Day 12: Wed 27th Oct 2010 - Bangkok

To make up for yesterdays failed attempt to go on a boat trip up the river we set out early for a second attempt. We discovered there was a pier further south which tour boats started and decided that would be a better starting point than our local excuse for a pier. With this being our last day in Bangkok we knew there was one mode of transport we still needed to try. We had seen the crazy driving they do from the pavement and we had been offered their services every few minutes since being in the city. I haggled briefly with the driver and once I'd more than halved his original price we boarded his tuk tuk. The journey was pretty fun and didn't feel as dangerous as they looked. However we did do a fair amount of driving on the wrong side of the road. I certainly think Boris should consider rolling them out in London.

 

The cruise up the river was very pleasant as the sun had decided to come out and light up all of the buildings nicely. We couldn't be bothered to wait for the boat which had the commentary so we didn't know what most of the things we were looking at were but they all seemed very nice. Once we had been on-board for about 30-40 minutes the interesting looking buildings seemed to run out so we jumped off at the next stop.

Luckily I think we had probably got off at one of the most unique of all the piers along the river. I noticed as we were pulling up there seemed to be a lot of fish in the water around the pier. Now when I say a lot of fish I don't mean 10 or 20 or even 100, there were literally thousands of them all clustered together just swimming against the flow of the river with enough power to stay in the same place. I found it really strange how they all just hung out there when there was a whole river and their disposal. As we left the pier I found it really strange that in the path that leads to the road there were loads of people selling shredded bread crusts and it didn't click until we went back to the pier and I saw that people were buying the bread to feed the fish. For 20-30 pence you could buy a whole carrier bag of crusts to throw in the water and a fair number of people were buying. When I hand full hit the water the fish would go ballistic for about 10 seconds all trying to get a scrap. They would flap about in the water so much that anyone near the water would get soaked. Once the fish had been thoroughly watched we got on a boat and headed back down the river to where we started then headed back to the hostel.

Our few days in Bangkok were all but over now and we boarded a sleeper train to southern Thailand to do some island hopping. The sleeper train was new to both of us and although it shows signs of age it seems pretty good. You get a bed made up with fresh sheets, blanket, pillow and curtain, and the air con blows at a good temperature all night. I say it blows at a good temperature but this is just a guess. I was pretty cold laying in my shorts and t shirt as I had to lay on top of my blanket which I was using to soak up the half can of beer I'd spilt all over the sheets.

 

I've really enjoyed Bangkok even though it doesn't feel like I did a huge amount during my stay. It's such an intense city to visit and I think when you're not used to it it can be hard to get a lot done. Many of the different sights to see seem so spread out and a vast amount of the city isn't connected by the metro system which makes it tough for first timers. I will be heading back to Bangkok on several occasions before I head home and I'm already looking forward to coming back and seeing more of the city.