Jomtien Pattaya to Maeklong Railway Market & Amphawa floating market!
Maeklong and Amphawa are both famous tourist spots in Thailand, but it was hard to figure out how to get there in English from Pattaya, so I am writing how we did our over night wedding anniversary trip to Maeklong and Amphawa from Jomtien Pattaya.
If you want to skip all the hassle and have a private transfer from Jomtien or Pattaya, the cab, Grab or Bolt ride are give or take 2000B
How we did it:
Pattaya-Mochit-Maklong-Amphawa 260B /person
1.) Book online North Pattaya bus terminal – Mochit, Bangkok 150B
we took 9:00 bus from Pattaya
2.) Take a Van from Mochit to Maeklong Railway Market 100B
The van departure time on ticket was 13:00 but the van left at 12:30 (It leaves when it’s full) Arrived at 2:15 just in time for the train arrival at 2:30.
At Mochit2 bus terminal:
Go out of the Mochit bus terminal2 building ->
Go to the road ->
Go on overpass to cross the road ->
Go into Mochit minivan terminal (Building D) ->
Counter 9 sells van tickets to Maeklong railway market for 100B
3.) Take songthaew from Maeklong Railway market Van terminal to Amphawa floating market 10B
There is a time table for the songthaew ride. Which was in Thai and very abstract looking and we didn’t understand, but songtheaw left at 4:00 pm. (2 different drivers tried to tell us the van leaves at 4:00 so I’m pretty confident it’s true. I thought one of the driver were saying it leaves in 4 min at first though lol). I think it’s 10B /ride, but it was obviously a low customer day. We were the only customer aside from one school girl hopping on on the way. The driver asked as for extra 20B, so we paid 40B for two.
So it cost 260B per person from Pattaya to Amphawa! We live in Jomtien so our condo to North Pattaya bus terminal was 120B by Bolt. 640B for two from Jomtien to Amphawa!
Maeklong train time
We arrived at 2:15 at Maeklong to see 2:30 arrival and 3:30 departure train, here is what you want to aim.
| Train Departure | Train Arrival |
| 6:20 | 8:30 |
| 9:00 | 11:10 |
| 11:30 | 14:30 |
| 15:30 | 17:40 |
So if you want to see the train come and go, two times a visit, you’d like to aim to arrive at:
8:15 (to see 8:30 arrival and 9:00 departure)
11:00 (to see 11:10 arrival and 11:30 departure)
14:15 (to see 14:30 arrival and 15:30 departure)
For us, we were satisfied after seeing 14:30 arrival. There is a songthaew ride to go to Amphawa at 16:00 so you can easily see 15:30 departure too.
Our Itinerary Day 1
8:00 Leave Jomtien
8:20 Arrive at North pattaya Bus station (Eat breakfast and coffee time)
9:00-11:15 Bus ride
(went for a walk in Queen Sirikit park; 10 min walk to the entrance from the van terminal)
12:30-14:15 Van ride
14:30 Train arrival at Maeklong Market
15:30 Train leaves at Maeklong Market
16:00 songthaew to Amphawa floating market
16:15 Amphawa floating market
20:00 Firefly watching boat ride from our hotel
If you don’t want to bother with transfers, the cost for one way taxi or Bolt ride is give or take 2000B. I would do that if you are traveling with tighter schedule. We’ve been living in Jomtien for 3 years so there is no hurry for us. This was sabai sabai go with the flow trip.
Our trip inspiration always comes from my favorite Youtuber Maibaru. In her Amphawa episode, she stays at Baanraak Amphawa. So I didn’t even look at other options when I book our trip lol.
It was a nice home stay with pretty decor and delicious breakfast buffet!
