The Flora And The Fauna Of The Klongs

As we continue our cruise along the Chao Phraya klongs, we stop at the somewhat dismal zoo and snake farm. The animals in their tiny cages - bears and monkeys and deer and even a tiger - break our hearts...






but we remind ourselves that some of the people don't live that well either by our standards and we distract ourselves with the show, venom milking and all.













A little later we glide past a fast-food saleswoman to make a much more pleasant stop at an orchid farm.



Tom, please don't touch all sign either.













It's back into the boat and soon we pass by more houswives doing the family washing.





Soon we make another brief stop to buy some bread and feed the fish (catfish-like creatures) who are eagerly waiting to roil the water. Ellyn is excited, while Brian has a foreboding (correctly) that he's going to get splashed.











There are also lizards to spot, either swimming across the klong or sunning themselves like this fellow.



Eventually it's time to wait our turn to enter another set of locks and emerge into the river, gliding past the Grand Palace and various Wats and temples to return to the Hilton dock.

















Along the way we see some small tugboats towing some big barges. There's a lot of traffic on this river.







We say goodbye to our friendly boat skipper. Time to hit the lounge for a drink.