午后雨。: Bangkok 5D4N Family Trip: Day 3

Woke up quite early to visit this special tourist attraction:

Maeklong Railway Station Market

So how special exactly it is, you may ask,

probably just a market located right BESIDE the railway station

BUT NO

it is ON the railway.

The train that passes by the Maeklong Market 6 times a day is the

Commuter Train No.4382 from Maeklong to Ban Laem

in Samut Songkhram, Thailand.

The market was very packed with stalls selling dried / fresh seafood, vegetables, meat or local delicacies,

like things you usually see in pasar pagi :)

The interesting part is,

you get to participate and blend in with the locals here,

I never really liked visiting too main stream tourist attractions, packed with tourists, tour guides.

I find it interesting to understand the true culture of the people who've been living on this land.

Oh back to the market,

stalls were practically ON the railway, people walking ON the railway,

locals buy fruits ON the railway.

I simply couldn't understand how to shift all the stalls and evacuate the people aside

when the train passes by.

*whispers*

I was secretly panic-ing when I walked along the railway.

Didn't go faraway from Mom :{

Plus, the railway + market was looooooooooooong.

I was consistently finding a place to run if the train came tut-tut LOL -__-

Trains have schedules to follow,

and we were just in time to catch the train that passed by the market.

Everybody was so eggcited!

Uncle went to find a spot for photo-shooting with his baby DSLR,

while I was glued to Mom, standing around 10cm away from the railway,

officer said that distance was OKAY.

Was stuck amidst the tall-tall angmohs, didn't snap too many photos coz I was too short O_O

The very shockingly funny thing was that

the people (locals) were not nervous at all when the train came tut-tut-ing,

Aunties made their payment slowly, the market stall traders kept their things aside slowly,

and I was like,

EHH FASTER LEH, Y U NO GANJIONG ONE!

So worried.

Then the train went tut-tut to the station, everything went back to normal,

everything within a split second (okay, probably 5-10minutes?)

Tourist like me was so jaw-drop amazed, clapped like a kid when the train passed,

locals were so used to the routine, back to business right after.

Well, I'm not sure if you understand what I'm blabbering here,

here's a video clip of this special Maeklong Railway Market from Youtube :D

Damnoen Saduak is a famous floating market in Bangkok, the largest one in the world.

But visiting there is too mainstream.

Plus, Aunt and Uncle had a bad experience there during their last visit,

long and tedious boat ride on dark polluted water river,

not a place worth visiting.

So we set out to find another floating market - which is less commercialized and more local :)

So here we are, Amphawa Floating Market

I gotta say I love my dummie Sony DSC-W520 camera, especially under blue skies :)))

It's super lousy pussy at bad yellow lighting thou .__.

We went to browse along the platform.

This place was exactly what we wanted!

Left bottom captured my eyeball with the big wooden cupboard with a lot of drawers.

Mom said old style Chinese Herbal shops were like that,

now it is a restaurant selling Kuey-Chiap.

Wanted to try and compare Thay Kuey-Chiap and Penang style,

but Aunt and Mom didn't look too interested

so I diam-diam ikut sahaja :{

Mom and Aunt were attracted by this beside river seafood thing, so was I!

Small stools, and grill fish with salt / squid / big head prawns, mad love this!

Uncle was thirsty, had a coffee and ice milk tea, which were freshly brewed on the boats.

Taste ok ok la, but after witnessing the whole "use-river-water-to-wash-cups-and-brew-coffee" activity,

*gulps*

Pretend you see nothing loh, in M'sia uses non-filter pipe water also wad >__<

TA-DA MAD LOVE <3 nbsp="" p="">

Definitely need skills to cook a proper squid dish,

coz you cannot over-cook'em, even for the slightest bit,

or else the texture'll be like chewing gum.

1. Charcoal grilled squid - Not too smoky taste, with Thai chilli sauce, awesome texture, and fresh!

2. Charcoal grilled big head prawn - I have yet to taste such tasty grilled prawns I swear! OMG IF AND ONLY IF I CAN HAVE IT NOW.

