Bangkok
I just love the Chao Phraya river, by which I live and work. It is wide and usually serene, and it brings gusts of refreshing wind in its wake. At work, I am periodically treated to the sound of short, sharp whistles blown by boatsmen as they approach the nearby pier. At night, we sit out on our 12th floor balcony and watch the splendindly lit skyline and the shimmering water. Barges carrying goods travel up and down the river relentlessly. Tourist boats, decorated with chains of light, meander past.
Travelling by Chao-Phraya boats is not for the faint-hearted. Yet I, faint of heart and incapable of swimming, commute everyday by these. And that is not all. My commute also involves taking a ferry across the river, which is as perilous an exercise as can be imagined. You have to hop on and off a crazily swaying tub of steel that was built circa world war two. I do this because it is a heck of a lot more charming than taking a taxi and spending endless hours stuck in a traffic jam. Besides, you would have to pick a river over a road any time, wouldn't you?
I just love the Chao Phraya river, by which I live and work. It is wide and usually serene, and it brings gusts of refreshing wind in its wake. At work, I am periodically treated to the sound of short, sharp whistles blown by boatsmen as they approach the nearby pier. At night, we sit out on our 12th floor balcony and watch the splendindly lit skyline and the shimmering water. Barges carrying goods travel up and down the river relentlessly. Tourist boats, decorated with chains of light, meander past.
Travelling by Chao-Phraya boats is not for the faint-hearted. Yet I, faint of heart and incapable of swimming, commute everyday by these. And that is not all. My commute also involves taking a ferry across the river, which is as perilous an exercise as can be imagined. You have to hop on and off a crazily swaying tub of steel that was built circa world war two. I do this because it is a heck of a lot more charming than taking a taxi and spending endless hours stuck in a traffic jam. Besides, you would have to pick a river over a road any time, wouldn't you?
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