

4:45 p.m. – We pull into Mae Klong and the bus driver points across the street at a blue minibus, saying “Amphawa!” We nod and as soon as we step off there are motorcycle drivers pointing at the same bus, making sure that we know. We head over, taking their word for it and deciding that we’d rather get to this market before it’s over than find a place to stay.

5:15 p.m. –  The packed minibus finally leaves. I know that we’re on the right road, because I checked out a map beforehand, but am not quite sure how to know when to get off. A few minutes into the trip the driver pulls over to collect money and asks where we’re going – I tell him Tha Kha market and he seems to understand, nodding and confirming “market!”

5:45 p.m. – Everyone has left the bus except for Gabe, myself and an older couple. They look concerned and the woman asks where we need to go. I tell her and she definitely understands – she’s able to tell me that the Tha Kha market was a looonnnggg way back. The driver seems confused, but we decide to just get out (we are at a market, in front of a Catholic church of all things!) and figure out what to do. It’s looking as though we are NOT meant to make it to Tha Kha!

6:00 p.m. – After a few minutes of wandering, realizing that small jungle towns don’t have taxis zipping by, we talk to a motorcycle taxi guy who is hanging around the church. Luckily there is street sign above our heads, pointing the way to our (wishful) destination and it’s easy for him to understand where we want to go. He says to wait, that he knows how we can get there…

6:10 p.m. – Sure enough, here comes the same minibus, running the reverse route! The motorcycle guys waves him down, telling him where we need to go. We climb in, embarrassed, and the driver gets such a kick out of it that he takes us all the way back for free, smiling and enjoying a Leo beer as he drives.

6:25 p.m. – We arrive at the market! It is packed and seemingly impossible to have missed along the way. Luckily it didn’t really get going until 4, so we haven’t missed much. We have enough good light left for some great photos, then eat delicious food, stroll around and enjoy being nearly the only foreigners in attendance.

9:00 p.m. – After a course of snacks for dinner (dim sum, skewers of chicken/veg, som tom and beer) we get a snocone-esque dessert and sit on a curb to enjoy it. A very nice waiter with good english invites us in, saying we don’t need to buy anything, just to make ourselves more comfortable. We decline the offer, but talk to him afterwards about places to stay. I am starting to feel a bit worried about accomodation…we are in a tiny town and things are going to shut down, quickly.

9:20 p.m. – We are in a tuk tuk headed back to Mae Klong. This is the result of the waiter telling us that Amphawa has no hotels, just homestays (expensive!) but that Mae Klong has plenty. He then sends a girl to help us find a ride, make a call to a hotel and tell the driver where to take us. She does all of this, again going above and beyond to make sure that we’re taken care of. I had jotted down a list of cheap places that I’d seen online and the driver obligingly takes us to the Mae Klong Hotel.

10:00 p.m. – We open the door to room 304 and realize that the Mae Klong Hotel doesn’t employ maids. The pillowcases seem clean, there is a sink and it only costs 200 baht – this is about the end of the good points! This is a room that would easily fall into the “crackhouse” category in the U.S. (though without the danger factor). By this point there is no way that we’ll try to go somewhere else, so we laugh and make the best of it. After some snacks from 7-11, a bit of reading and lots laughing about our ridiculous day, we go to sleep (Gabe is sleeping on top of his rainjacket).

6:30 a.m. – We get up, are ready to leave in 15 minutes and get out of that place! We want to go to Dameon Sadouak, knowing that the tourists start arriving around 9 a.m. Miraculously, there is a taxi from Bangkok driving by and he is happy to take us there. A direct trip!

7:15 a.m. – We get dropped off and start wandering around, taking a few photos and brushing off the boat-ride sellers. We eat some breakfast – noodle soup and pad kaprow – then continue photo-taking while the light is good. It is fairly empty, which is nice but also made us the ONLY targets for the souvenier hawkers.

8:30 a.m. –  The place is filling up with tour buses and it’s getting pretty miserable. It is incredibly touristy, everything is overpriced and the vendors are relentless. Lots of big white people packed into overpriced boat rides, buying tacky souveniors and snapping photos.

9:30 a.m. – We are ready to go! Having enjoyed our morning pre-crowd experience, we jump on a songtaew to the main road where we take a big air-conditioned bus straight back to Bangkok. The normal way, if you will.

When it was all said and done, what took us 8 hours and 9 legs on Saturday took only 2.5 hours and two legs on Sunday. Was it a case of doing it the hard way? Maybe so, but what’s traveling if there’s no story?

One thing that I’ve learned in Thailand is that no matter how long it may take or how haphazard the method may be, someone will always make sure that you get where you’re going!

A good example of this happened several weeks ago, as Gabe and I were trying to hail a taxi home from Sukhumvit. A persistent tuk-tuk driver kept trying to lure us in, claiming he would take us to Tao Pun (the major road near my place) for 70 baht, well below a cab fare. Although it seemed like it was a bit far for a tuk-tuk ride, he insisted that he knew Tao Pun (not always the case) and we decided to go.

Ten minutes later we were pulling into the driveway of Tao Pun Hotel – definitely not where we needed to be! Gabe and I started laughing, though I half expected that we would have to pay this guy then switch to a taxi. That wasn’t the case, however – it quickly dawned on our driver that we meant THE Tao Pun (white people don’t go there!) and he also laughed, saying “Tao Pun, 100 baht!” We agreed as it was still a good deal and soon we were being dropped off at our 7-eleven. There was no frustration, irritation or insistence that we pay since we hadn’t clarified our destination; he just found humor in the mistake and fixed it!

