The Train Market

While Lydia would tell you that our final day in Bangkok was her favorite, I have to admit I have mixed feelings about it. Some activities were fun, while others were a bit bizarre to say the least. Read on and maybe you can guess which activities fall in each category.

First stop was a strange (oops, I’m giving it away already) market about an hour outside of Bangkok. Rat (the guide) had tried to explain what we were going to see, calling it something like the “train market” but I wasn’t entirely clear what she meant. I envisioned a train that came along to a stop, then you would shop on it. I could hardly see how that was interesting, but went along; turned out that my mental picture was completely wrong.

During the car trip to the market we saw a few interesting things, but the most notable was seeing people harvesting salt:

They don’t do it that way in my hometown, Hutchinson, Kansas, the land of salt mines and the Hutch Salthhawks!

We weren’t exactly sure where we were, but Rat dropped us off so we “wouldn’t miss it” (at this point we weren’t sure what we were looking for!) while she found a parking space. Given that the street looked like this...

I was a bit nervous we’d never see Rat again. Fortunately, she’d given Dave a phone he could use just in case.

We found the “market” – it was actually hundreds of small stalls lined up along a train track. Most of the items for sale were fresh fruits, vegetables, and eggs.

There were also a lot of fish...

and fresh (really fresh) meat for sale. Walking by some stalls was like being behind the counter at a butcher shop…or at a slaughterhouse (Dave would say that I’m prone to exaggeration based on that comment; however, he was kind enough to not take any photos of the gore so I wouldn’t have to look at it again.)

In pictures, the market actually looks kind of pretty.

But I assure you that the scent in some of the areas was anything but pretty!!

Rat caught up with us and told us we needed to stand back from the tracks. She motioned and shouted at others who were wandering around the market to do the same - she literally ran across the tracks like a mad woman to move people out of the way. We knew something exciting was about to happen. Here's what it looked like at first:

Then, shop owners started pulling in their awnings and goods. People started looking down the train tracks...
Next thing we know, there’s a train barreling through the market just inches away from people and merchandise.

Yet, within seconds after the train passing, the stalls were back in order and people were back on the tracks as if nothing had happened.

It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. Rat explained that the vendors along the train track couldn’t afford to pay for a stall inside a building, so they were willing to put up with the inconvenience of the train.

And that was just Activity #1 of this crazy day. Next up…the Floating Market.