Samut Songkhram, the Train Market and the Floating Markets

Source from YouTube

Perhaps you have seen the above video somewhere on the social media, but you do not have any idea where can you witness this? Now it's the right time reading this blog!

To visit this market, visitors may take BTS towards Wongwian Yai station and go to the Wongwian Yai Railway. You can buy ticket from this railway station heading to Maha Chai station at Samut Songkhram. The train runs multiple times daily and it would take about 1 hour to reach Samut Songkhram. Once you drop off the train, you may wait for 10-15 minutes before the train depart back to Bangkok, and you would be able to witness the amazing scene as in the video!

Here I was, at the Maha Chai Maeklong station!

Walking along the market, you would be amazed by how the locals doing business right beside the railway track. The market was fully shaded, which you would hardly notice the railway when you were walking inside the market.

The name of the market is dtalat lohm hoop, which means "market of umbrella closing". When the train horn was alerted, the locals started pushing their umbrella to close it, leaving the crops unmoved. You would be fascinated by how agile they were in closing the umbrellas, it just took them seconds to complete the process!

Now the train was already in sight! 

Tips: There will be a lot of crowds trying to take photograph and video of train arriving & departing, so beware of people pushing around. Keep yourself a distance from the railway to prevent accidents from happening. Safety first!

Beware of pickpockets as well!

Next stop, we went to Khai Bang Kung, a navy camp built during the King Taksin the Great after the second loss of Ayutthaya to the Burmese. King Taksin the Great relocated his navy here and a year later, he reclaimed back Ayutthaya and this place was abandoned for the next 200 years until the government built a shrine in memory of King Taksin the Great. 

One of the attractions in Khai Bang Kung was the Muay Thai statues built beside the shrine of King Taksin the Great. 

Many visitors love to be photographed beside the statues, mimicking the Muay Thai moves displayed by the statues.

 Next to Khai Bang Kung was the Wat Bang Kung, which was a temple built when King Taksin the Great occupied here in 1767. Something should not be missed would be the small chapel covered in the roots of banyan tree. The visitors may find the sitting Buddha statue covered in gold leaves within the chapel.

After visiting Khai Bang Kung, we drove towards Amphawa, the floating market that we were anticipated of going. As the Amphawa floating market only opens after 4 p.m., we stopped by another attraction nearby the area, which was something rare in this Buddhist country.

Navity of Our Lady Cathedral, built in the 18th century by Archbishop Paul Sulmon, funded by his brethren in France, Board of Foreign Mission Club from Paris and Rome, as well as the Christians from Bangkok. Seeing Buddhist temples are normal in Thailand, but not a church.

The interior of the church was remarkably beautiful, with stain glasses from France decorating the walls. There were also beautiful statues, meticulously crafted as described in Bibles.

Outside the church, visitors were able to find the statue of Jesus Christ teaching under the tree.

Sorry if my descriptions were incorrect for the church, as I am not a Christian and I do not know much about the teachings from Bible.

Before reaching Amphawa Floating Market, we stopped by another attraction, the King Rama II Memorial Park. This is just a stone throw away from the floating market, and the 4.4 acre park is a project to honor King Rama II, and it is recognized by UNESCO. This was the birthplace of the King Rama II too. There were some architectures such as main hall, as well as men's and women's dormitory, which show the way of life of people during that era.

It was quite a coincidence which we came across a cultural event in this park. There were some kids performing traditional Thai dance within the park.

Many visitors actually heard more about Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, which is located nearby Amphawa Floating Market. This is due to Bangkok has plenty of day trip package to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, and usually the foreign tour groups also arrange a session to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market in their Bangkok trip itinerary. Damnoen Saduak Floating Market opens from 7:30 a.m. and closes at around 12:30 p.m. while Amphawa Floating Market opens after 4 p.m. till late. Amphawa Floating Market is more visited by the locals in the earlier years, but nowadays it has gained popularity among the foreign visitors as well to pay here a visit.

This landmark showed that we were 0 km from Amphawa Floating Market, and we were 69 km from Bangkok.

In Amphawa Floating Market, visitors were usually overwhelmed by the crowd of boats selling their products, from raw products (vegetables, fruits, etc.) to cooked products.

You could see the boats gathered around the staircases, where the trades usually happened.

Visitors could eat in the shops on the banks of the rivers, as well as eating straight on the staircases right after you purchase the food. There was no rules here saying you must eat on the table!

Visitors usually come for shopping, enjoying local delicacies, and there is another attraction within the floating market. The fireflies! 

You would hear the vendors shouting "hing hoy!" which they were selling the boat tour to see fireflies at 60THB per person. I am not sure what is the price now, but the price 60THB was back in 2011.

Visiting Samut Songkhram left a great impression to me especially the train market. Not to forget, this was the birthplace of the world's first recognized Siamese twins, Bunker brothers. There was a memorial of the Siamese twins in the town of Samut Songkhram, but I did not manage to go there. You may look for it when you are here!