{"id":1147,"date":"2014-06-15T17:13:49","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T17:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2014-06-16T06:21:53","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T06:21:53","slug":"day-41-out-and-about-maeklong-railway-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/?p=1147","title":{"rendered":"Day 41 – Out and about – Maeklong Railway Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Job_6434\"<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/youtu.be\/XjF9pA0xJ9o<\/a>..\u00a0 Train coming through and hitting my camera.<\/p>\n

There are several sides to this story… First things first…\u00a0 If you are coming here expecting to find out how to get to Maeklong Railway Market…\u00a0 Here you go:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Bangkok Victory monument station.\u00a0 Exit 2 (before 7 then the minibus terminal is ‘closed’ but go down the drive way).<\/li>\n
  2. On this day (no idea if it changes) at location 4 we got on a minibus.\u00a0 You apparently need to buy a ticket first but I have no idea how this happens and it all turns out OK, the driver will get money from you (70b one way)…. note… If you are over 160cm…\u00a0 don’t do what I did…\u00a0 I ended up at the back of the bus under the AC bent over (the back of the bus has AC vents that make the roof lower) in traffic for 2 hours.\u00a0 Very uncomfortable for me and OMG I feel sorry for the very small Thai lady on the window side who was squished in to the window by my ever increasing arse…. Another note…. Might be worth while not taking 20Kgs of camera equipment too….\u00a0 Thank god no one knew English, I’m sure if they knew how to ‘tut’ in English there would have been plenty of that going on too (tripod never wins friends).<\/li>\n
  3. Theoretically 1.5 hours later you are dropped off at Maeklong.\u00a0 Behind the bus, over the road is where you get picked up to go back (Victory Monument written in English) and in front of you is the main street.\u00a0 Head to the main street and look left.\u00a0 The boom gates are there, the station on the right on and the market on the left. If you go to the station there is a sign that tells you when the next train is.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So the market…. It was amazing.\u00a0 I have been to a heap of markets all over the world from chickens getting killed and plucked in front of you in Egypt to English fish markets that make you sign a waver before you can take any photos (highly recommended by the way).\u00a0 This was something else.\u00a0 Even in Bangkok standards this was a little out there.\u00a0 Very little ice to be seen, a lot of flies to be seen and even the occasional animal (excluding the tourists), mainly cats.\u00a0 It has live fish, killed and prepared in front of you, frogs on their backs and the market’s signature dish, mackerel in a bamboo steamer (you don’t get to take the steamer home). The big attraction is the fact a train runs through the middle of the market.\u00a0 A bell goes off, the stalls finish their transaction and then they start pulling back the fruit, veggies and various animal products from around the tracks.\u00a0 Second bell goes off and the activity becomes fierce as the slow ones now they have seconds.\u00a0 The rich stalls move their trollies back along little tracks that move them back just enough to be out of the way of the train.\u00a0 Tourists get yelled at by the stall holders to get back (constantly) and the train rattles through centimetres from your chest.\u00a0 Once the train is past everything is put back and everyone goes on with their day.\u00a0 Photo of the back of the train is here.<\/p>\n

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    Click on image for a full size version<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    For those of you who are concerned (or just want to see my kit destroyed here is the damage to the camera.<\/p>\n

    \"IMAG0465\"<\/a>
    There’s a reason why it’s called tough<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    …Damage is beside the lens…<\/p>\n

    \"Click<\/a>
    Click on image for a full size version<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The market has stuff all over the place beside the tracks and, as you can see, heaps to move out of the way in a short period of time (watch the video for real time understanding).<\/p>\n

    Step outside the market and there’s even more going on.\u00a0 Dried fish, locals looking at Buddha amulets, crepes with savory fillings cooked over charcoal stoves (all photos below) and more but I will put other entries for those..\u00a0 There is about 4 hours you can kill here and, if you want to stop and talk to anyone (they are all happy to talk) then more.<\/p>\n

    The one thing I did want to get from the market was a track’s eye view of the train.\u00a0 I hadn’t seen anyone use the perspective of the tracks in their videos so I dumped my camera in the middle of the track and left it there.\u00a0 This disturbed everyone, the market holders (on the right of the shot) and the Japanese tourists next to me.\u00a0 Check it out here:\u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/XjF9pA0xJ9o<\/a><\/p>\n

    The photos are here:<\/p>\n

    \"Click<\/a>
    Click on image for a full size version<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The market’s traditional fair.. mackerel in bamboo steamers…<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"Click<\/a>
    Click on image for a full size version<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    There wasn’t any active selling.\u00a0 This lady was just sitting there hoping this lanky Australia would buy something… Sorry<\/p>\n

    \"MaeKlong<\/a><\/p>\n

    I love the fact this guy’s next ‘customer’ is in the bucket next to him.\u00a0 They are all alive and get chopped up to ‘order’.<\/p>\n

    \"Click<\/a>
    Click on image for a full size version<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \"Click<\/a>
    Click on image for a full size version<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    And the poor little frogs.. 80b\/kg… They come in a lot less than the quail.\u00a0 Probably the same amount of meat:-)<\/p>\n

    Outside the market there’s still a heap going on.\u00a0 This guy was making savory crepes on a charcoal fire.\u00a0 They are really hard work to make.\u00a0 You create a dough with sticky rice flour, water and egg.\u00a0 Make a flat cake and boil the cake.\u00a0 Takes the cakes and mix them in a mixer to a paste.\u00a0 Spread that paste out in to the crepe shape and thickness and put in the sun to dry.\u00a0 Once dry you stack them, take them to market and so the final step here.\u00a0 They are sweet in flavour but not a sweet (if that makes sense) .\u00a0 Brilliant!!<\/p>\n

    \"Click<\/a>
    Click on image for a full size version<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Dried squid run through a ‘mangle’ to flatten them out for (I can only assume) eating… Enjoy.<\/p>\n

    \"Click<\/a>
    Click on image for a full size version<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    http:\/\/youtu.be\/XjF9pA0xJ9o..\u00a0 Train coming through and hitting my camera. There are several sides to this story… First things first…\u00a0 If you are coming here expecting to find out how to get to Maeklong Railway Market…\u00a0 Here you go: Bangkok Victory monument station.\u00a0 Exit 2 (before 7 then the minibus terminal is ‘closed’ but go down the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1169,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions\/1169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.trainingelite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}