Taking in the beautiful Chao Phraya River

Bangkok, Day 8. After quite a busy walking day yesterday, we decided to take things a little bit easier today with a nice, relaxing river cruise on the Chao Phraya River.

So after breakfas,t we hopped on the BTS (light green Sukhumvit line) from Thong Lo to Siam, where we then changed to the dark green Silom BTS line and continued to Saphan Taksin, which takes you right to the Sathorn Pier (also known as Central Pier) where you can get various ferries.

We have noted that when we get to a common tourist area and we look like obvious tourists, we are quite often approached by a gentleman who starts to talk to us - he usually asks where we come from and then tells us a story that has something in common with us, in our case Glasgow or Scotland. The first time it happened (at MBK), we thought it was just someone passing by who was being polite, but when it happened again this time, it sort of came across as someone, perhaps trying to sell us something.

On this occasion we were approached by a smartly dressed gentleman was suggesting we wanted to book the tourist ferry (150 baht or £3.44 each) which would allow us to stop on and off as we wished, but we had already decided that we didn't want to do this (after all the walking the day before) and instead we just wanted to relax on the boat and take in the sights from the river. He did seem a little put off when I said this and left us quite quickly afterwards. So, I'm not sure if he was trying to tout for business or something, but it just seemed a little odd.

River Cruise

The Chao Phraya Express Boat service operates at more than 40 piers along the Chao Phraya River. We purchased our tickets for the yellow flag boat (a public boat used by the locals) at a grand sum of 21 baht (£0.48) each and enjoyed an hour long cruise up the Chao Phraya river to Nonthaburi (stop N30) where we disembarked for a wander and something to eat.

Food Stop

By the time we got off the boat, we were both pretty hangry, so we started to look for a place to have something to eat. Whilst there were lots of places selling food, we were looking for somewhere that had a bit of air conditioning, and a place to sit and eat at a table, rather than on the go or at the side of the road. We were also trying to get a little more out of our comfort zone by going more 'local'.

Well, we certainly found a more authentic type of restaurant, and I decided to stick to something that I was fairly comfortable with, a Hainanese chicken rice dish (Khao Man Gai), whereas R went for a pork dish. The only issue was that he was hoping for just the roast pork part and not the pig's intestines, blood cake and other unusual parts. Needless to say, he didn't finish all of his and was counting the time down afterwards in case there were any 'after effects'. My dish, on the other hand, was very nice, even though the young waitress seemed to find it horrifying/funny when I went to add the wrong sauce onto my dish.

Nonthaburi Market

After we had something to eat, we headed over to the Nonthaburi market and this time it was R that was feeling a little queasy with the goods on offer, though that may have had more to do with his unexpected lunch of piggy innards than the market itself. The market is a two-minute walk east along the main road from the pier. It is best to arrive at the market early though, as seemingly a lot of vendors leave after the morning rush.

It was the same sorts of items as those being sold at the Klong Toei market but at least this one wasn't as maniac or chaotic as that one and there seemed to be more space to walk about without fear of being run over or falling into a bucket of chicken feet.

After a quick wander about the market, we headed back to the pier and took the yellow river boat again for our return journey back to Central pier and then the BTS home again. It was around 15.30hrs by the time we got back home and thankfully we had something in the fridge for dinner, so we didn't need to venture out again that evening.