The Hua Lamphong or Bangkok Railway Station.
We rise bright and early today meaning to catch the 7:30 AM train to Lopburi. I called a Grab to the Hua Lamphong train station (also known as Bangkok Railway Station) and bought regular-class tickets (30 baht each). The train was not scheduled to arrive until 9:30 AM. Linda got her train schedule information from one of the blogs so apparently the information were outdated.
While waiting for the train, we tried looking for some halal place nearby to have breakfast. We found two on Google Maps but one was already closed for good and the other was not open yet. In the end we bought some snacks from 7-11 (again) for our breakfast.
Being a regular train, it was slow and stops at a million stations along the way. We chose to sit at the wooden chair coach for aesthetics reason but my butt hurts after the 3 hour long journey. You will find food paddlers, selling an assortment of food on the train throughout the journey although we chose to not buy them for hygienic and halal reasons. This time of the year, you can feel the occasional cold breeze blowing from the winter in China everywhere on the northern part of Thailand, including Bangkok. Even more so on this train ride and at night time. At Lopburi train station, we crossed the tracks to get to the Nurous mosque where we can find one halal restaurant there. Just ask the street food seller in front of the mosque about the halal restaurant. They belong to the same owners/family. The noodle soup was superb and the food was really cheap at Khao Mok Gai Soi Ko Sa (name of the halal restaurant).
The Khao Mok Gai Soi Ko Sa halal restaurant in Lopburi.
After praying and cleaning ourselves at the mosque, we tried to find a transport to the Khaochin sunflower field. Somebody said we can always find a songthaew to go there but after looking for a while, they’re non-existent. Apparently, songthaews don’t go to the sunflower fields because it’s too far away and not close to the main road. In the end we hired a pickup truck for a thousand baht to take us there and back. You can ask one of the Grab bike riders waiting outside the train station to call for a private van.
Taking a pickup truck to the sunflower fields after we refused a more comfortable SUV thinking we could get cheaper fares.
Waiting for 3 hours for the delayed train.
The sunflower fields itself was quite small than I had imagined. There's about 2-3 acres of sunflower fields that I can see and they bloom from December to February. There's no entrance fee whatsoever, surprisingly. The pickup truck driver offered to take us to another sunflower (or is it flower?) field but we needed to catch the 4:30 PM train back. The most important thing is, my wife got her wish fulfilled. We bought some sunflower seeds at the stalls beside the field. The return trip was delayed by 3 hours for some reason and we had no choice but to sit around and wait until 8:30 PM (from the original 5:30 PM departure time). In hindsight, we should have taken a bus or bought express train tickets back to Bangkok. Sure you can enjoy some beautiful sceneries along the way by train but you'll be spending half the day just for the travel.
The free shuttle ferry to Asiatique from the Sathorn pier.
Despite arriving at the Hua Lamphong train station at 10:15 in the evening, we managed to catch the last free shuttle ferry to Asiatique riverfront place. It was a minor miracle because we thought we had surely missed our chance on the ferry for arriving so late. Once you get to Sathorn pier, you may find the jetty is already closed. The free ferry shuttle to Asiatique is to the left side which is open until 11:15 PM. Asiatique is basically a bunch of shops and eateries next to the Chao Praya river. Most of the stuff on sale are more expensive than say, Chatuchak or other malls, including the food. However since it’s nearly midnight and don’t have time to find any nearby halal food. (the famous Halal Food Centre has already closed), we ate some from the expensive stalls which charges 200 baht for a meal. The sign says halal but there’s no way to verify so we just tawakkal and eat.
After the late dinner, we walked around a bit, took pictures in front of the ferris wheel and then took a Bolt home. The ferris wheels costs 500 baht each to ride so we decided to skip that. So that concludes our 3rd day in Bangkok.
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