March 25, 2019
Ratchaburi
We visited the railway market yesterday evening but the stall holders were all closing up by the time we got there. We also found out that the Amphawa Floating Market is only operational over the weekends so it seemed that our visit to Samut Songkhram would be a waste of time. The only floating market that would be open today was the overly touristy Damoen Saduak market about twenty kilometers away. We felt that we should take what we could get and decided to try the railway market soon after six o'clock this morning and then head for Damoen Saduak.
The railway market turned out to be pretty neat. We were the only falangs there and it is clearly a part of daily local life in Samut Songkhram. The stall holders very quickly move their wares out of the way of the train when it passes, and back again, and the train is merely inches away. Leigh's video describes it better than any photographs.
Then we hit route 325 up to Damoen Saduak. For a four lane highway it was remarkably quiet and stress free.
The floating market at Damoen Saduak turned out to be a lot better than expected. We got there before many other tourists had arrived and were able to enjoy it without hordes of people.
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Here is the short video Leigh made of the floating market.
Once the tourists started pouring in we left and headed southwards back to the Mae Klong river on lovely quiet roads passing through coconut groves. The sky had clouded over and so despite spending time at the market it was still quite cool.
Once we crossed the river we got views of the Nativity of our Lady Cathedral. Built in 1890 by the French it has a very Vietnamese look about it.
After that it was a gentle and stress free ride along the Mae Klong up to Ratchaburi on a quiet back road. We have booked into the Vanilla Home in Ratchaburi. An enormous room, at least 40 square meters, although pricey at 700 baht. There isn't much in the area and we found Samut Songkhram to be expensive too. We have a ground floor room so we just wheeled the bicycles in.
We stayed at the Vanilla two years ago and there was a great Landrover Series II parked outside. It's still there.
Supper was quite a change tonight. Leigh discovered there was a Japanese restaurant a few hundred meters away from our digs so enjoyed a bowl of miso ramen with chicken for supper.
Of course this wasn't enough for a couple of hungry cycle tourists so we topped it up with onigiri from a 7-Eleven.
Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 1,419 km (881 miles)
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