A Thing You Can Never Forget - Syarra

A few days ago, my mom and I, since Carver and my dad were sick, went out to Bang Krachao, a bicycle-friendly place. In this place there is the floating market and trails to bike on so we were going to rent bikes for the day. We planned to meet some friends and set out at about 10:00 in the morning. We took a bus to the dock so we could take a ferry.

We got off the bus and started walking in the direction Google Maps told us to. On the way, a women says "Are you going to bike?" we respond that we were. She said to go a different way. So, not full of confidence, we did. We passed the Bangkok Post Customs Office of Export and aside from that we did not see much. That did not make my confidence skyrocket. But we did see two 7-11s in a row!

Why so close?

Finally we get to the "docks." This is one dock where at the end was a long boat about two feet wide and the edges were one foot above the water. These boats were also the type we used in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam as you can read about in The Farmers in the Delta – Erich. We walked up and a person asked "Are you going to bike?" again we responded that we were. So we were handed life vests. At this point I was not very comfortable with this, it was in an empty alley and we had no clue where this would take us. Also we asked how much it would cost and the person said it was free. People have to make money so I was surprised that it could be free unless there was something we did not know about. In the end, there was. 

So onto the tiny boat we went. As we were sitting down a man came with a bike and we assumed he would wait. No. The person waved him over, got the bike on,  he got in, and we were off. This was a deep water river with cruise ships and container ships coming through. Our boat just went around them and continued to an equally small port on the other side. Past this was a bicycle shop. Apparently if you rented a bike the transport there was free and the bike rental was cheap (80THB or $2.5/day). So we biked to the floating market. After not riding a bike for a year and a half it was fascinating to see how your skills had gotten worse, but it was easy to remember after a minute.

On the bike.

And having fun!

It was forty-five minutes until we arrived at the floating market. We parked our bikes and walked out on a cement path on the river. You saw stalls and occasionally a long boat, with a tiny burner, that served food. In one stall there was someone shaping wax in the form of a fruit. Also you saw monks sprinkling what I would guess is holy water. 
 

At the market.

From there we biked down paths with no railing and off each side was brownish water with debris and trash floating in it. Not someplace I would want to take a swim. Then we turned back and returned to the dock. We ended the amazing day by the boat ride back and a free bus home.