Riding the Chao Praya Express Boat

[khiemtran]

One of the best ways to see the sights of Bangkok, especially the spectacular temples in Rattanakosin and Thonburi, is to catch one of the express boats on the Chao Praya River.



The system is very simple. The express boats will have each have a coloured flag on them, indicating their route. At each of the piers, there will be a collection of flags showing the boats that will stop there. This one is Sathorn, where you can change between the river boats and the BTS Skytrain.



(Note that the Thai script actually reads "Sathor", so this is one example where having the romanized script is still very useful. On the other hand, at least the Thai script tells you which tones to use.)

Sometimes a pier may have more than one pontoon where the boats can stop, so it pays to check first that you're waiting on the right one - otherwise, you might have to quickly dash across the right pontoon as the boat pulls up. Also note that since lots of passengers will be tourists, a crowd of people waiting on one pontoon is no guarantee that there won't be a sudden mad rush to get across to another when the incoming boat charges in to that one instead. Also note that there are lots of other boats that use the same piers, including some on private charters, so even if everyone else seems to know what they're doing, it's still no guarantee that they're going the same place that you want to.



Once you're sure you've got the right boat, just jump aboard...



The driver sits at the very front... They do an impressive job of negotiating the apparent chaos of the river.



Before long, an attendant will walk by with a small metal cylinder containing coins and tickets. They'll shake the container as they go, to let you know it's time to buy a ticket. On the Orange-flagged boats, the fare is fifteen baht, regardless of distance. If you're not familiar with Thai clipped consonants, it may sound like the attendants are saying "one fifty", but they're actually saying "one [ticket], fifteen [baht]".

When the weather is bad, plastic screens can be pulled down to block the rain.



The downside of this is that it's very hard to see which stop is coming up next, so make sure you pay close attention to each stop. Quite often, no one will call out the stop names.



When the weather is good, the boat ride provides an excellent view of the river sights...



And the other marine traffic...





These are the famous "long-tails", which you can hire for a lot more than 15 baht. They make a lot of noise and splash up a lot of water, but the express boats seem to be just as fast at getting from A to B.



Depending on the stop, embarking and disembarking may also involve getting wet feet - note how the passengers are carrying their shoes.



And where has the boat taken us? Well, first up, it's Wat Pho...

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It's like you're riding on fabulous insects--like fancy water striders.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Insects is about right. You can't really see it from these pictures, but the river traffic was going in all directions at once: huge trains of barges heading up and downstream; express boats and ferries zig-zagging from bank to bank; long tails taking tourists on sightseeing trips; and local ferries that just shuttled back and forth crossways.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Ha! I remember the whole, "are we on the right pontoon!?" question, and yeah, lots of tourists does not the right pontoon make. :P

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it must amuse the boat crews greatly to see the farangs scurry as they pull up...