In addition to visiting the Jim Thompson House Museum yesterday, I also hopped on a boat traveling on the Khlong Saen Saeb, one of the old canals in Bangkok. My goal was to get to the old part of Bangkok called Banglamphu. I got off at an earlier stop than the one I should have taken, so I had to walk a few kilometers to get to my destination. I took a cab back to my hotel since I was not quite sure where to pick up the canal boat on the way back.

Today my plan was to get to the area around the Grand Palace and the nearby temples, and from my travels yesterday I realized I would have difficulty figuring out the local canal boats without being able to read or speak Thai. A woman at my hotel’s reception desk recommended I take the Sky Train to the stop at the Chao Phraya River. There I could catch a “tourist boat” with an English-speaking guide that would stop at all the key tourist spots.

I got off the boat at Wat Pho and spent some time there exploring the complex and taking photos. Then I took a small ferry-boat across the river to get to Wat Arun, “The Temple of Dawn,” where I was able to climb up the tower to take some photos of the Bangkok skyline (see Thurs 6 Nov post).