It was another day of getting lost in Bangkok. As you may remember from a previous story on this visit to Bangkok, I intended to discover some of the less traveled waterways in Bangkok. Today, I wanted to try another of the canal ferries and also go as far north as I could on the Chao Phraya river.

I set out early in the morning to the same train station I’d used for my trip to the folding market. From there, I plotted a course to the closest ferry pier I could find on my map. It wasn’t clear online which was the last station for the canal ferry, so I just picked one at random.

I suppose it wasn’t completely random. It took me past a giant golden Buddha I’d seen from the metro several days ago. The statue towered over the skyline keeping an eye on the neighborhood below or glancing across the river at its twin in repose, Reclining Buddha. Catching glimpses of the gigantic statue as I walked from the train station only served to draw me in further.

One of the things you learn when visiting Asia is to wear shoes that can easily go on and off. You are never allowed to enter a temple with shoes on, and most visitors make the mistake of wearing laced shoes when walking around. You’ll find that flip flops are the more comfortable option for a day of visiting temples. I have always hated having my feed confined in shoes so I love wearing flip flops, and I love it even more when I’m required to take them off, so I can enjoy the cool temperature of marble or the random texture of wood planks.

While visiting the Golden Buddha at Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen, I saw boats bobbing next to the pier at the water’s edge, and I decided to find out whether the monastery was on the ferry line I was seeking out. All of the seats were covered with life jackets which told me it was not a public ferry but a private boat serving foreigners. The safety of life jackets is not something you’d see on a public boat, so I continued on my way.

While crossing over the canal, I saw a couple of women who looked lost. When I inquired what they were looking for, it turned out we had the same mission so we walked together towards what we all hoped was one of the ferry landings.

We found a ferry dock; unfortunately all of the information was in Thai. After taking a picture, I was able to use my phone to translate, but found the sign to only dictate the maximum capacity for the ferry. Another look to Google maps, and I found that the ferry ran during commute hours only. Despite our interest in riding the ferry, none of us was willing to wait the four hours for its arrival, so I suggested lunch and a different ferry option.

We took the metro over to one of my favorite neighborhoods in Bangkok. There is a large market selling food and good as well as a couple nice restaurants on the Chao Phraya river with a view of the National Temple on the other side.

We discussed our alternatives over lunch. I suggested that they try the main river ferry south to some of the attractions they’d not yet seen. I chose to catch the ferry the other direction as I’d never been north of that location. In fact, the ferry continued on for another 30 minutes up the river to the neighborhood of Pak Kret.

When the ferry landed at the dock, I learned that it was also only a commuter service, and having no demand to return to the city, service ended there. I confirmed this by asking the ferryman when the boat back was, and he responded by crossing his arms in an X. Now I found myself stuck in the northern reaches of the city. Since the trip wasn’t particularly spectacular, I wished I’d gotten off at an earlier stop with easy access to the metro.

I had to remind myself that the purpose of the day was to explore and investigate. I had succeeded, even if the lesson was that there was no reason to take the ferry this far north. I walked away from the ferry dock and found a motor taxi. I negotiated with him to take me to the closest metro station. It was a long ride, but given that it was rush hour, I knew going by motorbike would be faster than by car. It took about 20 minutes, and I was able to catch the metro home.

Some days are greater successes than others. Unfortunately this one turned out to be a loss but better to find out on my own than with a group of my tourists!