Bangkok's Train to MahachaiPrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
It might sound like a Hollywood musical but it isn’t. It’s the train to Mahachai.
Many people have perhaps heard of the Toy Train to Darjeeling in northern India, and there’s the jungle train to Temon in Sabah on the island of Borneo. And many others have heard about the Oriental Express from Bangkok to Singapore down the Malay Peninsula. And there are so many more—The Bullet Train in Japan, the Trans–Siberian Express, The Freedom Train in Vietnam, and even Vientiane, the capital of Laos, has a train station, but no train.
And now for the train to Mahachai. Not many people know about it, even those residents who have lived in Bangkok for a long time. The trip is something totally unexpected. You might even call it an adventure, if you are daring enough to take it.
The Train to Mahachai departs from Thonburi (that’s Bangkok’s Left Bank) and takes one hour and fifteen minute to reach Mahachai, a small town south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand. For those who want to see Thailand in a capsule, this is the train to take. It has everything in a nutshell that a long, two-day train journey can offer.
Locating the station in Thonburi is a feat in itself. First you must find the statue of King Taksin, the Siamese general who managed to expel the Burmese and establish a new capital at Thonburi. To reach Thonburi you must cross over the Sathorn Bridge. From the statue you begin walking south, looking down the alleyways until you see a railway track in the distance. Turn down this alley but watch your head. The lane is crammed with shops and food stalls, all under awnings that drown out the sunlight. At the end of the lane you come to the station. Just fall in line and buy your ticket, 14 baht for the round trip. The trains leave every two hours on the hour.
Your fellow passengers are school children in uniform, monks in saffron robes, vendors with their wares, housewives doing their shopping and everyone you can imagine from old to young but no tourists.
The train arrives from up the narrow track, sounding its whistle for those in the way to clear the line. It comes to a slow stop and in less than five minutes the passengers squeeze out of the compartments onto the platform, while those waiting shove aboard. Instantly the train is off again, with a noisy clippedy-clap that makes you wonder if this is not the Disneyland Special. It could well be.
From the slum area of Thonburi the train passes through a wall of clapboard shacks, so close that you can reach out and touch them. The shacks are on stilts above a blackened klong that serves as a waterway for those living there.
The train then enters the open rice fields of the south, green and lush, with frequent stops at villages no larger than a city block. As you pass through a village, you can look into the houses, into the very bedrooms. You are looking at rural Thailand close up.
If you return by the next train from Mahachai, you are back to where you began four hours, much richer and wiser to Thai country life.
Anyone wanting to go by train in Thailand would be wise to book a day or two ahead as the trains are usually pretty crowded these days. At the Hualamphong Railway Station on Rongmuang Road in Bangkok, you can book trains on any route in Thailand.
The State Railway of Thailand continues to expand and improve its services. Like the airlines, the SRT has computerized its reservation system even to remote areas, and mobile phone services are now available on board all express trains. Times have changed. Gone are the steam engines and the trains are faster and cover more ground. But the mood is much the same. Perhaps that is what makes train travel in Thailand so great—the mood, especially the train to Mahachai. For more about train travel in Asia, I’ve included a chapter on the subject in my book “Return to Adventure, Southeast Asia.”
And remember, for many train destinations in both Thailand and Southeast Asia you can travel one way by train and return by a Thai Airways flight.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERSQ. Dear Mr. Stephens. I hear that this is the rainy season and not a good time to visit Thailand. Can you comment on that? Jenny, Auckland
A. Dear Jenny. Thailand is in the monsoon belt, and there are two monsoons—the northeast and the southwest. They do not blow at the same time. Thus, you can escape the monsoon by travelling to another area. Most people think of the monsoon as rain. It is not rain. It is a wind. Generally, however, the winds bring the rains, but not always. --HS
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
