Thailand - Laos: Day 8 - Part 9 - Underground Train & Soi Rambuttri | Trivacker

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Continued from Thailand – Laos Travel: Day 8 – Part 8 – MBK Center & Chatuchak Park, Bangkok. For pre-travel, please refer here.

On the side of the road facing Mo Chit BTS station, there are three types of transport; bus, Skytrain and underground MRT! I studied the route map. Ok, the last station is Hua Lamphong.

I really want to go to Hua Lamphong train station because it is the largest station in Thailand. Another reason was that I was excited about my friend’s adventures by overland heading to Bangkok by train. The interior of the station is often used as a pictorial mark upon arrival in the city. “We’re in Bangkok!” often reverberates in my head.

For us, although traveling overland from southern Thailand, we did not have the opportunity to stop at Hua Lamphong station because our destination was different, namely towards Maeklong Railway Market and then to Nakhon Pathom and ended in Kanchanaburi which is located in western Thailand. And when we arrived in Bangkok from Kanchanaburi, we stopped at Thonburi station.

Finding the underground MRT station in Mo Chit is not difficult. You just have to find the escalator that goes down.

At times like these, there are still empty seats that can be seated. For your information, the MRT ride to Hua Lamphong station is actually farther and the fare is a little more expensive than the Skytrain ride. But because we wanted to try, we rode it. Local passengers have the same temperament as well as people in my country, hands always holding the phone.

The difference of taking the MRT compared to the Skytrain from Mo Chit to Hua Lamphong is that we do not have to transit at the National Stadium station and change to the Sukhumvit line. The MRT will go directly to Hua Lamphong station.

The quiet surrounding inside this MRT. I found that this MRT encourages passengers to stand. The carriage is also wider than the Skytrain, and it is appropriate to label it “MRT”.

Our faces are tired, our eyes are a little red.

Ok, when we arrived at Hua Lamphong station, this is what made me feel very tired to walk.

After getting off the MRT train, this is the subway line we have to take to get to Hua Lamphong station. Upon reaching that end, there is another such route extension of the same length as well. OMG! Heavily tired. For your information, in a few days, we will also go through this same route as well, with the addition of a backpack weighing 12 kilos each!

The exit for the MRT underground is located outside Hua Lamphong station. So, we need to go through this outer area. I was also excited because I had seen pictures online of how many passengers were waiting for the arrival time of their respective trains. Meanwhile, they anchored themselves outside here.

Photo session at the station entrance. The building and its doors still retain their original features.

Tatie was pictured in front of the ticket counters here. There are 26 ticket counters and 14 platforms. The name Hua Lamphong is only known by travelers and foreign tourists. For locals, they call it Krung Thep station. The meaning of “Hua Lamphong” is also unknown and where it comes from.

Believe it or not, experts say the name Hua Lamphong comes from a Malay word! Hua means Khua in Siamese which is a bridge while Lamphong (Lumphung) means ‘temporary’ in Malay. So the full translation is Temporary Bridge. Maybe there used to be a bridge here, moreover, there is a river right next to this station.

When we were here in 2017, it was the 100th anniversary of the Hua Lamphong station which was built in 1916. It was built in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style by imitating the design of the Hauptbahnhof station in Frankfurt, Germany as a prototype. This explains why the design is very similar to stations in London such as St. Pancras, King Cross and Paddington as well.

This sign is very important when arrived in Bangkok for the first time. Every day, Hua Lamphong station serves 60,000 passengers.

From the station, we returned to the hotel by motorcycle tuktuk but stopped first on Khao San Road. Expensive fare with a price of almost THB150. For me, it is very expensive for a journey of 4.8km. We are very tired and lazy to take the public bus. Do you see a pole next to those clothes?

Suddenly we were shocked! There are geckos attached to the pole. I thought it was a real geckos, apparently made of rubber.

We entered Khao San Road from the east. There are also many shops selling clothes here.

We just look and didn’t buy anything.

I really like to take pictures of stores that have interesting lighting like this.

After going through Khao San Road which is bustling with a noise like a disco, we wanted to continue to the Soi Rambuttri road that we passed yesterday. Sounds like rambutan, but it’s not. Soi means ‘alley’.