How we came back:
Amphawa-Maeklong-Bangkok-Ekkamai-Jomtien
It would have been easy to come back the same way by van, but we decided to take the Thai national rail to get back form Maeklong. This was totally extra, but we took a private boat ride from Amphawa to Maeklong! (since the trip has been so affordable so far…)
1.) Boat ride to Maeklong from Amphawa 600B for two
2.) Maeklong to Bangkok by train 20B / person
(Maeklong – Ban Leam – Maha Chai -Wongwian Yai station)
• Maeklong 11:30 – Ban Laem 12:30 10B
You need to go out of the station, walk a bit, take a boat across the river (3B) to transfer to Maha chai station
• Maha Chai 13:15 – Wongwian Yai 14:15 10B
In Bangkok
3.) Wongwian Yai BTS to Siam BTS (Shopping at Siam area) around 100B for two
There is a 20 min walk from Wongwian Yai rail way station to Wongwian Yai BTS station
4.) Siam to Ekkamai
Klong boat from Siam (Pratunam Pier*) to Ekkamai (Cham Issara) 18B /person
BTS would be the simplest choice but I dislike BTS and love the klong boat so we always choose the long boat.
5.) Cab from Phetchaburi road to Ekkamai bus station 55B for two
6.) Ekkamai-Jomtien Van 180B /person
This is always a gacha option. Sometimes it’s the best ever! and other times it’s very loooooong. One time we came back to Jomtien from Ekkamai in 1 hour 30 min!, this time around though, it took well over 3 hours (Not with traffic. Getting more passengers along the way, driving on Shukumvit and stopping for gas etc).
Transit cost on Day 2 was about 1200B all together but only because we took the private boat ride at Amphawa- Maeklong. It could have been 600B for two
Our Itinerary Day 2
6:00 Give offerings and get blessed by a monk at the hotel
8:00 delicious breakfast buffet
9:30 Check out
(Checked out early to visit Damnoen Saduak Floating Market was the plan, but couldn’t get any Grab or Bolt car so we quickly gave up. Next time!)
9:45 PRIVATE BOAT RIDE!
Boat driver offers us a ride to Maeklong on our way to take songthaew, so we took the offer.
10:25 Arrives at Maeklong by boat
Coffee time! We have a good nose for nice cafes, so found a cute cafe right away at the end of the train track.
11:00 The train ticket sales starts (The window is closed until 11:00)
11:10 Train arrives to the market!
11:30 The train leaves Maeklong to BanLaem station
Arrives Ban Laem station at 12:30
You need to go out of the station, walk a bit, take a boat across the river to transfer to Maha chai station across the river. Maha Chai market and Ban Leam area pricing is excellent! Great place to buy drived fish or fishy snacks! I’d say 3 times cheaper than Pattaya.
13:15 The second train leaves from Maha Chai to Wongwian Yai Station
14:15 Arrives at Wongwain Yai railway station
After that, we went to Siam square for shopping at Central world, took Klong boats to Ekkamai then came back to Jomtien via van.
Perfect place to wait before the train ticket counter opens!
Turned out to be a very romantic and nostalgic chill trip
Why you should go:
1. Super fun (and nice people!!!)
2. Very cheap
3. Very romantic (Firefly watching for 60B!!!!!!)
4. Great place to shop handmade!
I couldn’t believe the pricing sometimes. When we visited Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the firefly watching was not cheap! So when the hotel told me we can join the firefly watching from the hotel for 60 baht each, my mind was blown.
Also, 10B train ride! One hour of train ride for 10B… Amazing.
It’s hard to find anything handmade with soul in Pattaya. There are some but they are North American pricing lol. I was very happy to find a cute handmade basket for 270B and somtam magnate for 20B!
I met this Thai couple at the Amphawa market. My favorite Thai food is Myan (leaf wrap?) and I asked the lady if it’s Myan what I am looking at. She insisted I have them before they are and almost paid for us! We had 1000B bill and only one 20B bill. Luckily the Myan was 20B for two sticks 🙂 But how nice she was almost made me cry!
I guess it will get bit pricey if you miss the Van or train to go back to Bangkok. I was naive to think we can just get Grab or Bolt in the area. There aren’t enough of them to go around.
IF you want to take the van back to Bangkok, you should book it when you arrive from Bangkok at the Maeklong minivan terminal!
I asked the lady that work for the van company for timetable, so here it is:
(It’s a private company so the time could change with amount of tourism and etc. any time, FYI)
5:00 6:00 7:00 8:15 9:00 10:15 12:00 13:15 14:30 15:45