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?

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, and seemed a bit unsure about things when I talked to him that night. There are many different bus operators, so he did a bit of asking around, trying to get a midnight-ish bus to Trat, where we would catch a ferry to the island of Koh Chang.

We needed four tickets, and the only four seats available were in the very back row of a bus, which is unacceptable for an overnight trip since the seats cannot recline. As he started to walk away, the woman suddenly found a brand new bus, leaving two minutes after the first bus, that had every single seat free. He did his best to ensure that it was a real bus, really going to Trat. She insisted that it was, so he bought our tickets and crossed his fingers!

Considering the luck that we’d had with the train just days before, we did more finger crossing as we began our journey to Koh Chang. What a journey it was! It began with a taxi from our apartment to the subway station. We then took the subway to the skytrain, which we then rode to the Ekamai bus station. Luckily it was a real bus (although the 11:32 departure time ended up being 12:17) and the four of us were soon sitting in the front row, armed with ipods and hoping for a bit of sleep.

There was no Thai pop music this time around and I was actually able to get a bit of shut-eye. We were expecting a 5-6 hour trip, but at some point around 4:15 the ‘bus hostess’ turned on all of the lights and walked around, shaking us awake and asking ‘Koh Chang?’ We nodded, half asleep, and she indicated that it was time to get off. It seemed way too early and we definitely weren’t at a bus station, but we followed the hoards of white people who were also filing off and into the rain.

It took some time to really wake up and figure out what was going on (luckily Chris and I were able to…neither of the guys ever really opened their eyes during all of this), and it turned out that we were at the ‘bus stop’ for the tour operator, where they proceeded to sell us tickets for their taxis to get to the ferry. My first instinct was ‘scam!’ but it really wasn’t, the price was about right. So I managed to buy four taxi tickets and four ferry tickets from a guy at a little table in the corner, then I squeezed myself into a spot on the ground among all of the other backpackers and their backpacks. It had been pouring down rain since we’d left Bangkok, and when coupled with the 3 hours of bumpy bus sleep, I wasn’t feeling too optimistic about things.

We were soon loaded into a songtaew and taken for a long, chaotic ride to the piers. By the time we got there, the rain had stopped, the sun was starting to come up and there was a stand with real coffee for me and a pineapple shake for Gabe! Things were looking up…we soon boarded the ferry and were pulling into Koh Chang by 7 a.m. Once we’d arrived at the dock, there was yet another songtaew ride (are you keeping count of how many legs this trip had?? We’re at seven!) up and down roads that made Khao Yai look like a beginner’s course.

We got off at Lonely Beach and set out to find a place to stay. We looked at a few places, passed on the 80 baht beach huts with stray cats living on the mattresses and finally stumbled onto some great little concrete bungalows. We still don’t know the name of the place, as it consisted of about five little houses in between two much larger, more established places, but the lady who owned them caught us as we wandered by and got our attention (partially due to the bath towel that she was wearing). Her husband showed us the rooms while carrying their one-year old on his hip and we were sold! For 250 baht ($8) per night we had a clean water-front bungalow with tile floors, hot water, a hammock on the porch and the sound of the ocean (which was located a mere 10 feet from our porch!).

The four of us went next door (literally five steps from our door) to this beautiful restaurant that was really nothing more than a polished teak deck with low tables, cushions on the floor, hammocks along the perimeter and a massive menu of Thai food, at Thai prices. Although it was 9 a.m. it felt as though it was lunch time, so we enjoyed a lazy meal of Tom Yum, Pad Thai and fresh fruit shakes while the waves lapped at the deck a couple of feet away. After that, it was nap time – the cool, overcast weather was perfect and we slept for several hours. Our room had great wood-framed windows that opened all the way up, letting in an amazing ocean breeze and of course that wonderful sound.

The laziness (and I mean this in the best way) lasted the rest of the day; we walked around a bit but soon found another restaurant where a friendly old man served us incredibly fresh som tum and coconut soup, along with complimentary watermelon. After that, it was back to the restaurant next door, where we spent hours drinking a few beers, writing in our journals and hearing nothing but the water. It was a blissful first day!

Gabe and I tried out a place called The Treehouse for breakfast the next morning. It’s one of those places that gets raved about in the Lonely Planet guidebooks and thus has become backpacker central. We had not been impressed with their huts (a tent would have been a greater luxury) and I’ll admit that I was a little wary of it – I like authenticity! We ended up being wonderfully surprised, and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of rice milk and a banana pancake while, once again, sitting on a deck with the ocean beneath us.

We rented a motorbike that day and had a great time lazing around on White Sands Beach (the more upscale area of Koh Chang), exploring the undeveloped eastern side of the island and unsuccessfully searching for the Nonsi waterfall (it did give us another chance to push through thick brush for a couple of hours though). That evening we ended up back at The Treehouse with Chris and Joe where there was more amazing food (we were determined to get through that menu), fruity drinks, a gorgeous sunset and hours of lazing in hammocks until we finally managed to drag ourselves to bed. Day number two = success!

By day three I was pretty sure that there was no reason to ever leave the place! I went for a short run (felt more like mountain climbing) and then, surprise surprise, it was time to go eat and lay in hammocks again. We spent some quality time on our beach with the other two and then, as soon as we felt as though an acceptable amount of time had passed, we headed right back to The Treehouse to work more on menu-conquering! Literally, every meal felt like Christmas morning and it never cost more than three or four dollars for the two of us.

That night The Treehouse was hosting a party where they would be serving a special barbeque menu. We all tried to make space in our stomachs before the food ran out…I’m not sure that it was a good idea, but I made space! It was the epitome of vacation time…a beautiful, lazy island, swinging hammocks, reggae music, fresh fruit shakes of every imaginable sort and more food than anyone could ever hope to eat (though we certainly tried!). Bangkok was a distant memory and we all tried not to remember it…

Sunday was our final day and it dawned gray and rainy. It was the sort of rain that wasn’t going to stop, so after sleeping in late (wondering how on earth I would live without the sound of the ocean) we packed our stuff and headed back to our second home for, yes, another meal. We hung around there, eating and reading and writing until about 2:00. At two the four of us caught a songtaew back to the ferry and departed Koh Chang. The storms were rolling in and it seemed to be a good day to leave (assuming that we had to leave). The ferry was slow and we caught the tour operator’s songtaew back in Trat, wondering how on earth we’d make it to the ‘station’ by 4:00, which was the last bus of the day.

The drivers were intent on getting us there and, for the sake of my parents, I won’t describe the trip in too much detail! The important part is that we made it in one piece (somehow!), caught the bus (which had waited a good 15 minutes for us) and rolled back into Bangkok around 9 p.m.

When it was all said and done, the two of us spent a total of $140. This includes 12 modes of transportation, three nights in an ocean-front bungalow, a motorbike rental, gasoline, 20-30 meals (each one worth at least $15 by U.S. standards), far too many fruit shakes to count, a sufficient amount of alcohol, an item or two of clothing, internet usage (we had to see whose blog entry got more comments…thanks, everyone) and a few other odds and ends.

Have I mentioned that I love Thailand?

There is a giant cloud outside that looks like it may spawn 10 or 12 tornadoes (see photos), so I decided to spend some time commenting on a few ... [Continue reading this entry]