There were other great examples this past weekend. We had decided to go to Lopburi to see the monkeys and a few of my friends. We’d planned to catch an 8:30 train on Saturday morning, but a late night of drinking with the street vendors and the changing plans of my friends botched that idea. It was no problem, as the online railway schedule showed a 3^rd class train leaving Bangsue at 10:04. We jumped in a taxi and got to the station merely minutes before, wondering if we’d miss it again.

We DID miss it, but not by mere minutes…it had left at 9:40! Their train schedule wasn’t even remotely related to ours and it showed the next train leaving at 1:45. We were directed to the other station where there was a departure for Ayutthaya any second, which would at least get us halfway there. We ran and managed to get on, cramming into the aisle as the food vendors pushed past, calling out their prices.

It was a two hour trip and about halfway through a very nice guy gave up his bench for us. As we neared Ayutthaya we got up, ready to exit. We got off at what we believed to be the right stop, only to see a sign reading “Ban Phe”…luckily we made it back on, several Thais gesturing at us. At least five people asked where we were going and made sure we knew it was two more stops. At the next one, several others reminded us not to get off quite yet. Soon after, a conductor came by, indicating to me that Ayutthaya was next and not to miss it.

We got off and sat to wait an hour for the next train to Lopburi. While waiting, another conductor approached me and, assuming that we were headed to Bangkok, pointed out which platform we needed to be on. I told him that we were going to Lopburi and he apologized, revising his information. It wasn’t anything that I didn’t already know, but I certainly appreciated it!

We eventually got to Lopburi and spent a few hours getting attacked by crazy monkeys and catching up with some of my friends (see photos!). The last train was at 5:30, but Gabe and I decided to stop back in Ayutthaya to hang out with Michelle for a bit. It ended up being something of a pointless stop; we only managed to explore the night market and grab a snack before the storm rolled in. It wasn’t going to let up, so we decided to just go ahead and go back to the station to catch the 9:45 train.

We got to the station via shared songtaew, only to find out that the train was first-class and would cost 320 baht – unacceptable since it had only cost 13 baht to get there! Gabe suggested trying our luck with the buses, so we headed back into the rain to find a tuk-tuk. He went to inquire and was told “Buses finished, only trains now.” Meanwhile, I spoke to another old man who thought for a moment then said, eyes lighting up, “I know a bus! Only until 9:00, is far but I take you now. 100 baht!”

We figured that we had nothing to lose and took him up on the offer. We climbed into the back of his tuk-tuk, sheets of plastic hung around the outside to block the downpour. Halfway there, the tuk tuk stalled and didn’t start again. Our driver got out, pushed it out of the intersection, and motioned for us to wait. I assumed that 9:00 wouldn’t happen, and that we’d have to find someone else to take us back to the station and end up paying for the train anyways.

Lo and behold, the determined nature of the Thai transport professional did not fail us! A new tuk tuk pulled up across the street, our driver indicated that his engine was full of water and that his friend would take us to this mystery bus. He walked us across the street, waved at his friend, and sent us on our way!

Within ten minutes we pulled up next to a van with a few people standing around it, waiting on the side of the road. This was the ‘bus’ to Bangkok, so we paid our driver and were greeted by guys who were apparently waiting on us. These vans are known as minibuses and are basically a carpool service. They run a certain route, will pick up/drop off anyone along the way and don’t leave until they are full! We paid 40 baht (much more like it) and squeezed in.

We were in Bangkok within 45 minutes and pulled up to a huge transport center outside of a mall in Rangsit, on the outskirts of the city. This was apparently the final stop and although I luckily knew where we were (I have friends living in the area), it was still a hefty taxi ride to Bangsue.

The driver asked where we needed to go and after I told him he spoke with one of our fellow passengers. She indicated that we should follow her, so we shrugged and did so. This girl literally spent 30 minutes asking all sorts of bus drivers, minibus touts and random people how to get us to Bangsue. I knew that we could just stop a taxi, but she seemed determined and we kept following her through the hordes of people.

Eventually she explained in very broken English that she was waiting for Bus 29 – it could take us MoChit, where we could get on the subway to Bangsue. Was that okay? I said that of course it was okay, and asked if she was going to the same place, which would explain why she was spending so much time on us! She smiled and shook her head, said no, no, she lives in a different area. Soon Bus 29 pulled up and she led us over, reiterating that we could get the subway at MoChit. We thanked her and she disappeared – I was blown away at her generosity!

The bus was of the archaic, local variety and cost an entire 7 baht to ride. It was packed at first and neither of us were totally sure how we would know where to get off, since we had no concept of the route. Eventually the crowds thinned and we were able to sit; as soon as we had a view of street signs and landmarks, we recognized the area and actually managed to get off at exactly the right spot!

Finally, finally we got home! It was about 9 hours of travel for 3 hours of sightseeing, but thanks to the nonsensical (yet effective) networks of “transporters,” we ended up exactly where we needed to be.

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After an entire two days back in Bangkok, Gabe and I were about ready for another trip. Gabe had been kind enough to go buy the bus tickets on Tuesday while I was at work, ... [Continue reading this entry]