The SteemFest trip was over 1.5 weeks ago, but I've still got soooo much footage and pictures and stories!
In this video, I share our experience with riding the ferry in Bangkok and exploring the massive Chatuchak Market.
The ferry ride was a lot of fun. It's amazing to me that local residents get to hop on Disneyland Jungle Cruise boats as part of everyday life. Canals run throughout the city and provide ferry occupants with routes that are unhindered by stop lights or traffic. Depending on where you want to go, it's quite possible that you can reach your destination much faster and way cheaper by taking a ferry!
Piers along the canals act as "bus stops". By hanging out at a pier, it's only a matter of time before the next ferry shows up. If the ferry is going the wrong direction, just wait a little longer and a ferry will come speeding up the other way.
Once the ferry pulls up, people are scrambling on and off the boat. There's not much in the way of safety precautions from what I can tell. You'll just have to take extra care to not get a foot or hand stuck between the boat and the pier...or pushed into the water! But assuming you safely cram yourself into the crowded boat, it's a pretty amazing experience.
You see the city from an entirely different perspective. As your boat makes its way through the water, you have an opportunity to gaze upon bridges, walkways, and homes. The houses I saw flying by were dirty or falling apart. The word "poverty" came to mind, and yet what I found interesting is that when I looked at the people, I don't think of the word "poor". Most of the people we saw appeared to be happy, hard working, enterprising, or a combination of all three. I didn't really see many people just shuffling about in hopeless misery. In fact, it was the opposite.
The Thai attitude and work ethic is something the entire world could learn from.
Eventually, we found ourselves at the largest street market in Thailand: The Chatuchak Market!
It's HUGE! We walked and walked and walked and walked.
We saw clothing. We saw household items. We saw food. We saw gifts. We saw endless stalls of endless merchandise. We even saw an amazing assortment of exotic animals like monkeys, meerkats, flying squirrel things, and things I didn't know the names for.
There was no way we were going to be able to see everything in one day. It was hot and humid, but it was still well worth the trip! I'm glad we had a chance to check it out!
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