I thought I should checkout the khlongs or canals of Bangkok. You only live once and I saw the long boats wizz past Jim Thompson’s house yesterday. Basically once you find the wharf you wait for the long boat to turn up and jump in very quickly, they don’t stop for long, although they tend to wait until people are on board safely. A boy walks along the edge of the long boat collecting fares, however he somehow missed me. I couldn’t chase after him to pay the boats are packed and the engine is noisy. I stand out like a golden buddha on a boat full of Thai’s.
A Khlong
I was headed to the Golden Mount (yes thats what it is called). Of course a friendly helpful local told me it was closed and he could take me to a better temple. I politely declined his help as this is a common scam. Quite how anyone falls for this i’m not sure, but it must work or else they’d find another way to scam people. The Golden Mount was open for mounting. The Golden Mount is a man made hill with a temple, that was built from the dirt dug out for the canals. Of course it was to be much bigger, but Kings tend to not be engineers and the idea of building bigger soon became difficult as it sank. so they stabilised it and left it at its current size which is still quite big and visible on the Bangkok skyline. Also quite cheap to get in and no compulsory tours, just a lot of tiny steps to get to the top to see a golden stupa and city views.
At the top the Golden mount
I walked back down and past the khlong wharf were my helpful friend assured me the golden mount should have been closed but he can take me to another temple. I told him to stop lying and I kept walking. It was almost lunchtime and the best way i’ve found to find places to eat is to look in the Lonely Planet guide and find a restaurant nearby. Go to the location on the map and find another restaurant, it will invariably be better and cheaper than the hyped up LP one.
The issue is the chicken noodles with drink for $3 is a bargain, but not so good for my waste line. Then again the Bhutanese 8 course lunches and dinners also played a part in that. The good thing is my t shirt had dried up from sweat but it stunk. I caught the khlong boat back and paid my 10 Baht (33 cents). I also found my lucky dragon made of fake jade resin! Looks good and cost very little. Maybe i need some lucky elephants, all the store vendors tell me I need lucky elephants!