Up the river
Bangkok's
roads may be choked with traffic and moving at a snail's pace, but at
least the river provides an alternative way to get around. As we had a
few hours to kill before catching our evening train northwards, we took
a river boat up the river to Nonthaburi, a suburb an hour north of the
centre. The boats operate just like buses, with a regular timetable, and
low fares (10 Baht – 15p for our trip). It was definitely more relaxing
than the only other way to get around Bangkok quickly, which is on the
back of a motorbike (no thanks!). It's also a lot cooler!
As
less tourists make it up this far, we ended up ordering our lunch in sign
language from a street-stall (I used the old "point-and-I'll-have-what-he's-got"
method), and then desert was served up further down the street, as a pineapple
on a stick. These carts are all over town, with a range of freshly cut
fruit laid on a bed of ice. We're not really sure what all the fruit is,
but whenever strayed from pineapple, we've always found it tasty, if a
bit slimey on occasions!Later on we took a taxi to the train station, to catch our train northwards to Nong Khai, the Thai border town on the Mekong, where we’ll be crossing over the Friendship Bridge to Laos.