The web of canals angling off from the Chao Phraya River’s west bank provides a marvelously relaxing, waterborne way of seeing how people live, worship and market their wares away from the chaos of east-bank Bangkok.

The usual conveyance is a "long-tailed boat" --- a narrow, high-prowed affair some 20 feet long, powered by a cast-off automobile engine driving a long propeller shaft. It can carry a dozen or more people, but if you prefer sighteeing at your own pace, and escpecially if you’re a serious photographer, forget group tours and charter your own. I forget what my cruise cost, but it couldn’t have been more than U.S. $5 plus a liter of beer for the driver. Though he spoke no English, he obviously had a great deal of experience piloting photographers: Responding just to hand signals, he’d position the boat for exactly the right sun angle and composition.

Leaving from the boat dock near the Grand Palace or one of the riverfront hotels, most drivers stop in front of Wat Arun ---"Temple of the Dawn" --- before entering the canals. "Temple of the Dawn" is an apt name for this popular attraction, because it’s best admired and photographed in early morning sunlight. Photos made late in the day will be hopelessly backlighted; despite the skipper’s best effort to find me a good camera angle, my own photo needed considerable retouching to even be publishable.

Once inside the canals, photography become pure fun. Waterfront temples ... communities ... people: I’d stand in the bow, playing Cecil B. DeMille with gestures to the driver, and shoot away. When women from a canal-side store paddled out to meet us with refreshments, I spent a dollar or two buying a liter of beer for the him and some pop for two teenage boys who hitched a ride on our stern while they were swimming.

I’d paid the driver for an hour but he stayed out at least an hour and a half. This is a low-energy change-of-pace tour that I’d heartily recommend. I hope you get a driver like the one I had.

We took about a one hour longtail boat ride of the klongs (canals) of Bangkok. The canal system is made of the Chao Praya River and a large system of side canals. The river is quite brown and given the level of air pollution in Bangkok, I don’t even want to think about what may be in the river. Note: don’t smile too much on the trip – you don’t want to get water splashed in your mouth!

The tour that we took was a large circle around the old capital city of Thonburi, which was the third capitol of Thailand. The area grew and grew and eventually became the Bangkok of today. We saw a fascinating combination of more expensive homes and corrugated metal or wood shacks all mixed together on the banks of the canal. Some of the homes were raised on stilts in or partially in the water. The one thing all the homes had in common was the large number of plants and flowers the homeowners grew on their porches and windowsills. I saw this all over Thailand – where we would put out one plant in a clay pot, the Thai people put out 30. There are these beautiful clay pot gardens on sidewalks, balconies, porches, everywhere. Sometimes there were very large clay pots filled with water and lilies or other water plant - sort of mini ponds. Fabulous.

The majority of boats in the canals held tourists. There were also Thai people in their own small boats. Some were fishing and some were selling things. On the main part of the river there is a system of river taxis. There are a number of piers along the river and you can catch a taxi at any pier. It is cheaper to travel this way than to take the bus, and you avoid the traffic problems that are inevitable on the street.