Chatuchak and Chao Phraya boat ride - Friso Go Explore! Bangkok With Children Day 4

Last day of our Bangkok trip! Although it is a short trip, we have covered the activities that our children would like to experience. We did not cover visiting to traditional places at Bangkok like the famous Wat's and Grand Palace as they decided not to go. At their age of 5 and 7 years old at this time of visiting Bangkok, they have no interest in such attractions.

On the second day when arranging their clohes, I asked 姐姐 what she wanted to wear. I brought along her 2 batik dresses for hot places. She decided right away, she said "I will wear the orange dress to Safari World and red dress to the market. If I wear red dress to Safari World, later the bull will chase me". Hahahaha!

Leisurely breakfast at last today (but 爸爸 did not want to take photo for me :p). We took the BTS from Siam BTS station to visit Chatuchak Weekend Market. From Siam to Mochit (these are the BTS station names), a convenient single ride of about 15 minutes, we don't even have to change stations. Still have to pay for 弟弟 as he is over the 90cm limit for free ride. From Mochit BTS station, it's a short 5 minutes walk through Chatuchak Park to the Chatuchak Weekend Market (爸爸 say follow the crowd, everyone's going to the Weekend Market anyway).

Chatuchak Park and Chatuchak Weekend Market.
The top right photo is taken opposite Novotel Siam Square. 弟弟 is so interested in the Mentos pillars and mention them every single time he sees them.

We only walked around Chatuchak Weekend Market for a really short time. There are many stalls but must haggle. The smell of longkang, the small puddles here and there (due to almost daily evening showers?), the leaking roof at certain areas (姐姐 complaint when she kena some water dripping from the roof), the heat inside the stalls (seems like the market is housed under multiple big zinc roofs) is really not what we want to spend time at. Maybe it's a bit cooler in the early mornings. Cannot for the life of me imagine taking the children to eat at this market seeing the condition how the prepared food, although this seems no worse than Penang's street hawkers. When in foreign land, do not take such risk with children, right? The end of trying to sample local tasting mango sticky rice :P So we made our quick exit and the children are so happy to get out from the market. As if we forced them there, we just want to bring them to see famous places.

The escape from Chatuchak is a great relief indeed. Our next agenda is to check out Chao Phraya River. 爸爸 did mention it looks like one big canal with brownish water. Again, we took the BTS from Mochit to Saphan Taksin (don't remember did we change train at Siam?), where the pier to take river boat is located. There's even a little logo like "boat on water" seen on the map at BTS station so that you won't miss it :) It's only a few minutes walk to the pier and there's sign at the BTS station which exit to go.

BTS, at the Sathon pier and the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat

We took the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat for fun. We're not going to get off at any of the piers but just to take a boat ride. We didn't do enough research prior and ended up spending one hour on the boat ride both ways (thought like 10 minutes ride :P). It was only 40B per person (one-way, pay same amount to go back same way). I think there's another type of boat for locals and it's very crowded. The Chao Phraya Tourist Boat goes from Sathon pier to Phra Arthit pier and back. It was on this boat ride that we notice a nifty way of visiting the Wats and Grand Palace is to take the BTS, then buy the 150B all-day pass for boat ride to hop-on-hop-off and walk the rest of the way. To cross the river between attractions there is another boat service, most probably have to pay a small amount, not sure since we didn't try it. We saw the famous attractions along Chao Phraya River, like Wat Arun, Wat Pho (didn't recognize it so didn't take photos from the boat), Grand Palace, Holy Rosary Church, Memorial Bridge, the Navy headquarters, Rama 8 Bridge. The children say Rama 8 Bridge looks like Penang Bridge (ya la, after all it's similar looking cable-stayed bridge).

Wat Arun, Holy Rosary Church, Grand Palace and Rama 8 Bridge seen from the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat

Map showing attractions along Chao Phraya River

Finally we go back to Siam for lunch. I got some mixed noodles with boiled fish in Tom Yum soup. End up the mixed means mixed type of fishballs and fish cakes :) Spicy! Children had to have mango sticky rice again, don't get the fascination with having mango sticky rice almost everyday on this trip. We thought of going to MBK. However, it rained heavily then and we'd not have enough time as our airport transfer is at 4pm from hotel. 爸爸 say we'd have preferred MBK compared to Chatuchak, well maybe next time :) We couldn't extend another day as 弟弟 have music class replacement the next day, and it's Thailand's public holiday Visakha Bucha Day.  

Time to go home! One thing I notice about Bangkok is the sky whenever we travel around. Even it's not raining, it is never blue the days we were there, it's always greyish. Asked 爸爸 who visit for business trips frequently this year, and he only had seen a few times where the sky is blue. All the more to appreciate our hometown Penang :)

Thanks to Friso for this wonderful holiday!

Check out our holiday here:
Friso Go Explore! Contest - We are so lucky!
Day 1: Siam Ocean World
Day 2: Bangkok Dream World
Day 3: Bangkok Safari World
Day 4: Chatuchak Weekend Market and Chao Phraya boat ride (this post)

This is not a sponsored post.