WARNING : GRAPHIC OVER-LOADED POST!! :))
Finally ! It's Maeklong and Amphawa Day ! This was the highlight of our trip and I was so looking forward to it!
Woke up at 7am. After a quick breakfast, we checked out of our hotel, left most luaggage with the hotel and only brought along an overnight bag with us.
Our itinerary for today will be to visit the Maeklong Market, watch the train goes by at close proximity and then proceed on to Amphawa for our over night stay.
Our accommodation at Amphawa was at Thanicha Resort. We booked this 2 months in advance as rooms ran out really fast. For 1 night's stay, one unit with 5 beds and a living hall, breakfast inclusive, we paid 4018 Baht. There are quite a number of homestay along the floating market, but seems like Thanicha is available for online booking and it is also one of the better ones. We understand that some other homestay practices common bathrooms and that was not what I wanted, with 2 old folks and young kids. We made our reservations through www.hotels2thailand.com.
Ok...back to when we arrived at Victory Monument for for van ride to Maeklong. Finding the van stations was a breeze. Directions at the end of this post. We arrived at the station around 9am but was told to wait for another half an hour for the van.
Once we arrived at the van station, there were clear signboards hanging above head so, obviously we went to this :
Bought 5 tickets @ 70 baht each to go to Maeklong. If you are going straight to Amphawa, then it will cost 80 baht each ticket. Anyway, travelers going to Maeklong or Amphawa, they board the same van. No difference as it's all in one same directions.
Inside the van. We had this crazy driver who drove at 130 km/hour. Shuddering !
LESSON LEARNT : when taking a van for long distance, never sit right at the back. Way too bumpy. Front first or second row will be most ideal. They don't waster any seats. Even the front passengers seat, they will squeeze in 2 pax. ( My kids got stuffed into the 2 seats and can't peeled their eyes off the speedometer! More thrilling than roller coaster rides to see everything zipping by?)
Alighted from the van. Look out for the following dome shaped covered market. Walk through it.
You should be able to walk around find these 2 rows of wet market stalls, with lots of makeshift overhead canvas. Look at the ground. Railway tracks! Yes, right on track !:)
Happened that we missed the 11.30am train. So we decided to walk around and wait for the 2pm train. The following are some photos of the stalls on sides of the railway tracks.
We walked to the train station. If you are standing along the railway track, you may not know if you should walk forward or backwards to reach the train station. Ask the locals. They will point the directions to you. If not, do what I did. Download the train station picture and show it to a local. Straight away, I got a smile, a nod and a finger pointing a direction for me to follow. :))
Once at the train station, you should be able to see the following "ticketing office". Look out for the "red color" sign displaying the arrival time of the next train. Once you get the timing, make sure you go find a vantage point to stand for your photo / video shoot ! Train schedule can be a bit cranky. When it says 2pm, train can come either earlier or much later. So make sure you standby at least 10 mins earlier just in case it decides on an earlier arrival time.
Right at the end of the train station, there are a few food stalls.
This stall sells chicken and roast pork rice. Tasty !
Kids and myself had noodles at this stall. Absolutely mouthwatering ! Ended up we had 2 bowls each. The lady stall owner was so amused with our appetite that she gave us extra noodles in our 2nd order. :) 40 baht a bowl..
See this drink stall next to the noodle shop? Well the lady stall owner is really one honest woman. I left my iphone on the table and shifted to another table, without realizing it. About 10 mins lapsed and I still did not realized. When the lady came out to clear tables, she saw my handphone and also probably earlier on she saw me taking photos with it. Immediately she asked me "you?" I said yes and thank her. Phew ! Can't imagine what would happen if I'd lost my handphone.
After food, we explored the surrounding areas. Well, there are streets selling food, daily neccesities, shoes, clothes etc. Thus it is not only the wet market that you can walk around. Think of the place like a mini neighbourhood. There seems to be many delicious food stalls around..
Heeheee... a local clinic..looks ancient to me..
Street view
On I forgot to mention, there is this stall at the train station ( right in front, can't miss), selling coconut drink for 20 baht a coconut. Cheap and refreshing on a super duper hot day !
Train is about to arrive. How did I know? hahaha..they sounded a bell like those school tuckshop melody tune. That means train is coming soon..another 5 mins or so.. All excited photographers quickly positioned themselves into various spots along the railway tracks. Of course, me too ! Rush arh!
After watching the train pass, we went in search of the song thaew near to 7-11 that will take us to Amphawa. I've read a lot of reviews saying that it is relatively easy to look for these song thaew as it is near 7-11. But what I did not know was that there was two 7-11 stores! We went to the wrong one, ended up be tauted by toot toot drivers asking for 150 baht to transport us to Amphawa. But I know from my research that taking a Song Thaew will cost us only 8 baht per pax. So, we refused with a smile and moved on to look for Song Thaew transport.
Along the way, we kept asking stall holders and each of them kindly directed us. Finally, we reached the other 7-11 and yes, like what the internet has described, rows of song thaews were waiting there! You will hear someone asking : Amphawa?
To help potential travelers who may also encounter same problem as us, I have taken photos of the surroundings of the correct 7-11. It's opposite an orange bank.
