Klong Tour

I was the first of our group at breakfast this morning and had not only a freshly made omelette but also a waffle. Diet won’t start till I get back.

At 10-30, four of us headed to the river to do a tour of the canals (or klongs as they are called.) We had seen a brochure for a tour company, which charged B1400 per person for a similar tour but by hiring a boat directly and splitting the cost it wasn’t much over a quarter of that each. The boat was a long tail, so called because it is driven by a car engine via a long (15-20 foot) drive shaft and propeller.

The river was close to flood levels and in fact some of the buildings we saw seemed to be flooded already. The river itself was quite rough and shortly after we started, the rain came down quite heavily before fining up again. We entered the klongs through a lock since they are some 6 ft or so lower than the water level in the river. While we were waiting a lady in a small boat came up and pestered Jeff to buy a beer for our driver at an inflated price. In the end he got him a soft drink.

Once inside the klongs, the water was quite calm and we had a very enjoyable couple of hours cruising past houses, old and new, fancy and run down as well as numerous temples, lush vegetation and flowers. The pictures describe it better. The people we passed all seemed pretty happy as well, we quite envied them their lifestyle.

We had a drink and a light lunch on the water after our tour before wandering through River city mall for a bit and then heading back to the hotel. I got dropped on the way and bought my golf shoes and some tees.

It was a bit late to fit in a 2 hour massage and I was thinking of going for a swim. However a call from a client with a problem gave me enough to do until that too was off my list.