JUN 2012
Click the images! Nearly all of them have a blow up
Trains from Bangkok to Malaysia first drive northward out of Bangkok, then to the west till Nakon Pathom, from there via Ratchaburi to the south, the red line on the map. Reason for this detour were obviously the many watercourses and salt marshes near the coast.
On the maps you will find also a smaller railway line between the Bangkok Thonburi district on the west side of the Chao Phaya River and the city Samut Sonkhram, indicated in yellow on the map. I have always been curious about that. The Consequence: "Go and see!".
The journey starts in Thonburi near the large roundabout Wongwian Yai, which is also the name of the station. Who now wants to buy a ticket to Samut Songkhram, gets the answer "Here you can buy only tickets to Maha Chai". Advice: simply buy and see where you will arrive.
And then you will experience how the train literally clears its way through the suburbs of Bangkok and then through the countryside. People, bushes and trees seem only reluctant to make room. That is probably the reason why it rocks to and fro, or is it a problem with the tracks? The journey takes exactly one hour and ends in Maha Chai. Where is that? Quite simple, it is the center of the city of Samut Sakhon. Such as "Piccadilly Circus" in London.
Indeed, Maha Chai station is the end of the line! Here is the estuary of the Maenam Tha Chin, a branch of the Chao Praya river. Building a large bridge for only a local railway would have been nonsense. So the few travellers who want to go to Samut Songkram have to take a ferry, cross the river, look for the station Ban Laem and continue their travel from there.
We leave Ban Laem. The journey takes again an hour. The towns are soon behind us, we pass by plantations, swamps and finally salt marshes. Speed? Only 40 km/h, but you have the feeling of a rather high speed.
Finally the train enters a city. But what is that? It moves into a market. The sellers gave only as much space that the train can pass. Vegetables and fruit remain up to the rail. The train runs over any vegetables and fruit left behind on the railway tracks.
We are in the station Mae Klong, the "Piccadilly Circus" of Samut Songkhram. And also here the track does not continue, because the wide river Mae Klong flows just behind the station.
in the direction of travel: righthand: the driver, lefthand: a train attendant.. Behind the door thronged four photographers. (frame from video clip) [ 2012]
Directly next to the market on the track there is a very regular market, like everywhere else. Someone told me that the main difference is that they pay no rentals on the track.
Eight trains a day pass the market. Dealers adapted themselves to that situation. They will not take away fruit and other things afar from the rail, in so far as they are low enough. Those who have already earned a bit of money, have rolling tables, which they simply pull back. - The shelter from sun is folded up and the train may pass.
[10:30]
