I slept really well last night considering we’re constantly on the move but I guess it might be a little like being rocked to sleep…….a little but not quite!
This morning’s journey continued through some very interesting countryside which was lovely to see as when I took the train in the other direction it was already dark. What was still quite striking as well, was the extent of the flooding still, the closer to Bangkok we got the more flooded the outlying communities were. The thing for them living in these areas is that they have no choice but to just try and carry on with it all as best they can and in some cases becoming very enterprising. Where there were once roads there are now fishing areas and where there were once cars to travel from A to B, now they are using boats. When there’s no alternative but to live with it all and carry on you just have to adapt and make the most of what is a really bad situation. It was quite moving to see daily life carrying on despite the problems they were constantly and consistency facing, it does make you think.
Some of the flooding in Thailand
Two videos of the flooding in Thailand showing a school with its playground underwater and some of the local people fishing in the road!
We arrived in Bangkok pretty much on time at 12.30. The website said 10.30 arrival but I think we did pretty good to just be two hours late and to be fair that was the time the ticket lady said we would arrive. Now for my next mission! Souvenir shopping!
There’s a massive market that’s just on on a Saturday and Sunday, I’ve been to it before about 6 or so years ago and I remember it well so thought it would be good for some last minute bits and pieces and was actually the whole reason for coming back to Bangkok on the Saturday night train to get here in time for the last afternoon of the market.
First though a bed for the night, I’ve decided to opt for a hostel that’s says it’s a Youth Hostel, I’m not sure what the difference is between the two but I’m about to find out.
I’m at the end of my trip and although I haven’t really bought anything much my bag is pretty heavy, or maybe it’s just cause I’ve been carrying it around everywhere for the last few weeks. Either way negotiating the underground and then sky train was a little trying so regardless of what the hostel is like I’m staying at least one night. I’d really like to stay in one place till I fly home but we’ll see.
So it seems the difference between a hostel and a Youth Hostel is that you’re given your bedding at check-in and its do it yourself. Which is fine of course if only the bed I was making up was a little softer than solid rock! Maybe it’ll be just the one night after all.
I literally just dumped my gear and headed straight out to the market with a hope of all things wonderful to buy.
The market is at the end of the sky train line and it seems everyone on the train is going the same way, never a good sign for someone who doesn’t like crowds, or shopping for that matter. Did I really want to go to the market?? As I got off the train, straight away it was absolutely manic! People everywhere – either selling or buying or both and I hadn’t even got to the start of the market yet. They say it’s one of the largest markets in the world and I actually don’t think in this case they’re exaggerating, it’s ridiculously huge, too huge in fact to try and negotiate I’m thinking. The question is where to start and then once I’ve started is there a possibility I may never find my way back out again! The majority of the market is covered which is a god send out of the heat but then it made it seem even more busy as all the walkways were small and crowded with people and there was never a slice of sky to be seen. I could see I wasn’t going to last long here to be honest. And to be fair a lot of the things they were selling I’ve seen in a lot of the places I’ve been to, both here in Thailand and elsewhere in SE Asia, there was nothing much in the way of new and different and it was that, that I was after. I think when I was here before although I had traveled a little I don’t think I had really seen anything like it before so it was all new and exciting. This time around I felt I had seen quite a lot of it before and it actually reminded me of the time I was in Goa and left the quiet, relaxed and chilled out South of the state to come back up north to a market that again I had visited before and thought was going to be really good, only to be disappointed and end up wishing I had stayed south. Sone day I’ll learn by my experiences wont I?
But really it was nice to visit the market if only to have a different view of it all than I had before, I managed to pick up a few nice bits and pieces but I was also quite happy when it got to 6pm and they played the national anthem stopping everyone in their tracks and that was then pretty much it, everyone started packing up and it meant I could head back and make my bed of rocks!!
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