One of my favorite bits of my stay in Bangkok was a longboat ride through some of the city's canals. I did basically no research about the city or the country before we went, so I didn't know about the canals until we got on the boat and headed up river. But, turns out that there is a large network of canals that spider throughout the city, connecting all corners to the big slow river that the city straddles. And, while the streets are crazed and crowded, the canals are downright placid. Aside from boats full of tourists, there were only a handful of locals scooting around in little skiffs.
It's a completely different side of the city.
Practically idyllic, by comparison.
The open air and sunlight make a good place for growing plants:
... or for putting up art galleries:
And the canals are home to thousands of catfish which hang around waiting for people to feed them.
It's good luck (or so the signs all say, in English) to feed the fish. And so there are people who make a living selling fish pellets.
And then there are the monitor lizards who lounge around on the banks of the canal, menacing anyone who gets close:
A bit of nature, in the middle of a city of more than 6M people.
Cities with canals are the greatest. When we were in Amsterdam I didn’t like riding the boat on the canals that much, but walking next to them and sitting on the side was my favorite.
Very interesting!
That lizard is terrifying.
that was the biggest one we saw – must’ve been 6′ long. saw lots and lots of smaller ones, but only in the canals. they’d get squished if they ever tried to navigate the streets.