Journey on the Klong
Klong is the Thai word for canal. All over central Thailand, including in Bangkok proper, you can find a good number of river- and canal-based communities. As I said before, the water has a number of different uses, some you can see and others you can only smell. Passing through such a place on my first visit to the country, I was very grateful for the immunizations my doctor had encouraged me to get before traveling.
The reason the boatman honks is because there is no obvious traffic control. General maritime law says that if two vessels come toward each other, the one on the starboard side has dominance. This rule, sometimes seen more as a best practice than an actual law, goes away when you get on the klong. The horn is more a way of alerting other boaters that you are coming. The fellow piloting the boat in the video is very docile in comparison to one I had, who seemed to think he was the Thai Steve McQueen.
Related posts:
