The boom from Pattaya to Sattahip

During the preparation of an NVP excursion to Bangkok, which culminates in the boom from West Bangkok to the coast, my co-organizer asks if I know the boom of Pattaya.

Of course I went to Bangkok by train. A true ordeal, about thirty stations and 3½ hours journey. I've never done the other way and that in itself is a good reason to travel by train from Pattaya to Sattahip.

On the internet I look for a timetable Pattaya-Sattahip, but this does not work. So I decide to take a chance. I ask a Thai friend to come with me so that we can go to the station by car. To his question how we will get back, I answer: we'll see, there are buses from Sattahip to Pattaya. He doesn't like that. So his younger brother goes along, who, after dropping us off, will drive to Sattahip by car. In retrospect it is of course much more elegant to look for an establishment in the vicinity of the terminal station in Sattahip to satisfy the hunger or to quench the thirst or both, you are spoiled for choice. Then just take the train back.

We will arrive at Pattaya Central Station at 10.00am from Sukhumvit via Soi Siam Country Club. I walk to the ticket office, but am asked to enter because most foreigners order tickets for all train rides here Thailand. I ask what time the train leaves for Sattahip and am told it is 10.35:6 am. Then I want two tickets, I say, how much is this? Six baht. I understand correctly, six Baht for two people for a journey of 0 minutes. I don't bargain. That's three baht per person. I get two tickets. One says XNUMX Baht, the other XNUMX Baht. Apparently I'm taking advantage of a promotional activity.

I take a look around the station, but I can't see anywhere that a train is leaving for Bangkok or Sattahip. However, timetables of all other lines in Thailand. The train to Bangkok leaves at 14.21 pm. One announcement in English: no trains depart on Saturdays and Sundays.

The station master comes out just before the announced departure time. The same man as the one who sold me tickets but now in full regalia, a brown suit and a green flag. We leave exactly on time. With united forces and with loud sighs, the locomotive pulls the long row of wagons. Our arrival is loudly announced at each transition.

It is not busy, there is still one Thai woman in our compartment. Fortunately, she has mobile communication options, because immediately after departure she speaks and does not stop until just before the final station. The first station is Pattaya South. I didn't even know it existed. This is followed by a series of stations, some with well-known names, such as Yangsang Wararam, the site with structures of all religions. Or Nongnooch, the beautiful botanical garden. Here a foreigner gets out with a folding bicycle.

The journey goes through villages and towns, through rice fields and mountains with forests. Actually, it is no less than the boomel in Bangkok. The seventh station is the end. It's called Ban Phlu Ta Luang. We are enthusiastically welcomed by motorcycle taxi drivers, but fortunately also by our driver.

Sattahip is nowhere to be seen, but that doesn't matter, it was all about the train journey. You have to have done it to talk about it.