3. Fried Pad-Thai - Char Kuey Teow, so-so, will anticipate for the next Fried Pad-Thai.

Wanted to try the Grill fish with salt but the fishes were too big we four couldn't finish :(

Mentioned in my previous post, fresh juice stalls are very competitive in Bangkok,

in 20 steps walk you can spot 2-3 stalls.

In order to stand out among the rest, you gotta have new catchies, like this.

It was not artificial bamboo you know, fresh young bamboos, and you can bring it home!

Had ice coconut drink, brought a bamboo shoot back to hotel, then left it at hotel no bring home -__-

Those who know me well, they'll know I'm a genuine 吃货 (means super tam-chiak, super like to eat)

It's inherited btw, it's in the gene :P

1. Coconut plus beehoon thing - Yea it looked like drug, but it's not. You can just eat like that, without bread or rice, taste mild sweet.

2. Miang Kham (Wild Betel Leaf Wraps) - Ate this before, made by Mom's colleague from Kelantan.

Wrapped in the wild betel leaf were dried shrimps / minced coconut / GINGER / lemongrass.

Raw healthy ingredients but too bad, not my fave. Uncle loves it so much!

Look at the caplock words then you'll understand why .__.

Nahh, just if you're interested, here's a recipe of it :Miang Kham Wild Betel Leaf Wrap Recipe

Randomly came across it when I was searching for the food's name.

3. Pomegranate Seed Dessert （石榴籽甜点） - You can find this in M'sia too, Aunt loves this, but not from this stall, tasted a lil weird, maybe we were just not used to that taste.

Had Thai dessert at a roadside restaurant.

It was very creative of them to use the old sewing machine and transform it into a dining table.

Didn't really like the two above too, maybe they taste too local, and too sweet, very Thai-style.

They sold old Thai CDs in the restaurant,

and they provided magnifying glasses for the elder ones to read, so caring :D

Ahh and I personally love these two shots :D

Headed to Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) as the next destination.

Aunt asked me to Google about it before we departed, was fascinated by the ancient design.

50 Bahts as entrance fee, around RM 5.

Didn't go to the Royal Palace as suggested by most of the people who've been to Bangkok before.

Aunt and Uncle didn't like the horrifying crowd there, and the very very expensive entrance fee,

I didn't like crowd either, so we came here.

The decorations were made from ceramic bowls, cups or plates.

Marvelous is the word that I can say.

Was surprised to see Guan Gong （关公）statue there O_O

The steps were awfully steep, Mom and Aunt have backaches so they chose not to climb and take the risk.

So me and Uncle headed for the stairs and caught some Thai air from above.

Still I gotta say, the steps were real steep.

Basically you only have half of your feet on the steps, not recommendable if you're afraid of heights,

you may block people from climbing up or down.

I saw a father carrying his daughter on his back and climbed'em, clapss :O

Went for shopping mall tour later bwaha.

People think of Temples and Shopping when they hear Bangkok,

and I did'em all in a day!

Stopped by at Siam Paragon,

saw Wenyi and Sze's favourite shop at the main entrance.

It took me a minute to realize it's Forever 21.

Realized the other shops here were too high class,

changed another destination after 20 steps.

Within walking distance there were more choices of malls to shop at, so we stopped by here

Absolute Siam

It has very unique designs of resting areas, like the right bottom, they are seats for you to rest.

Very creative crafts for teens to snap photos, a modern designed mall, and fashioney :)

Guess Kingsley would go crazy after these.

Went MBK Centre (Mahboonkrong) after walking a floor at Absolute Siam.

Mad hunger strikes. So we went to Nova Kitchen and have some Thai Cuisine.

1. Gang Keow Wan (Thai Green Curry) - Curry with fresh milk always tastes good, but this tastes so-so coz it tasted mild sweet.

2. Tom Yam Kung - You can order either spicy / medium spicy / very spicy. We ordered medium spicy, but ended up tasted like super spicy. Emm, have yet to let me WAAAAA.

3. Bat Bo Liang Cha （八宝凉茶）- Taste like weird weird tea, Mom didn't know how to describe it too.