Things to do in Thailand (1) - Amphawa Boat Trip

Having sussed the market and been beaten up in a Thai massage, Sutiya and I decided to take one of the little boat tours on offer.

Our destination wasn't specific, the captain just gave us a local 'tour' of a few close by destinations. The boat makes two or three stops along the huge river, and you get the chance to wander around a couple of local points of interest (if possible, take a Thai person with, unless you speak and read Thai) plus, you get the opportunity to chill out on the boat and take in the atmos.

Couple of very strange places we visited, the two that stand out were the first boat stop, which after a little walking we came across dozens of mock Thai warriors, who stand in pairs and all are locked in some kind of mortal muay thai / martial arts battle. Not sure of their significance, I guess the models show Thai combatant 'trainees' how to form the various shapes and moves required whilst partaking in a bit of 'ass kicking', so possibly they are training models of some sort........

And the second (sorry I don't know the names) was towards the end of the tour, the place housed a little market, beyond which lay a massive tree (it is, in fact cleverly made to look like a tree, but is actually a building 'disguised' by lots of creepers and climber plants which are thick enough they look like branches).

Inside the tree building is a large old Buddha, and visitors are free to walk up steps behind the Buddha and place gold leaf and say prayers etc.

Different boat tours drop you off at different points, and there are lots of other destinations, so if you want to be more specific check where you are heading with the captain.

It's nice sitting on the boat, looking at the river houses en route and spotting various lizards and wildlife lurking in the undergrowth and the river. The boat trip is great way to 'take a weight off', and whilst speeding along the captain is quite likely to whip up some wind and water, so it's a lovely cool oasis away from the heat on land.

I think we paid 100 baht each for an hour and a half boat ride, three stops, so not too terrible, and well worth it just for the 'chill' factor.

Comments

[dannyboy]

Looks flaming awesome. Good you are getting some time off. Looking at the amount of work thats been going on the Pornchai site you must be pretty busy. Oh, and like the pirate stats window as well.

[Ben Shingleton]

Yep - The Pirate Stats are all true, honest. And the boat trip was actually last November - only just got round to blogging about it. At the time, we were working near Amphawa and had 2-3 hrs to kill (social time fitting around work time type deal, which you get used to after a bit)

[naenae]

While you were visiting Amphawa, did you guys checked out the firefly along the river? They were really pretty.

[Ben Shingleton]

Hi Naenae, we went to Amphawa over Loy Krathong last year, so during the evening the river was beautifully lit up with everyone's little candle boats (consequently didnt see any firefly)

http://thethaipirate.typepad.com/thailand/2008/11/loy-krathong-festival-and-on-seeing-the-princess.html

It was a pretty amazing evening, as we saw the Princess Sirindhorn as well.

[boats accessories]

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