My Adventure to the National Museum

     Hi Everyone!  
 
          Sorry it has taken so long to get back to blogging.  I went through a little blue period.  The ladies I have met here said it's normal and that it's even normal to have a good cry once a week for the first 6 months, so I was long overdue.  Anyway, I am back to normal and back to having adventures!  This week I have had quite a few, and I will begin this blog with how I got to the National Museum in downtown Bangkok with my friend Deb. 

     A little background on Deb.  She is here for only 2 years with her doctor husband.  He works for the World Health Organization.  She has only been here 10 months but is quite an adventurer and loves to trek around the city.  She said that she would teach me how to use the river taxi boats to manuever up the Chao Phraya River to get to the National Museum which is very close to the Grand Palace.  I said "Let's Go!" 

     So After meeting her at the end of the BTS line we walked a short distance to the Central Pier where we were to pick up the orange flag boat.  There are orange, yellow and green flags which stop at different stops and a good map will show you where they stop.  Here we are getting on the boat.

 

as you can see there are a lot of people just waiting to get on these boats.  These runs are very popular. 

 

The water in the river reminds me very much of the Ohio River, kind of brownish looking,"UGH".  I love riding on the river, the wind in my hair!  It is just so fun!!

This is Deb - the adverturer!

This woman walks through the boat shaking her little tube of money which is how she asks for you to pay her for the ticket.  It costs 15 baht to ride the boat which is about 50 cents.  It doesn't matter how long you ride it, 1 stop or all the way up and down the river, it only costs you 15 baht!  What a country!

Here is a tourist buying a ticket from her.  It is on the honor system.  You don't pay as you get on.  You take your seat or stand, and as she comes by and shakes her can you pay her if you haven't already done so.

 

Here is an example of a sign that shows one of the stops.  We were looking for 9 N which meant we were going north on the river and  stop number 9.  If we were going south it would have of course been 9 S.  

 

.

This is a type of boat that you can rent by the hour to go up a "Klong" which is a small river that goes past houses. The Klongs usually don't smell very good, but I still want to try this some day

 

This guy had the most annoying job on the boat. When we came close to a dock he blew is whistle, not once, not twice, but almost constantly to let the driver know where we were in relation to the dock. Which was ok for safety and all, but if you were anywhere near him it was really hard on the ears!!!

 

So this was just the very first part of our day, the next part will be what I saw at the National Museum . . .

Bye for Now   Sawaatee Kha!