Station

I had a relaxing morning and took the afternoon train from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok. The train left on time. It’s 3rd class only so that means open windows and better photo opportunities. It rained for 20 minutes not long after leaving Kanchanaburi but stopped and was sunny after that. I was in the front carriage. The first third is reserved for train staff, then there’s a section reserved for disabled people and monks. There were several monks sitting there. This is a station where one of them got off the train.

The train arrived on time in Bangkok. There now follows a very long rant about transport in Bangkok, read at your own risk!

The train arrives at a small station, not the main one. I’d researched online for transport options from there to the airport as I’m staying close to the airport tonight. All the advice said take a taxi, there’s no straightforward public transport. All taxis should by law use the meter and any that don’t are trying to charge an extortionate price. The first two I asked said they didn’t have a meter. The rest of the row of taxis were parked with no drivers in sight. I decided to walk towards the pier. On the way I flagged down another taxi who when I told him where I was going, he said no and drove away. I got to the pier hoping that I could get a boat further along the river, closer to where I was going which might make finding a taxi easier.

But the river doesn’t run east-west so that wasn’t going to help. I decided to get the ferry across the river. On the other side were restaurants and a Starbucks. One thing Starbucks is good for is free wifi and I needed the internet to look up other transport options. The ferry was open-sided and low to the water. As I got up to get off, my water bottle fell out of the pocket of my daypack and rolled off the side of the ferry into the Bangkok river. (It’s an orange refillable bottle that I’ve used for the whole trip.) I looked over the side and realised there was no way I could reach it, especially carrying my heavy backpack and with the ferry going to leave again soon. So I reluctantly resigned myself to my bottle washing up as litter on some beach far away. I got off the ferry and took a look back and saw one of the two ferry staff leaning over the side with a hook. He then walked quickly to the stern, gave his money belt to his colleague, lay on the floor of the boat and reached into the water. I thought at one point he was going to fall in. But he didn’t and he got up with my water bottle! Once again, when you think that everything is going wrong, someone does something really nice to balance it out!


I went to Starbucks, bought some tea at almost UK prices, and looked up transport. The Uber-like taxi app I’d used in Malaysia but hadn’t been available in the other places I’d been in Thailand works in Bangkok so I booked a cab. But not having a Thai sim card meant that as soon as I left Starbucks I’d have no way of knowing where the taxi was. The driver messaged me in Thai and the staff told me he said the traffic was bad. Eventually when the app said the taxi was nearly here I walked out to the road. But I couldn’t find it. After walking around the block I went back and stood outside Starbucks to get wifi to check and the app said the driver was now 10 minutes away having driven past. I waited to see if he would come back and when he didn’t I cancelled the booking. As I was walking around the block a tuk-tuk driver had asked if I needed a ride. So I went back to talk to him and ask him to take me to the nearest station on the airport rail link. The traffic was dreadful the closer we got to the station. It took ages. When I got the station, the train arrived straight away. I got off at the station before the airport and got a taxi to my hotel. Again, the first two drivers I spoke to refused to take me and I don’t know why. Perhaps they couldn’t read the address I showed them. I finally got to the hotel just before 9pm. Kanchanaburi to Bangkok took just under 3 hours. Getting across Bangkok took just over 3 hours.