On my last visit, I’d read on Atlas Obscura about an airplane graveyard within the city limits of Bangkok. You can find these in different places around the world, but I thought I’d put it on my list for a future visit since I’d never seen one. With 3 weeks in Bangkok, I had plenty of time. Unfortunately, time was not on my side when I finally made it out to see the planes.

One of my other goals while in Bangkok was to check out all the local train and canal ferries. While looking at the lines of one of the canal buses, I realized it terminated pretty close to the airplane graveyard. As it turned out, it actually terminated at the graveyard. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and visit the graveyard by canal bus.

I’d taken the canal bus several times before between the Jim Thompson house and the supernatural Wat Sraktet, but I’d never tried to head the other direction on the system, and curiosity compelled me to try it on this visit.

I took the skytrain from Sathorn to Siam, which is pretty much the hub of all the metro lines. It’s also just a few blocks from one of the canal bus docks. I saw there was a park I’d wanted to visit so I thought I’d walk through it on my way. Unfortunately, like most parks in Thailand (and Mexico), there was a fence around the entire perimeter. Frequently there is only one entrance to the park so you can rarely take advantage of walking through the park to a destination on the other side. In this case, I never did come across even a single entrance, so I just continued on to the canal dock.

I boarded the canal bus at Pratunam Pier. I learned that though it was one canal, it was served by different canal buses. The canal bus is also called a ferry, but regardless of naming, it’s a boat that transports people along the Saen Saep canal.

Because the canals are narrow and boats go both directions, the ferries are long and narrow. The excitement comes when two pass each other. With the canal width as narrow as 20 feet across, the wake from passing boats can leave you feeling like you’re on the stormy seas. For this reason, they are equipped with a plastic shield that can be raised by hand to keep water from splashing all over the passengers.

The canal busses also have low clearance as they must cross under low bridges. In fact, if a bridge is particularly low, the whole roof drops to allow the boat to pass. When I saw it happen the first time, I noticed that every attachment between the roof and the boat was hinged allowing the whole roof and handrails to simultaneously pitch forward and down. It’s a good idea not to be standing when this happens.

The trip took a bit longer than I expected, due in most part to my underestimating the distance. Still, it was probably faster and certainly cheaper than using the metro train or a taxi. The beauty of traveling by water through Bangkok is you don’t have to deal with signals or traffic. The only thing that slows the trip is the stops along the way but those rarely last for more than 10 seconds.

If you’re on the dock, you need to be prepared to board as soon as is possible because the boat only stays in place for the time it takes the ferryman to wrap and unwrap the rope around the dock cleat. The driver angles the boat so that the back touches the dock first. Then the ferryman simply wraps the rope around the cleat by wrapping it around three times. While the rope is being wrapped, the driver applies a little power that brings the rest of the boat parallel to the dock. As soon as the boat is parallel, the ferryman unwraps the rope, and the boat takes off again. This is the 10 seconds that you have to get on or off the boat. Bangkok shares this similarity with the Mexico city metro whose doors open for about the same duration for getting on and off.

45 minutes later, the canal bus pulled in at its last destination and I hopped off to look for the airplane graveyard. There was a narrow bulwark I followed before walking down a plank to an open field. About half way through the deserted field I looked down at my map and saw that I was in the middle of what was supposed to be the graveyard, yet there was nothing more than dirt.

It was possible that the map was off since this wasn’t exactly an official tourist site, and I had used the map to get an approximate location. I walked a few blocks to be sure there weren’t some plane fuselages lying around somewhere in the neighborhood. There weren’t.

I am disappointed to report that the airplane graveyard has moved. Where, I don’t know, but it definitely is not where it used to be. Glancing at the brand new high rise in the lot next door, I have an idea as to why it was moved. Unfortunately, there was nothing to indicate when all the fuSOULageS have gone.

It seems like human graveyards aren’t the only ones moved to make space for the living. After walking around a bit to confirm that I was in the right place, I returned to the canal bus for my ride home. At least that activity was achieved today!