Monday on the river

So yesterday our plan was to break away from the group and see some sights. Dick and John had borrowed our Frommer's Sunday night and they suggested a trip to Ko Kret, a small island in the river at the end of the Express boat line. We also met the two final members of the Bhutan group, Cathy and Michelle. We all met at the Amari Hotel and took the train to the boat pier as we did on Saturday afternoon. The rest of the group was going to get off and wander around a few neighborhoods.

The boat fare is a flat rate for any distance and we rode to the end of the line - over an hour upstream. We expected this would be the pier at Ko Kret, but instead we had to take one of the long tailed boats. For BT 1600 we had the boat for 3 hours. This is a good deal as they are usually BT800 an hour. We negotiated a stop for lunch and a stop at one of the potteries on Ko Kret.

This is a picture of the express boat coming into the pier (see Saturday). The guy in the orange shirt has just jumped ashore with the rope. Note the gap. We saw some people running for the boat where we got off in the afternoon. Tourists thinking the boat would wait for them. Not these guys. You have to be on the platform to get off and on the pier to get on. Fast!

There is a lot of contrast along the river. Note the high-rise behind the houses right on the river.

Man and his family feeding the fish on the pier where we got the long tail.

The stop for lunch was at a restaurant on the river where no one on the staff spoke English, but they found a young woman who could translate our desire that everything they served be cooked. And we did not want ice in our beer. We ended up with an interesting dish with shrimp over rice (which is being served in this picture), tom yum goong (lemon grass soup) and pan fried fish.

We also had a great view of a young man out on the river with a jet ski - doing back flips with it. Sometimes he was successful and sometimes he went headfirst into the water. Keep in mind that the river is flooding. I tried to get a picture, but he was too fast. Should have shot a video. You can just see him behind the long tail - under the canvas roof.

Here's a shot of the engine on the long tailed boat. As you can see, these are old car or truck engines with a long propeller shaft - the long tail - and the driver steers by rotating the whole engine. As near as I could see.

When we got to Ko Kret we explored a small pottery museum that was part of the wat or temple. The terra cotta has very intricate carving that's hard to capture.

And a young monk taking a nap.

This wat had a very impressive Buddha.

According to our guide on Sunday, there are over 40,000 temples in Thailand. We lost count of the ones just along the river. I jokingly asked Dick if he had calculated the wats per mile. He said he was thinking maybe 7-8 (an exaggeration) but did not have a wat meter. groan.

We tried to get to one of the potteries, but both streets were flooded. The road runs along the outside of the island and the river is so high that it's under about a foot of water. Too bad.

There was a very impressive Buddha on the opposite side of the canal from the island. Note the telephone pole lower right.

One thing we noticed with the high water. Many houses have constructed a sort of wier (see the sticks. Others used empty bottles as floats to perhaps support a net we could not see) to trap fish.

Michael has caught a cold and at about 3 he decided he wanted to head back to the hotel. Dick and John were going to try to do a walking tour of old Bangkok. I decided to join them, so after an amusing interchange with a couple of tuk tuk drivers who thought we were 1) crazy to walk and 2) mean to put Michael in a cab rather than a tuk tuk, we set off. After a brief stop for beer (Dick) and ice cream (John and me), we walked along a few streets, read a few signs, and got to the Golden Mount after it was closed.

At that point it was 6 PM and time to head home. 10 km took about 45 min in Bangkok traffic, but at least it was air conditioned. BT117 - about $4. Try that in NY.