2006 10 Thailand & Cambodia – Day 10

View from inside the Palace.

Our guide tells us there will be many more people in the afternoon. He assured us that coming in the morning like we did will be less crowded. The whole Palace area is in good condition considering the amount of people that must go through it every day.

View as we walk around the Palace.

Reclining Budda

Our guide during our stay in Bangkok.

After the Grand Palace visit the whole group decides on an extra excursion “Long Tail Boat Ride”. We go for a relaxing trip up and down the river to see how some of the people of Thailand live.

It is much different along the river here than you would see any where in North America. The housing is built right into the river and some of them look like a good wave from our boat could knock them over.

The river is fairly high right now with the rainy season coming near the end. Some of the lower floors of the housing are under water.

One of the local merchants is waiting patiently for our arrival and offers us the many things he has for sale. I don't think he gets a lot of customers through the day but this is what he does.

We stop along the way to feed some frantic fish that almost jump into our boat as we throw food pellets out to them.

Feeding the fish.

But what was really hard to miss is the pollution that is flowing into this river. The raw sewage is just pouring in along many areas of the river. It is not only the air that is bad; the water is in no better shape.