At the museum there are eight Royal Barges. These boats a reserved for auspicious ceremonies and state occasions like the very rare Royal Barge Procession, and have only made an appearance on the water 16 times in the last 65 years.
Each is carved from huge pieces of teak, their prows engraved with mythical creatures, gilded in gold and intricately decorated with tiny shimmering pieces of glass. Rowed by up to 50 specially trained oarsmen, the boats leave their dry dock at festival times and important state occasions.
The largest and most important vessel named ‘Suphannahonse’ is 46 meters long and needs 50 oarsmen and 14 crew members.
The barges were often damaged or partly destroyed by bombings or fire. They were reconstructed by the King’s order in 1950s and participated in 2500 anniversary of Buddhism.
We came by foot from Phra Pin Klao Bridge #12 – it’sa 10-15mins walk via small very poor streets following the signs. Easy to find, but unpleasant to walk.
Another way – is by long-tail private boat for 1000-1500 baht.
Entry fee is a 100 baht plus another 100 baht if you want to take photos or 200 baht for videos.
Official web site of Chao Phraya express boat in English:
http://www.chaophrayaexpressboat.com/en/services/
Boat root map, fares, timetable
Sathorn (Central Pier)
Lines: tourist, local, orange, yellow, green-yellow, blue
Oriental (N1)
Lines: tourist, local, orange
Si Phaya (N3)
Lines:tourist, local, orange, yellow, green-yellow
Rachawongs (N5)
Lines:tourist, local, orange, yellow, green-yellow
Memorial Bridge/Saphan Phut (N6)
Lines: tourist, local, orange
Rajinee (N7)
Lines: local
Tha Tien (N8)
Lines: tourist, local, orange
Tha Chang (N9)
Lines: local, orange
Maharaj Pier
Reasons to come:
Lines: tourist
Wang Lang (N10)
Lines: tourist, local, orange, yellow, green-yellow, blue
Phra Pin Klao Bridge (N12)
Lines: local, orange, yellow, green-yellow
Phra Arthit (N13)
Lines: tourist, local, orange
King Rama VIII Bridge (N14)
Lines: local line
Thewet (N15)
Lines: local, orange, yellow, green-yellow
Nonthaburi (N30)
Lines: local, orange, yellow, green-yellow, blue
Kiak Kai (N21)
Lines: local, orange
Wat Worachanyawas (S2) and Wat Rajsingkorn (S3)
Lines: local, orange
Some people back in Russian still are worried that we are starving here without traditional food which is not available or very expensive in Thailand. Well, here is our breakfast
Depending on season it can be different. We may have mango, pineapples, passion fruits or other exotic delicious stuff, all fresh and sunny. It’s a good start of a wonderful sunny day, isn’t it?
The same day with Siam Cat Show we visited another event – Flora Blossom by the Sea. The first floor of Airport Plaza was decorated by many sculptures from natural flowers. A huge aquarium with tropical fish was installed at the entrance.
Cat show is a rare event for Thailand. So when such big and well organized cat holiday happens in your city that’s definitely a place to visit!
Like last year the 6th Siam cat show took place in Chiang Mai Hall, Airport Plaza and was sponsored by Royal Canin. There were 12 Rings (6×6 Format) with the best cats and highly professional experts from all over the world.
Some video from the cat show:
You can find more pictures here.
This nice pond with water lilies is located just nearby our house. It’s flourishing beautifully only in the morning. Water lilies open at about midnight but close and hide around 10 am. At midday the pond has nothing remarkable at all.
We couldn’t visit Sam Roi Yot national park without a boat trip. The river runs among mangrove forest between picturesque mountain picks and finally enters the sea.
You can see more photos of landscape taken during our previous visit here
This time we were more interested in dragons (water monitors, lat. Varanus salvator). They can reach a maximum size of 3 m!
National park Sam Roi Yot has several interesting caves. Last year we didn’t had a chance to explore them. This time we visited one cave (not the most famous one with the temple). Though this cave has all the attributes – stalagmites, stalactite and even bats sleeping on the ceiling.
Skytrain web-site offers an interesting opportunity to explore Bangkok by BTS. They offer places to visit not far from the stations. It is convenient taking into account traffic situation in the capital.
