Bangkok & Ratchaburi
Before the roads came, Bangkok was a city of water. Nineteenth-century visitors called it the Venice of the East, and while the capital has long since paved over most of its canals, the klongs of Thonburi on the western bank of the Chao Phraya still carry the old life of the city. The way in is a longtail boat, the slender wooden craft with a car engine mounted on a long propeller shaft that is the workhorse of Thai water. From the pier beside the Grand Palace you swing out across the river, duck through a lock and are suddenly in another Bangkok: teak houses on stilts with their verandas over the water, temples with their steps running down to the canal, children swimming, monks crossing in small boats, and the whole green, shaded, unhurried world of a neighborhood that still faces the water rather than the street.
The canals lead naturally to a floating market, and the most famous is Damnoen Saduak, about sixty miles southwest of the city in Ratchaburi province. By seven in the morning its narrow canal is a jam of wooden paddle boats piled with mangoes, rambutans, coconuts and bundles of herbs, with vendors in straw hats frying noodles and grilling skewers over charcoal on the water itself. It is unabashedly a market for visitors now, but arrive at first light with a private boat and it is still a remarkable sight. Our quieter favorite is Amphawa, a little further south in Samut Songkhram, which comes alive on weekend afternoons: a wooden town along a canal where you eat grilled seafood on the steps, and after dark glide out among the trees to watch the fireflies.
We build this as a full private day, timing the Thonburi canals for the soft light of early morning and sequencing the market so you are on the water before the tour buses arrive, with a guide to find the best boat noodles and explain the river shrines along the way. For travelers short on time, the Thonburi klongs alone make a wonderful two hours from the city center, and for those with a weekend to spare, Amphawa and its fireflies are the version we most love to recommend.
