Day 30 – Bangkok
Today we left our hostel Oh Bangkok at 7am for a tour which we purchased the previous day from a hostel down the road. The van arrived around 10 minutes late which had us worrying after hearing about a few scams around town.
Maeklong Railway Market
First we went to the Maeklong Railway Market at around 8am. The stalls were all across the side of the train tracks. Once the train came through, all the stalls retreat and then as soon as the train passes, its back to business like nothing had happened.
Its a very cool experience, but nothing to buy unlike you like fruit and meat. Also there is not much space between the train and where you can stand so we were less than half a meter away from the train as it went by.
Damnoen Sakuak Floating Market
Then we went to the floating market Damnoen Saduak. The market was really busy and we had to buy a extra ticket so we could board a boat. When we left the dock, we hit peak hour traffic with so many boats around us. Somehow we were able to get through and float around the market.
The market was very touristy, with hardly any locals to be seen which isn’t a great thing for prices. The stores mainly had souvenirs and a handful were selling food.
After the market, we got a speed boat ride down the river around 15 minutes to a different location, to be picked up by the tour van. With the tour complete, we were driven back to Khao San Road in Bangkok.
Bangkok Bus Terminal (Chatuchak)
After the tour, we were decided to go to the Bangkok Bus Terminal Chatuchak or also known as Mo Chit Bus Terminal to buy bus tickets for our next leg of the trip. The terminal was well laid out and each ticket booth was set aside for various destinations. We bought the tickets and then checked out the platform so we knew where to go tomorrow morning.
Queen Sirikit Park
From the Bus Terminal we walked to the nearby Queen Sirikit Park, which is a large botanical garden with lots of flowers and green areas. We walked through the grounds looking for the Chatuchak Weekend Market.
Chatuchak Weekend Market
The market is massive. Absolutely massive. It is said that everything you can thing of is sold here, and I believe it. We only walked through one side of the market as it started to rain and the market was closing, but we could see aisles and aisles of stalls to each side of us.
After buying a few items we decided to walk home the 8.5km home using Google Maps. One thing we learnt is not to trust Google Maps in regards to safety. After walking for a while we were down a very empty and isolated road. There was a dog that started to follow us, which was harmless, but then we heard barking, and next thing I knew there was a barking dog charging at us. I took my back pack off and used it as a weapon swinging it at the dog.
I like to think it was my masculine figure, scared off the dog. My wife, said it was just the bag. After that we were looking around for a taxi, but could not find one, so we ended up walking down major roads only and by the time we could find a taxi we were so close to home, we decided to keep walking.
Made it home safe. We agreed to not walk down doggy roads at night time. Two countries and two dog chases is probably pushing our luck 🙂