on the move: Thailand - Bangkok day 4

As we didn't get to sleep til 3am (due to a late night coffee and general hyperness) we overslept again. We had breakfast in the hotel for once then went up for the usual morning swim. Today's time in the pool included:
i) a long conversation in the deep end about future haircuts (see future photos) we might sport on our travels.
ii) Adam sitting on the jet stream and a minute later us finding a waterboatman in the pool. Or what we thought was a waterboatman...
iii) who can hold their breath for longest underwater. (AF 18 secs, DG 24 secs, me 30 secs).

As there was no plan for today I suggested a boat ride on the major river in Bangkok - the Chao Phraya River. This had been recommended by the couple in the Jazz bar a few days ago.

We left the hotel just after swim and lunch when all of a sudden it started raining really heavily. Our original plan was to Sky Train it to the end of the line (missing out congestion) then taxi it to the port. Instead we ran to a nearby taxi and told him to take us to the Chao Phraya River. Rat running parallel to the BTS line we then went down a dodgy looking road and could see the river at the end of it. I had intended to go to the built up ports with big boats, not a pot holed road with dogs and a little wooden boat. Anyway we spoke to the boat people who originally quoted 2100baht. I thought this was a barter moment so said 1500baht which was agreed straight away.. So we set off just the 3 of us plus the 'captain'.

The river was a lot more choppy than we thought. We were bumping up and down which made a worrying noise, this was mainly due to the weather but also because of the big tourist boats creating waves. After ten minutes of guessing how far it would take to swim to the bank if the boat broke we turned off the main river and down a smaller one. The next 35mins involved navigating the small canals which was a stark difference from the main river with skyscrapers, bridges and big tourist cruisers. We saw peoples' riverhouses (mainly neglected), the closed night markets, kids swimming in the river and even an aligator/lizard creature. A slight worrying moment was when AF thought he saw a man's head bobbing up and down in the water but fortunately this turned out to be a hairy coconut.

After a quick blast down to the main river we returned to port. We thanked the people but as we didn't have any money for a taxi we had to walk (quickly) through some poor neighbourhoods. We found a MRT station (underground) and headed to the nearest BTS Sky Train station. We got off a few stops down the line and entered a big department store. At the top floor we found the 'Foodloft' which served all sorts of food and drinks. The eating area comprised comfy seats, lots of waiters, lots of water features and a great view of the skyscrapers (hotels, malls and banks), BTS and main road. We reflected how we had seen extreme poverty and were now experiencing such wealth in such a short time.

We Sky Traind back and are now getting ready for tomorrow's early train journey down south to Chumphon.

below: DG holding on for dear life.