Boat Ride in Canal

Anyway, back to our last day and a half in Thailand. After getting situated in the hotel Matt managed to pry me away from the room to get me out into the crazy city of Bangkok. Matt and I went looking for a specific store that a member had told us about and it ended up being across town a bit. It was such a blast going blindly into this absurd city and just getting lost in it all. We had each other and that is all that we needed to have fun so we just explored every avenue trying to get to this store that ended up being closed by the time that we got to it. It was hilarious after all our effort to get there! First we walked out of the alley streets that led to our hotel – then we took the sky train – which is exactly what it sounds like it is. After the sky train we roamed the streets and shops for a while and then we got the novel idea of going down to the canal and jumping on a boat there to take us further into the city and closer to the shop that we were trying to get to. It was like walking through this invisible wall when we went from the hopping tourist filled streets to the darker alleyway down the stairs to these boat/ bus looking docks. There was not a tourist in sight. We were in the heart of Bangkok. We jumped onto this already packed boat and it took off. The boat was super long and relatively narrow with the front 2/3 having benches and the back 1/3 having people standing and packed in like sardines.

There was a canopy over the entire boat and as we would go under super low bridges the driver would bring the canopy down super low and Matt and I would have to hunch down because we were so much taller than the rest. And being taller also made it a little trickier hustling into the boat to begin with – we had to duck down under the canopy and down into the boat off the dock at the same time. On the open sides of the boat – between the canopy and the base of the boat – there was a tarp that they would pull up once the boat started going to keep us all from getting soaked as we flew down the canal. It was like being on a mega long ski boat!

Matt and I were sitting in the very front by the driver. The nose of the boat would raise as we’d take off and as we’d hit these massive waves from the other passing boats I swear we would catch air! It was a mad rush crashing through the canals having no idea where we were going or how we were going to get back. It was all an adventure. It was so fun to see this boat filled with people from all walks of life and to know that this was a normal commute for them. THIS was normal! There were kids in school uniforms, men and women in suits from work, people with shopping bags – but absolutely no foreigners – that was the best part. :) Sadly we didn’t take any pictures because Matt didn’t want to stick out more than we already were. He always wanted to be one of them instead of a visitor.