Railway Market, Bangkok

In this era of technology, most of the learning happens through the likes of Instagram reels or Youtube Shorts. This is one such 'learning' that I got aware of a couple of years back. I saw this amazingly cluttered and congested street market which runs besides a railway track. This definitely made it on top of my itineraries for Bangkok, which I recently visited. Situated about 1 hour from Bangkok downtown, the Maeklong Railway market is a very short stretch of the railway track that is surrounded by fruit and vegetable vendors along with cool restaurants. As soon as my wife and I saw the railway tracks crossing the main road and into the small lane, we were excited and surprised at the same time. Looking at the width of the street, it was difficult to imagine how a big train would fit in here! Add to it the various stalls that vendors have on both sides of the track. The timings of the train are almost every 1 hour, with the first train passing at about 6:20 AM in the morning. The last train can be seen at around 5:40PM. The taxi guys who will ferry you from the city to here are aware of the timings. Till the time this unusual sighting happens, visitors and tourists flock in the market to buy clothes, fruits, coconut ice creams and souvenirs. There are many who wish to take a comfortable seat outside a restaurant so that it is easy to see the train passing by. Like everyone, we also did the same and waited in a cool restaurant. Some smoothies and Egg noodles were to our rescue till the time we live our Instagram reel moment. And, did some window shopping too! It was now the time for the train to pass by! The people responsible for the same start announcing the arrival with their typical station-master type whistles. There are fine red lines that are drawn along the railway track and tourists are required to stand behind the same. It is amazing to see the train coming from a distance and how fast the vendors remove their stuffs in order for the train to pass. Some of the stuffs are not removed as they are kept appropriately with measurements such that there is no harm from the train. Tourists, especially the foreigners, and that too from countries like Japan and US who do not get to see such organised chaos can be seen smiling and excited! Now enough of talking! Here is the video of this amazing place: With lots of cheers and hand gesturing, the train passed by and the market was back in action! The shops were up, vendors were back on tracks to sell their stuffs and the next set of tourists wait for the upcoming hour! Don't you feel like visiting it too? :)