The highlights of the trip for today was the Damneon Saduak Floating Market, enroute MaeKlong Railway Market, Crocodile Farm, Elephant Show & Rose Garden.
We were supposed to meet our driver at 730am but we waited for an hour & saw no one. The conceirge asked if we needed assistance & we told him we had booked a tour with the travel agent but no one came. Just then, another driver who is also from the same agent came, listened to our story & called the boss. We were told that the driver who were supposed to meet us has gone to the airport. What crap! How can he leave us, hanging around waiting!!!
Another driver was dispatched & he apologised for the delay, informing us of an accident the other driver met???? Anyhow, our trip has been delayed for more than an hour & we would defintely have missed the 830am train arrival into MaeKlong Station. We had some discussions along the way & the driver said we would go into the station first & asked about the next train arrival. We went told 2.15pm.
So we decided to make a trip to the floating market first. The driver bought us to a mini pier where we paid 1500baht for a ride on the long tail speed boat which would take us along the canals & a stop-by at their coconut farm. Cheap scam!!!
I enquired about the creditability of these floating markets & was told this was the original Damneon Saduak Floating Market but from what i remembered, the market was packed with sampan boats, selling all sorts of local produces/products. But from this boat ride along the canals, it was totally different. It was not jammed pack with tourists & along the way, only 2 or 3 sampans were seen rowing along the canals.
Daddy was slighly furious about the whole event & i was utterly disappointed with the way we were brushed off about our queries. The driver either turned a deaf ear to our questions or chose not to answer.
I had half a mind not to continue with the trip but i was adamant about seeing the railway market after seeing & hearing so much credits on it. Daddy suggested lunch first & our driver also suggested watching some monkey show nearby. But he did mentioned that we would missed the 230pm Cultural show at the Rose Garden if we were to catch the 215pm train. Fed up, i told Daddy to gave up the whole idea to Rose Garden & to forget about going to some stupid crocodile farm.
After lunch, we proceeded back to MaeKlong Railway Market where we walked around & waited for the 215pm train's arrival. I forgot to mention. It has been raining non stop for the whole morning right up till this point at 2pm, it was still drizzling. Needless to say, my mood was somewhat affected. Haiz!
We waited & we waited ..... still no sight of the train. We walked up & down, sat & stood around. The locals went about doing their business & were most amused, watching us & some other tourists waiting around stupidly. Our driver was not with us.
In the end, we walked out of the narrow market area, towards the station where we sat down for a drink & Daddy bought some snacks. We were told that the train would arrive at 320pm instead!!!! We felt like clowns, waiting for the past 1 hour.
Finally, the train attendent blew his whistle & the market sellers begin pushing in their stalls & lifting up the awnings. I saw my train at last.
Finally after the train arrived at MaeKlong Station, we made for our vehicle & proceeded back to Bangkok. On the way, Daddy asked if the driver would send us to the airport. We would pay him another 300baht. But he told us he has another tour for the evening & suggested us taking the airport link.
If it wasnt for the time constraint, we would have made our way back to the travel agent & demanded compensation.
No comments:
Post a Comment