Rollin' down the river (on a reconverted rice barge)

Now I know what you're thinking ... and no, the title does not refer to a barge that hauls twice- or even once-converted rice.

(A quick aside: was there ever a more useless food created? What's wrong with long grain/short grain/sticky/Basmati/brown/wild rice? Why do we need to convert rice? Can't we allow it to keep its own spiritual beliefs?)
 

All aboard the Mekhala!


No, what I'm actually referring to is an old rice barge that Thai River Cruises converted into a passenger boat to ferry tourists up and down the Chao Phraya, a.k.a., the "River of Kings." The company actually runs two boats, I happened to be aboard the Mekhala for my overnight cruise from Ayutthaya down to Bangkok.

The boat is 20 metres long and constructed from huge teak planks. It’s 100 years old, but it has been transformed into a rather stylish floating hotel, complete with a sundeck, fully-stocked bar, books for passengers' reading pleasure and staterooms that include air-conditioning and private western style bathrooms.

I'd spent the first half of the day exploring the ancient capital of Ayutthya with Neung, a guide with Nutty's Adventures, using bicycles to visit the ruins and ancient temples from the days when this city was the capital of Siam.

Having traded bicycle wheels for boat engines, I sat back and relaxed, watching the river roll by on our journey to the modern-day capital of Thailand.



A raft of water hyacinth and a fish shack.

Our passenger list certainly had an international flavor to it. I was the only North American on this particular cruise; we also boasted a German, an Austrian, seven Danes and a Thai lady who had grown up in Denmark. Then, of course, we had a Thai crew of four.

We saw an odd mix of the old and new as we motored at a leisurely pace along the river. Buddhist temples and their associated buildings certainly dominated the structures we saw along the riverbanks. On the river itself, our boat was joined by craft as small as one-person fishing skiffs to huge barges of rice, ore and other materials being hauled up and down the river by tugboats. At various points, we also saw large rafts of water hyacinth plants floating on top of the river.

Once underway, our crew prepared us cocktails of our choosing. For my first drink of the day, I opted for a "Mekhala Special", a concoction of different tropical fruit juices, gin and something called "Thai whiskey," which, as I understand it, is closer in character to being a rum than a whiskey. (And depending on who you talk with, there is or is not a spirit called Thai whiskey.)

Regardless of its ingredients, it was delicious - cold and refreshing.

Alternately napping and snapping (photos), I whiled away the afternoon. At about 5 p.m., we reached Wat Kai Tia, a Buddhist monastery and its associated village. The captain turned us loose for an hour or so, to wander about the one main street. There wasn't a lot there, but I did manage to find a little café where no one spoke English, but sold very cold Leo's Lager Beer. I enjoyed a can before heading back to the boat for a sumptuous candlelit dinner on board.



Enjoying the deck during our cruise

 We were up and heading down the river before 6:30 the next morning. We enjoyed another fine meal, a hot, full breakfast. A rain shower drove us under cover for a few minutes, but it passed by quickly.

And that's really a good description of how the cruise ended - all too quickly. Before long, the skyline of Bangkok loomed in front of us with its contrasting mix of old and new buildings, modern hotels next door to ancient temples, the ferry boat traffic moving people and goods up and down the city's main thoroughfare. (Before the automobile and its associated roads became the main form of transportation, Bangkok could be negotiated by a series of canals, which gave rise to it often being referred to as "the Venice of the East.")

We said our good-byes, passengers and crew, and disembarked to head off in our separate directions for our next adventure in Thailand.

Buddha Bicycling around Thailand's ancient capital

When we last left Rocky and Bullwinkle -- er, -- our intrepid blogger, he had just finished celebrating Songkran, the Thai New Year.

The new year's celebrations in Thailand tend to go on all week, at least it seemed that way while I was there. One of the common ways Thais express joy at the coming of a new year is by soaking their neighbors with buckets of water and/or super-soaker water pistols.



Some of the ruins at Wat Phra Si Sanphet

Believe it or not, those "water wars" actually stem from the ancient Buddhist practice of sprinkling water on your family, friends and neighbors to bless them. Somewhere along the way, people got the idea it was more fun to totally soak people rather than just sprinkle them. Being an old water gun warrior myself, I can certainly understand the mindset. 
However, I was certainly glad that when I received a blessing during Monday night's festivities near Wat Pho, it was just a sprinkling I received. (I was wet enough from sweat, anyways - this is the tropics, after all!)

The next day, blessed and drier, I was off to Ayutthaya to experience more of the Buddha nature of the country. Ayutthaya is the ancient capital of the kingdom of Siam. My visit here took the form of two different activities: bicycling and boating.

Reclining Buddha image



Cruising along the Chao Phraya River on an overnight trip between Bangkok and Ayutthaya has been one of my "bucket-list" items for about five or six years. There are several different ways to do the trip; you can do it one day, as it's only a journey of 80 km. You can leave Bangkok, sail to Ayutthaya and overnight there, returning the next day. My own trip involved driving to Ayutthaya to spend the morning bicycling to many of its ancients ruins and temples, then boarding a boat in the afternoon to float down to Bangkok with an overnight stop.

I cycled with Nutty's Adventures, guided on my own personal three-hour tour (no, Gilligan was not involved!) by a young lady named Neung. She proved to be an excellent guide, as we pedalled our way to some of the city's ruins and temples.

We began our tour at the Ayutthaya Historical Study Center, to get some of the historical context. Then it was off on our bikes.



Buddha head at Wat Mahathat



Highlights of the tour included a huge (37 metres long) reclining Buddha carved from stone, a stone Buddha head entwined in tree roots at Wat Mahathat, and the ruins of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, which was the old site of the royal palace.

The time went very quickly and it was soon time to begin the second leg of my journey between the capital cities, ancient and current, by trading in my bicycle for a berth on the Mekhala, a rice barge converted into a passenger ship that carries tourists up and down the River of Kings .

Anchors (or should I say "ankgors?") away!

(I know, I know, "Ankgor" is actually Cambodian - but we did see an example of Cambodian architecture in some of the ruins at Ayutthaya...)