Thursday, August 16, 2012

Is this the world's most dangerous marketplace? The Thai fruit and veg stalls where shoppers have to dodge bustling commuter train eight times a day

This is a market where you have to keep your wits about you - because eight times a day a train comes crashing through.
Just seconds before it is a bustling open-air marketplace like any other with stallholders and shoppers haggling over the price of the produce on sale.
Maeklong Market is in Samut Songkhram, Thailand, around 37 miles west of Bangkok.
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Thai vegetable market vendors pull back awnings and their produce off a railway track to allow a cross-country train to dissect through the middle of the town of Maeklong, in Samut Songkhram
Thai vegetable market vendors pull back awnings and their produce off a railway track to allow a cross-country train to dissect through the middle of the town of Maeklong, in Samut Songkhram
The bustling market, in the middle of the town, has to scramble from the tracks eight times a day as trains pass
The bustling market traders have to scramble from the tracks eight times a day as trains pass
Once the No.4382 commuter train from Mae Klong to Ban Laem has gone, everything goes back to normal - as if nothing happened
Once the No.4382 commuter train from Mae Klong to Ban Laem has gone, everything goes back to normal - as if nothing happened
Every day people sell locally grown fruits such as lychee, durian, and mango, freshly caught seafood, dried spices and peppers, and other local foods.
Locals weave their way in between vendors, picking up whatever they need that day, while tourists curiously marvel at the more unique foods at the market such as fried frog on a stick.
But then, eight times a day, a piercing siren sounds and in a flash the market transforms - the shoppers disappear and the stallholders whip away their produce.
It is such a tight squeeze that the train - appearing to travel at about 15mph - touches the fruits, vegetables and everything else at the marketplace as it passes through.
Once the No.4382 commuter train from Mae Klong to Ban Laem has gone, everything goes back to normal - as if nothing happened.
The train passes through the town, which lies 37 miles west of Bangkok
The train passes through the town, which lies 37 miles west of Bangkok
Tight squeeze: Just seconds before it was a bustling open-air marketplace like any other with stallholders and shoppers haggling over the price of the produce on sale
Tight squeeze: Just seconds before it was a bustling open-air marketplace like any other with stallholders and shoppers haggling over the price of the produce on sale
Locals weave their way in between vendors, picking up whatever they need that day, while tourists curiously marvel at the more unique foods at the market such as fried frog on a stick
Locals weave their way in between vendors, picking up whatever they need that day, while tourists curiously marvel at the more unique foods at the market such as fried frog on a stick


People sell locally grown fruits such as lychee, durian, and mango, freshly caught seafood, dried spices and peppers, and other local foods
People sell locally grown fruits such as lychee, durian, and mango, freshly caught seafood, dried spices and peppers

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