Mae klong railway market

The Mae klong market, also known as the Risky Market, the folding umbrella market and the Train market, has been on my bucket list for a long time. It's not that it's massively spectacular, to the point that we ummed and Ahhed last night about whether it was worth the taxi from the Homestay to the Victory monument on the other side of Bangkok, to get the minivan to take us an hour and a half ish, to see a train, that would take about 2 minutes... It sounds ridiculous right? But we timed it well enough that we got to see it twice, so 4 minutes for 3hrs effort... No, still sounds daft!

Almost ready for the train

The market was there first, since 1905, and then government decided that the train line needed to go right where the market is. The market traders decided they didn't want to move so 6 times a day, every day for the last 42 years apparently, they push back everything when they hear the first siren, 3 minutes before arrival, and then stand well back (it's a wide old beast!) when the 2nd siren signals... Unless you are either one of the hardcore traders that are so blasé you don't even start moving until the 2nd siren, or a foolish tourist on a death wish quest to get epic film footage!

The train sat at the bed of the line

It comes through, blasting it's horn, sometimes slow, sometimes quite fast, but either way when it's there, a foot or so away from your face, it feels fast. The vendors are very clever as knowing exactly what needs to move though...no grapes are harmed in the process. They remove the stuff right next to rails for the wheels to grip over properly and everything else, so long as it's low enough for the overhanging carriage part to pass over, stays exactly where it was. And literally, the second the train has gone past their stall, the strings holding the canopies are released and the tables wheeled back into position and without a word, as if nothing ever happened, business instantly resumes.

The end of the trainline is just 20 metres after the end of the market, so after it went through the first time we could go nosy at the parked train, buy Liss a tacky tshirt, grab some noodle soup and then reposition ourselves ready for the 2nd passing through.

Lissa's freebie for today...not tried yet, or got a clue but it smells nice :)

The market itself, aside from the one tacky tshirt stall, is very un-touristy, we were, surprisingly, one of maybe 15 tourists there. Perhaps as you need to get yourselves there on public transport in the week (tours run at the weekend I think) then that puts people off. Admittedly it did take us a little while of searching/signing at locals to find the return mini van spot... Absolutely no where near where we got off!!

There was every kind of fruit, veg and fish you can think of, lots of spices and street food cooking. We bought a few new things to try... Some really good (jack fruit) some not so good (weird orange sweet string things... No idea what!) We skipped the fried frogs on sticks completely, and the kids equally weren't keen in the eels still writhing in the bucket.

Taking a couple of small blonde people with you really helps with the budget though, they have offered things free to Liss if she smiles and points at something on their stall, our one word of Thai (cretins, I know!) is Thankyou and they seem very happy with that and wave us on our way :-)

J and Liss

So was it worth the effort? For sure! It's definitely not something you see everyday,or anywhere else, and if we came back in 10 years, health and safety would probably have changed it all and stuck up barriers at the very least... And we wouldn't have these smalls with us, looking in absolute thrilled/scared/perplexed wonderment at what was happening :-)