Our "Gondola" Ride

Boat we took

We took a boat ride down the Chao Phraya River. I think the launch point of our boat was shown in Hangover 2. The boat ride lasted about an hour and a half, but we saw a lot of the city from the boat. We even had the boat to ourselves. I joked with Danae that it was as if we were in Venice and we had our own gondola.

The river was very murky. It resembled a huge mud puddle. It didn't appear dirty, but I probably would not eat any of the fish out of it. The water was also violent. Our boat was rocked by waves all throughout the ride. When other boats sped by us, our driver had to cut the motor so we could ride the their wakes rather barreling through them. The wind blew some of the water on us. Danae had several mouthfuls of river water.

There were many sites along the way, but I don't know what any of them were. Our boat ride was simply that. Plus, our driver didn't speak English anyways and we speak the same amount of Thai. So any historical description would have fallen on deaf ears.

At the last part of our trip, we took a side trip down a small stream. It was a residential area. A lot of the houses were shanty-esk, but they were well maintained. Besides at least they had a home with water access.

I know of at least one Thai who took advantage of his homes' proximity to the water, Ping, the floating market salesman. Sadly I forgot to photograph him. Anyways, he paddled his canoe full of junk to our gondola. He sold us his overpriced beer and soda. Ping was well aware of his monopoly over boat riders down the residential stream who were baking in the Bangkok heat. Ping even thoughtfully suggested that our gondola driver could use a beer. He also gave me some kind of flower fruit that was fantastic (see attached).

All and all, we enjoyed the trip. Below are the photos thereof.

Sent from my iPhone