Transportation on the River

After lunch at the Mandarin, Sam suggested that we should sit and enjoy the view for a bit, to let our digestion move along.

This turned out to be a good idea, especially when we discovered what was to come.

Since we arrived at the restaurant by boat, it only made sense that we should leave the same way. Turns out, it wasn’t the same boat, though.

This time we were riding in a “longtail boat,” named such because the propeller is on a pole about 15 feet behind the boat and the captain steers by “poling” or lifting this out of the water to get the desired direction. They sit very low in the water, like a Venetian Gondola.

But they go much, much faster.

Getting into them is no big thing for the Thai people. Their dimensions are more appropriate for ducking and hopping than we Americans, who tend more to fall, crawl and roll when trying to accomplish these things.

You’re supposed to duck under the fabric rooftop while stepping on the edge of the boat and then down onto the seat or floor. This pre supposes, of course, that one’s backpack of necessities won’t hang on the fabric rooftop, trying to fling you into the water where the swarms of catfish are waiting to eat whatever loose flotsam happens to fall in there.

It’s not a pretty site. We did not become adept at it, although the last time we got out of one we did manage to entertain a group of school children.

After boarding the craft, our captain took off down the main river (which, incidentally runs south 400 km to the Bay of Thailand). Longboats are used as mass transportation and to carry cargo in the evenings, but in the daytime they mostly just carry tourists like us around.

We hadn’t gone but a few minutes down the river when we were stopping at a riverside convenience store. Seems we needed gasoline. We never did get a clear idea of how much gasoline costs here.

Refueled we again headed up the river at a remarkable speed for such a small, tippy craft. They all have floral arrangements and other attributes attached to the bow, kind of like a Statue of St. Christopher.

To protect the travelers, you see. Probably while they’re getting in and out of the boat.