20 Weeks RTW: Thursday, Mar. 16 (week 8 / day 53) Bangkok, Thailand

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Thursday, Mar. 16 (week 8 / day 53) Bangkok, Thailand

One Night in Bangkok

We made it!

smoothies at 2am in the Bangkok airport

waiting our turn to sign up for taxis

Long Boat Tour

After we slept from about 4-9am, we got up & got food at the market under our huge apartment complex, made breakfast burritos & headed out on the town. We used 5 different methods of travel today: regular taxis down to the pier, long boat on the Chao Phraya River, walk through China Town, tuk tuk to the transit center & then subway back to our apartment. It was a first for many of our kids on either a taxi or subway, and obviously a first for all on a tuk tuk. The long boat tour took us up the river & around a canal to see temples, palaces & common houses with lots of cloths hung out to dry. We stopped alongside another boat with a man selling souvenirs. We didn't really want to buy anything but the man's persistence led us to get a set of small doll key chains dressed in traditional Thai clothing (not the red hat). Cannon wanted an expensive wooden elephant but we said no. As we pulled away he handed Cannon a toy elephant magnet & said he has a boy at home too (feeling bad our boy was ending up with a girl on a keychain)!
The canal tour was very interesting. We saw big condo high-rises and Wats and other nice buildings along the river but when we turned on the canal there are all these houses built over the water on poles or stilt like things. There were lots of nice looking ones along with lots of very poor looking houses. Quite a mixture.
We were surprised at how dirty the water is. We were all really hoping not to tip over in it! Even the splash of it on us kind of grossed Stacia out. We were doubly worried about falling in when we saw a huge lizard (or was it a small alligator) on the side of the canal and watched it slip into the water.
The river is very busy with a big variety of boats. Lots of small long boats, bigger tour boats, dinner cruise boats, water taxis, tug boats, and large barges. It really is used as a mode of transport, not just leisure.