TAKE ME TO THE RIVER

Last Sunday, we took a family cruise on the Chao Phraya River and a couple of khlongs (canals). It was an interesting look at life in Bangkok on the water.

We started out at the Tha Chang Pier near the Grand Palace. The pier is home to a bunch of restaurants, food stalls and souvenir shops. It is also a place where you are going to get endlessly harassed by would-be entrepreneurs trying to get you go on a river cruise. A lot of these are scams and we preferred just to locate the boats ourselves and take care of business there, instead of relying on some unnecessary guide.



It didn't take us long to find the boats - they were right on the river and surrounded by another over-anxious group of proprieters. We asked how much the tour was and they showed us a price list that indicated a charge of 1500 baht apiece. There were four of us, so that would total around $150. We said thanks but no thanks and started to walk away.

Then the boat owners started to negotiate: "Babies go free! Babies go free!" they screamed. We didn't want to point out that our "babies" were eight and five, but we were starting see how this was going to work. Still at 3000 baht ($75), the price was way too steep for a one hour river cruise. We started to walk away again.

"1500 for everyone!" they shouted. "No thanks," we replied.

"1000! 1000!" was the next offer. That price ($25) seemed reasonable and was $125 less than the original quote, so we felt that we had at least won and experienced the joys of bartering at the same time. Something tells me we could have talked them down even more, but 1000 baht seemed fair enough.



So we got in the boat and asked them for life jackets. This did not seem like an odd request as most boat rides I have been on have required this most basic item of water safety, but our crew (one guy and 2 kids) didn't seem to know what we were talking about, despite the small sign in the boat indicating that you are welcome to request a life jacket if you should so desire one.



I would have felt better with life jackets, but honestly, if our boat capsized we would probably all die of malaria anyway. That's because Chao Phraya River is pretty polluted. The last time I saw a body of water this brown, Augustus Gloop was falling into Willy Wonka's chocolate river.

The river kind of stinks too. I definately wouldn't want to swim in it or eat a fish that was caught in it, although I did see people doing both things on this trip.

This is mainly a sight seeing venture. I think a guide was available, but I didn't have the energy to barter for one.

Some of the things you see at first include the Rama VIII bridge and downtown Bangkok:



Later, when you enter Klong Bang Khu Wiang, Khlong Bang Yai and Khlong Mon, you can see things like a floating market:



Floating foodstalls:



Different Thai style homes:





And a fish farm:



I'm not really sure what a fish farm is, but to me it appeared to be large conglomeration of fish that get whipped into a frenzy when you throw bread in the water. One of the kids on our boat threw in an entire unsliced loaf and the fish had it submerged and eaten within five seconds.

Towards the end of the trip I did see another boat that supplied life jackets, but apparently only for adults.



This is just another display of the warped set of safety standards here in Bangkok, a place where infants riding on the backs of motorcycles with no protection is commonplace.

We finished up with a quick pass by Wat Arun (for more info on that, read my first "Houses of the Holy" entry from back in July).



Overall, this was a fun trip and worth doing at least once (although not twice). It would probably be pretty amazing if the river was crystal clear.