Bangkok: Chao Phraya River Cruise Dinner+Khao San

Hahaha this draft post was sitting in my computer as a draft post for ages, even after I got back from another Thai trip, Krabi, it still is there. This continues from Bangkok!!! post.

Here it goes:

Well before we got off to Bangkok in 2009, I had a fair amount of research on Chao Phraya River Cruise and came across a fantastic site http://thailand-travel-info.blogspot.com/2005/11/river-dinner-cruises-bangkok.html.

I chose River Side Bangkok Cruise because:
1. It is the largest cruise ship in Chao Phraya River with air conditioning and open air rooftop.
2. It takes one of the longest route along Chao Phraya River which means more night attraction spot.
3. It has it’s own kitchen on board! You can order your dinner as if you are on a landed restaurant with similar price to Thai restaurant on land.
4. Most importantly the cheapest with a surcharge of 120 baht to board on the ship.

I called them up 1-2 weeks prior to my arrival to Bangkok. I was impressed with their service, their english were good and they allow me to make booking request to be on the rooftop open air. They totally trust you with the reservation without any deposit.

Our first day of Bangkok visit continues with FOOD before the river cruise because we arrived too early at Ratchawithi Road past the Krung Thon Bridge. There were a whole long row of street side food.

Can you believe this? 1 baht each piece?

It is some flour and vege with some of another nice thai sauce! yum yum…

Next up with some must have Thai BBQ pork… We were suppose to have light snack but we got too greedy… LOL.

After a wrong turn, we finally made it to the hotel on time.

The entrance of the ship.

The reception was quite grand treated you like royalty…

This is how our ship could have looked like (this is the international buffet boat):

Colorful right!

PW was so happy to see the lights on the cruise ship despite the fact that we were overly tired out after a whole day of historical building visits.

We were a little unfortunate to be sitting in side the ship instead of the open air rooftop due to the bad rainy weather. The ship were big and stable despite the rocky river.

Chang beer waitress serving us.

This looks like I was a drug addict or what?

The were life band to set the mood, singing both local and english songs.

They gave a briefing on safety similar to the one in air flights before we take off.

We only knew that there were life vest under our seat after the briefing.

First up, we ordered a pineapple fried rice. The cut on the pineapple were almost perfect. It took me a while to look for the opening. DOn’t laugh! I know I’m dumb =p

It comes with meat floss, fresh prawns and another meat floss (can’t really rmb). The portion was good for 2. We were hungry so obviously it tasted yummy! But really it was good.

Green curry came with some side dishes which doesn’t serve any purpose to us.

This is one of the best green curry I had ever eaten in my life. The gravy is thick and smooth and santan-y filled with lots and lots of meat! At one point we were asking each other, has we finish the meat?

The last dish we were expecting was the Tom Yum Kung and finally it came. Impressive presentation. We each scoop up a bowl. The soup were fantastic, spicy but tasty enough, Cantonese call it “yup mei”.

Somehow there were some confusion with our last order, it was not the Tom Yum but Spicy Soup. Haha before they took back, we had each a bowl full of it.

Just a note, a few of the Tom Yum we ordered in Bangkok were clear color soup, not the typical red Tom Yum we had back in Malaysia.

At last this was the Tom Yum Kung that we ordered. We were happy to get our final dish correctly but we were somewhat disappointed because the spicy soup tasted so much better than it.

After the our dinner, luckily the heavy rain stopped. We managed to get some night photo shots.

Grand palace view with the dwagon kissing me.

We took our Chang beer up to the open air roof top.

The other cruise ship looks more happening with loud music and dance floor.

Wat Arun at night is beautiful and magnificent. As mighty as it is even at night.

Us with Wat Arun.

If you are there to learn some historical story of the Chao Phraya river, they have a guide on board but you need some Thai language knowledge. We didn’t understand anything. –.-"

King Rama VII bridge.

After disembark from the cruise, we head out to Khao San which was nearby. It got more crowded and happening compared to our previous visit.

Hahah just look at my hungry ghost face… Can’t stop eating despite the fact that we had such a FULL stomach.

We had this. Some crunchy apam balik with raisins and coconuts with sweet stuff (like meringue). Nice!

We didn’t manage to get to meet with our favorite friendly PadThai lady who we met on our previous visit so sad. The food shops actually moves from place to place after certain time. It gets confusing if you are using them as meeting points.

Honestly, could you actually “Fly For Less Than A Padthai”? (PadThai = 25Baht)

The river cruise was a great experience and food on board was delicious. I think this cruise ship is meant more for the locals, hence, the Thai speaking guide. That’s maybe part of the reason that it was relatively cheap. 120 baht for admission and food price were similar to on land price.

Riverside Bangkok
195 Ratchawithi Road
Bangkok 10700
Thailand
(66) 2883 1588
Nearest pier: Krung Thon Bridge
Dinner hours: 8pm – 10:30pm
Map: http://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=13.780975,100.501642&spn=0.008669,0.016512&z=17
Rating: 4/5 nibbles (-1 because of the tour guide explains in Thai)

 

Bangkok Sabai,

PW, Catfish