Thailand - Day 7 cont, Klong tour.

 From the temple we walked to the pier to catch the 'Long tailed boat" for the "Klong (canal) tour".

We were all hurrying along the crowded sidewalks, trying to keep Ammy in sight, when she suddenly stopped and bought some of these "pancakes" for us to try.

 This was not the first time that she had bought us street food to try. It is all part of learning the culture and everyday life of the country. We all got to try a couple of these mostly sweet but just a little sour, snacks. Later she sent us an explanation:

We piled into the boat, not the easiest thing to do as the river water was surprisingly rough,

and crossed into the narrow entrance into the canal system.

This is Bangkok, behind the scenes,

not fancy, no gold, not teaming with tourists. This is shacks on stilts, people hanging out their laundry or doing their dishes as the water flows by, and under their houses. Old people, children, young people, a vibrant community and many of them stopped and smiled and waved as we motored past.

It was also full of wildlife. When our driver realized we were interested in the Water Monitors he looked for them and slowed down so we could take pictures.

Plenty of Great Egrets and

Cattle Egrets.

We were passed by other boats, some empty, some loaded with tourists.

It wasn't just shacks on the banks. This was a huge Buddha, under scaffolding.

Temples

with their own docks

and piers.

Upscale homes.

We stopped at the area that had been the floating market, now an area of restaurants and coffee shops. A pity, I would like to have seen people buying produce from the boats.

Here, for some reason, we stopped and fed the fish. Rainbow coloured corn puffs and the huge fish swirled and fought with each other for them, sometimes splashing us.

We continued along the canals, sometimes making complicated 90 degree turns and carefully passing boats going in the other direction.

Back out into the choppy river

we were taken

to another pier

and from there we walked to where the minibuses picked us up and took us back to the hotel.