Amphawa

Arriving at the Maeklong Railway Market, we were greeted with a strong heat wave. This place was way hotter than the city. The markets were quite busy despite the sun baring down on everyone. It seems like we had already missed the famous train crossing. Maeklong is known as one of the most dangerous markets in the world since a train runs right in the middle of it. The markets were built on and around the train tracks and the vendors would supposedly scramble to remove their stuff as the train comes at specific times. Since it was quite hot and it doesn't seem like the train would be coming back anytime soon, we opted to go to Amphawan to see the floating markets next. We asked around to find the Songthaew, a public transportation in the form of a jeep. We had to wait a long time until ours was full before our driver decided to go on.

Our songthaew went on for a while but I honestly didn't know when to get off, I kept my eye on the maps and when we did pass the supposed market, I prompted the driver to stop but the old lady, who was one of first passengers waiting with us, told me that this wasn't the floating markets yet. I guess being foreigners gave it away that we were heading there. Amphawan was much more lively than Maeklong, maybe too much as the crowds were pretty overwhelming and I had no idea where to start or where to go. I knew that we definitely were going to ride the boat to cruise around so when I saw a lone boat at the other side of the river, I took the chance to ask about the rates. The guy gave us an exorbitant rate to which I was quite tempted to take but Jasper convinced me otherwise and we went back to the other side to a boat that had much more tourists going in. The price was literally 10 times cheaper than what we were quoted with so I was glad we went with this local tour. The boat tour was actually more than what we bargained for in terms of the length. It took us to so many places around the river but they were honestly nothing special. A lot of them were temples, some of them had really cool features like a golden crocodile as a temple guardian, the others were nothing to write home about. On one of the stops, I was able to try some local leaf-wrapped banana that filled me up pretty well. The only spot I was interested in was Wat Bang Kung, a temple built inside a tree. Whether we were going there or not remained a mystery for me as our guides couldn't even speak English but it turned out to be the final stop of the day. After the not so eventful day, it was time to find a way back to Bangkok. We had to find a way to the mini-van terminals but were left with not much choice between a motorcycle driver and a tuktuk. A tour guide that was helping another group helped us out but his directions didn't prove to be of much help. The motorcycle was much more expensive than the tuktuk so in the end we came crawling back to him after turning him down once. He took us to the terminal where we paid a few more bahts for a ride to Bangkok. After a couple of hours, we were dropped in Mo Chi Vit.

We were once again in the middle of nowhere with no wi-fi. My idea was once again to try and find a cafe and I saw that there were a couple of them nearby. We somehow ended up in the middle of a night market instead which was all fine and dandy but turns out most of the cafes were just stalls and had no wi-fi. Suddenly, out in the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar symbol that seemed to attract my attention. A friggin' cannabis popshop in the middle of the market. No way, up until this time I thought it was illegal in Thailand but I was told that they had recently made it legal. They were selling edibles and I managed to convince myself to buy their chocolate bars, trying out their free samples as well. Jasper and I wandered around for a long time, him leading the way for the latter half which took us to who knows where. We were supposed to head into the nearby mall when I saw some motorcycles parked outside but they had some sort of ID's on that made me think they could be public transportation. Lady Luck was on my side as it turns out they were! Here's me, saving the day again as I started to feel the effects of the edibles even more. Next thing I know, I'm sitting on a motorcycle feeling the wind on my face and watching the lights of Bangkok blur around me. It was an amazing night ride. When we got to the hotel, I was so relaxed but still wanted to make the most of the night so we jumped right in the swimming pool again. With the water completely refreshing my body and mind, we ordered with GrabFood and I once again had green curry for the second day in a row.Read more