Tag #24 and #25

Hello,

The last two days we spent on day trips outside of Bangkok, after having already seen the city on foot and by TukTuk.

On day #24, the Maeklong Train Market and the Amphawa Floating Market were on the agenda. For the first time, we got to know the bus system in Bangkok - well, there are no fixed schedules, but occasionally a bus comes that takes us to the desired area. Thanks to our navigation app, which has integrated the bus system to some extent, we made our way to the central transfer station: the Victory Monument. We then took a minibus for about two hours and about 90km to Maeklong. As the name of the market suggests, this offers a unique experience: every few hours a train passes through the market, as it is located in the middle of the tracks and the vendors quickly fold up their stalls and move away (usually the stalls themselves are on small tracks and can be easily pushed aside).

But since the next train was not scheduled for another two hours, we had to wait and explore the market. Finally, the train arrived - punctual by Thai standards - and like dozens of other tourists, we tried to capture the best photo of the train passing inches away from fruits, vegetables, and even us. I hope the pictures convey how close it was. Well, after a minute, this spectacle was unfortunately over.

We immediately followed the other market tourists and continued on to the Amphawa Floating Market. The floating markets are markets that take place on canals. Unfortunately, there were hardly any vendors on boats in Amphawa, only a few places sold seafood. Nevertheless, the market has a lot to offer, as local products and Thai sweets are still sold on the shore and in adjacent streets. It was particularly convenient that many vendors allowed us to try their food, so we could taste our way through the whole evening. Even when we started our journey home around 6 pm, the market enchanted us with its evening atmosphere.

A small note about the journey home: the minibusses are basically just like VW buses, but they are outfitted by Toyota and have 16 seats (so it's pretty tight). On our way home, there was a bit of stress in our bus because two Japanese people had actually paid for six seats so that they could have more space... luckily, we were still allowed to ride and even had four seats for the two of us :)

Yesterday, we took the train to Ayutthaya, which was the old capital until it was burned down in the 18th century and Bangkok became the capital. Therefore, there are many temple ruins to visit there. The city is still very popular with the Thais. Together with a Spanish couple who were really nice, we rented a tuk-tuk and driver to visit the sights. The Spaniards are much better at negotiating than we are...

The only annoying thing was that you have to pay an additional 50 baht per person at almost all temple ruins. Fortunately, the Spaniards felt the same way and we only had the driver take us to the 'for free' temples. To be honest, they all looked the same... just temple ruins and Buddha statues, the same as the 'new' temples but without all the golden decorations.
The only exception was the famous Buddha head that was grown over by a tree a long time ago.

It was funny that Asian people kept wanting to take pictures with the Spaniards and us, so we eventually asked them if they were actors or something. They said no :)

We spent the evening in Kaoh San Road again, in a bar with pad thai and corn on the cob from a street stand.

Today we changed accommodations to the more upscale part of the city. (Although the room for 350 baht offers everything from a fridge to hot water)

What we did today will be included in tomorrow's blog post.

Yours, Teri Yaki