A River Runs Through It, Bangkok

By : Tropical Tramp
At : Bali Advertiser, Sept 30th 2006








Every time I go to Bangkok, I get a dreamy longing to live in a house on a canal, my boat tucked out of the weather under a falling down pear. Even the meanest waterside shed sparks envy, although I appreciate, too, the mensions and trim gardens behind personal stone quays.

“How much for that water-logged palace there? I want to ask someone. Surely something can be done to keep the house from sinking into the mire. I get the same sort of urge when I see the Missisipi. I want to live on a houseboat lazily, a couple af trotlines over the side.

There is no getting around it, you,ve got to see the river from the river to get any flavor of old Bangkok, but you can feel a bit of and idiot sitting three to a long-tail boat made for twenty, especislly when your boatman keeps pointing out the most ordinary sights. Ours kept pulling into the concrete banks and shouting about anything up in trees…a mango, a jackfruit, a durian. Maybe he was mad, which at least would have added some colour.

Nonetheless, the tours are the easiest thing to latch onto when you’ve a family in tow. Save for another time prowling around for unemployed waterman. We booked our boat at the Shapan Taksin Skytrain Station at a booth at the head of the stairs going down to the Sathorn Pier – price per person, 750 Thai baht. It probably doesn’t matter where you book; they’ll take you on the same loop of canal on the thonburi side of The Chao Praya River.

Five years ago I booked a canal tour from a different pier and had the same two hour-run, turning off the river at the Royal Navy headquarters and the old fort, meandering around in the back canals for an hour and then coming out by the sheds of The Royal Barge Museum, Possibly the same two old ladies in skiffs pulled up the excact same point to sell cold drinks and trinkets.

The more economical and practical way to see the river is to jump on the commuter boats that stop at almost every pier along the river. Before the Skytrain and MRT they were the fastest way to get anywhere in traffic-clogged Bangkok, and they still are the most enjoyable. We hopped on again at Sathron Pier outside the Saphan Taksin Skytrain Station – the only intersection of the old and new transport systems – and rode to the other end of the commuter boat line at Nonthaburi, on the outskirts of the northern Bangkok. Compared with what we paid for the canal tour, the 11-13 THB we paid for a one-way ticket was a steal. Don’t fall for paying the 100 THB for a one-day pass on the Express Boat for tourists. It’s no more economical than the 100-THB day pass on the trains, and you’ll have more fun for less on the boats everyone else rides.

Nonthaburi, at the end of the line from Sathorn, is a small market town famous for it durian. If you’ve only got a few days in Thailand on a visa run, it’ll give you a chance to see something besides Bangkok. The hour-and-a-half ride from The Sathorn Pier is almost always eventful. Our river run was interrupted by practices for the barge procession in honor of The King’s anniversary on the throne, and it was fun to watch the life along and in the river.

Old Bangkok hands will ridicule me for not taking the commuter boats still running through the remnants of the old canal system, but have they ever ridden with a mad Thai gondolier?

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