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Published: November 16th 2006
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Very pleased with myself today as I manage to navigate the river ferry system and get myself where I want to be without getting lost once! It didn’t feel too promising at the beginning. I took the free hotel shuttle to the other side of the river and walked to the pier for the public boat - that bit went ok, apart from the constant shouts from taxi and tuk-tuk drivers to use them instead. When I got to the pier though I didn’t know which bit I needed to be on. Nobody spoke English and all the signs were in thai! A man kept telling everyone to go to one side of the pier but I had a feeling that I needed to be at the other side for where I wanted to go. When a boat came in I thought I’ll try saying the name of the pier I want to get to in thai and hopefully they will understand me. It worked, and it was the pier I thought I should go from. The boats are a bit scary at first. Where you get on there are no railings or anything, just the flat part of the boat
and then the river, and obviously the boat is moving side to side and up and down. Its probably best to just go for it and stride on, but that’s easier said than done when a bigger gap keeps appearing between you and the boat. I suppose I’ll get used to it! I’ve decided to stay in Bangkok for one month so that I can do the whole thai massage course. The first 5 days is the basic course, then there is an advanced 5 days and a 5 day reflexology course. I might as well do it all whilst I’m here. Then I’ll have a week of sightseeing as well, I should be an expert at getting on and off boats by then!. The river boat is really good too, you get a good view of Bangkok. I think one day I’ll just stay on and do all the stops. Back to this trip - I'd counted how many stops it was to the one where I needed to get off, but it didn’t stop at every one! Managed to get the right one though, but there are no signs to the temple that I need to get to.
So I just start walking. The trip from the pier is interesting (not sure if that really is the right word!) in itself. First, as soon as you get off the boat, you have to walk along two planks that are placed side by side balanced on top of boxes at each end. There are only the two planks for everyone - coming in both directions. To add to this they have plastic water bottles hanging from the corrugated roof over the walkway. At the end of this there are lots of stalls, mainly selling food, and it stinks. The air is thick with the strong smell of dried fish! At the end of the road is the temple - I’ve found it. Ok I’ve found it but I can't actually find where to get in. My thinking is that if I try and walk all the way around I’ll eventually find an entrance. I do. I have a good look around and take some photographs of the huge reclining Buddha, it’s amazing. When I first got to the temple and started looking around I was thinking about booking a trip to tour the main temples as I wasn’t sure
what I was looking at or anything about them. By the end though I felt ok, and that I had seen everything. I found the massage place too, although whether I’ll be able to find it again is another thing entirely. I think I’ll have to set off early when I’m doing the course. Manage to find my way back ok too. I have a late lunch then at the hotel bistro that overlooks the river. I could just sit here all day and watch the activity on the river. It’s fascinating, very busy with all shapes and sizes of boats that appear to just point in a direction and hope that the tide will get them where they want to go!
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