We decided to find Six Sacred Hindu Gods around the Chit Lom Station. Here they are:
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti. Brahma has four heads representing the four cardinal directions, symbolizing his ability to see things through and safeguard the world and the heaven. Worshippers admire Brahma for his mercy, his calmness, and his willingness to help. It is believed that paying homage to Brahma would make one’s wishes come true.
It is recommended to pay homage to Brahma in a clock-wise order, beginning from the head facing the entrance, with three sticks of incense, one candle, one garland and one gold foil offered to each head.
Brahma Erawan Shrine is located near Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok Hotel.
Lord Indra is the Lord of Heaven. The dark-jade colored god has one thousand eyes, holds a thunderbolt, and rides the Erawan elephant. Indra is recognized as the god who takes care of humankind.
The Indra Shrine is located in front of Amarin Plaza
The Trimurti is a concept in Hinduism in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver, and Shiva the destroyer or transformer. Four dogs representing the four Vedas (primary texts of Hinduism) and a celestial cow accompany Trimurti as followers. The joining of the three holiest of gods or the Great Trinity made Trimurti the greatest and most powerful of all deities. Trimurti is popular among young people who designate the shrine as the God of Love.
Trimurti shrine is located in front of Isetan Department Store, Central World
Ganesha is known for his fondness of the fine arts and regarded as the remover of obstacles. This well-revered god promotes success and protection from harm. He is also acknowledged as a model of gratefulness. Given these essential attributes he possesses as an able and altruistic god, Ganesha is revered the greatest god of all.
Lord Ganesha monument targeted by BTS is near the Central World Plaza, nearby Trimutri. We found one more statue of Sri Ganesha across the road.
Lord Narayana is regarded as the god of Mercy. Narayana’s mighty display of power deflects evil spirits that may threaten an area, protecting business and providing well-being to worshippers.
The shrine is near Intercontinental Hotel Bangkok
We did not found Lakshmi, the consort of Lord Narayana, but we met the other beautiful Indian shrine.
So it counts as six all together. Mission is accomplished!
This festival is organized every year not far from Hua Hin. It’s funny, spectacular and definitely is worth visiting.
Chinatown now covers a large area around Yaowarat and Charoen Krung Road. There are many small streets and alleys full of shops and vendors selling all types of goods. It has been the main centre for trading by the Chinese community since they moved from their old site some 200 years ago to make way for the construction of Wat Phra Kaew, the Grand Palace. Yaowarat Road is also well known for its variety of food, and at night turns into a large “food street” that draws tourists and locals from all over the city.
Shark fin restaurants are everywhere in Asia. Yes, it’s an ancient tradition; they say it brings you luck… but the price for nature to pay is too high. Unable to properly maneuver without fins, the sharks bleed out and sink to the ocean floor. Over 72 mlns of sharks are killed every year worldwide. Shark populations cannot grow fast enough to sustain this enormous removal each year, which is why sharks numbers have declined so dramatically in recent years.About 1/3 of all shark spices are close to extinction.
Shark fin is singled as particularly destructive because fishermen often hack off sharks’ fins and wastefully chuck their carcasses into the sea.
If you are not deeply rooted in Chinese or Japanese tradition why not try restrain from killing nature and switch your preferences to other delicacies of Asian cuisine? Even in Asia, tide slowly turning against shark fin soup.
River boat in Bangkok is casual public transport popular among local people.
(Roots, rates and schedule can find here: http://www.chaophrayaexpressboat.com/en/home/ )
Also there are boats for tourists which offer tickets for 1 day for about 100 baht. That is convenient for sightseeing. They even have English audio-guide.
For the first time we used river boat in Bangkok to cross Chao Phraya from Wat Pho the Wat Arun (3 baht one way).
This time our goal was the Chinatown. We took a river boat from the pier next to Saphan Taksin BTS station and went to the Ratchawong Pier. Yes, the very same pier where first Chinese immigrants entered Bangkok since the reign of King Rama I. So it was a kind of special – from historical point of view 🙂
Also we enjoyed views of Bangkok all the way. Luxury and poverty intermixed…