See that temple in front? If you do come across that, then these song thaews are jusr down the same road, next to 7-11
If you did not see the temple in the above picture, it's ok. When you are walking around the market (which you definitely will), you will see this grayish row of old building. Rather prominent. This following pic is taken when I was on board the Song Thaew. See the blue color that stands out among the gray building? Once you can identify that, Song Theaw station and orange bank would be opposite.
But never worry about getting lost. Just ask the people around. Or show some pictures to the locals. They will be more than happy to help. The best is to ask those store or shop owners.
You do not pay the Song thaew driver when you board it. When you arrived at the Amphawa, alight, and go to the front passenger seat / driver's side and pay him. We were lucky enough to have a lady who was staying at Amphawa on the same Song Thaew with us. She taught us what to do and also when we alight, she brought us all the way to our booked resort! Thank you kind aunty !
The bridge for car and walking lane next to it..
You will walk pass a mini little carpark..
Fianlly, our hotel for the night..
Reception Area. At the point of check-in, the staff will ask if you would like to give alms to monks in the morning @ 6am. If yes, they will help to prepare the food. I can't remember, but think it costs about 35 baht per person. We opted in. This was the whole main purpose of coming to Amphawa - for the kids to experience, respect religion, do merit and also appreicate life.
NOTE : There are definitely mosquitoes around. Do remember to bring lots of repellent. Strangely, reception only has got 1 can of spray insecticide hence even if we want to leave it in our room, can't. Next room asking for it too. But once we turn on the air con, mosquitoes went into hiding. Lol! No one got bitten actually. But we slaughtered at least 7 of 'em in the room. Re-lived the fairy tale of Killing Seven With One Blow eh ?
While old folks rested, son and me went for a walk.. and to our amazement, it was flooded up to the doorstep of our hotel ! Son and me got a shock of our life. Haahaha! One local explained to us that this is happening because it was high tide timing. The "flood" should last for only an hour or so. Most people just take off their shoes and walk. The local even told me that it is good luck to be able to encounter this! True? Duno lei..
So, both son and me took off our shoes and walked. But we walked real close to the building in case we do not know the borderline between land and river! Not in mood for a swim in the river. Lol !
Outside our hotel lobby..
Diners enjoying a meal and leg soak. It may look kind of weird, but it is actually quite enjoyable! Son and me did that too...ordered seafood, soak our legs and nom nom-ming away on barbeque prawns, scallops etc.... That's life !
Amphawa is really a beautiful and relaxing place to be at. No traces of city life, just food, wine and music. Absoultely spirit uplifting !
As night falls, we went out to look for firefly tours. NOTE: Along the way, there are small operators who will approach you. But there is one big operator which most tourists go to. If you are staying at Thanicha, come out of the hotel, cross the bridge to the other side of the river, turn right and walk straight down till you come to a very vibrant and rowdy area with foodstalls etc. About 5-7 mins walk. You will see this booth. See those people sitting around? They are waiting for their turns. We almost sign up with a smaller operator, but coz we were told to wait for almost an hour, we decided to walk around and realized that most people follow group tour from this following operator. Although I must qualify..it's all personal preference really. Btw, it's 60 baht per pax.
Did not take a lot of pics during the boat ride. But the boat ride is rather interesting as you get to see the river's surrounding..most of the places anyway. Much better than moving around on foot. :))
The firefly tour took almost an hour probably? After that, we went for dinner at this restuarant near just a few doors away from Thanicha Resort.
Loud live band playing in a corner. The restaurant seemed to be filled with mainly locals rather than foreigners.
The pineapple rice is yucky-sweet and no other taste... the following seafood fried rice is good. Worth ordering.
This bacon sausage....nice !
Pork Chop..kid's fav..Real thick chunk of meat..no play play ! The garlic butter is something to die for too !
This meal costs 995 baht, including a sphagetti that I forgot to snap a photo of. Burrrrrrping happy belly. :)
Did we go back to the hotel and sleep after this? No. we went to look for more food! Lol!
Ordered some more seafood from a boat nearby...the grilled scallops are just too good to be missed !
On both side sof the bridge, there are night market stalls. Be warned, they close really early ! By around 8.30pm or so, stalls will start to close.
TIP: You should go for the 6 or 6.30pm firefly tour. Any later than that will leave you very little or no time to shop around the night market. By the time we finished the firefly tour, our dinner, a short stroll, we only managed to have about 20 mins at the night market. :(
We stayed there on a Friday nite because we wanted to go to Chatuchak over the weekend. But given a choice, I would prefer to stay on a Saturday night. I had this feeling that some shops only opened on Saturdays and that the atmosphere would be more vibrant on Saturday. Well...there's always a next time. :)
Night scenes at Amphawa is so peaceful and beautiful Just hate to see it get too commercialized and become just another city look-alike place!
Finally got back to our room around 9.30pm. Already thinking of tomorrow's breakfast. Lol! With that, we all happily drifted to dreamland !
Directions to the Mini Van Station at Victory Monument
BTS Station : Victory Monument
Once alighted from train, look for exit 2. ( to Century The Movie Plaza )
The mini van station is at the immediate left of this plaza..
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