Wednesday Walk: walking around the pier, looking at the river.
When I felt lazy and lethargic, I would try to go out to my favourite temples or take a boat trip to the old part of Bangkok. Sometimes the traffic was too heavy to travel across the city, I had to settle for a visit to the nearest pier by the Chao Phraya River. So, I could take a minibus to Sathorn Pier, also known as Taksin Pier, on New Road.
The pier is next to the skytrain station called Taksin station. So, this pier is very crowded during peak hours in the morning and evening when commuters are in a rush to work or to return home. Taksin pier has two piers, one for express boats carrying passengers to various stops along the rive. The smaller pier is for commuters crossing over to the other side of the river.
These crossing ferries move very slowly across the busy river. These are very sensitive to sudden waves made by passing fast boats and bigger ships. I was afraid of the ferry being capsized by being caught up in swirls of big waves. So, I only used the crossing ferry only once. I prefer to travel by express boats with bigger engines and more sturdy construction.
I like to walk around both piers taking photos of tourists and passing boats on the river. The smaller pier has long benches where passengers could just sit and watch all the busy activities at the pier. I like the views of the river from that angle. You could see the skyscrapers and the shopping center on the other side of the river, on the Thonburi side.
It seems that the operations of the small pier are much more relaxed and more people friendly than the bigger pier. I could walk around taking photos and sit around as long as I desire. These operators used to have two adopted stray dogs that were too well fed and much overweight. After things got back to usual routine again, I went to see whether these dogs had come back. I couldn’t see any old Labradors around, one lady told me they had passed away because of old age. So things have never stopped moving and changing through time.
Looking around the small pier, I could see that these people working at the old pier love this place like their home. They have been putting many pot plants to decorate the cement pier. The entrance has green plants decorated on both sides. They even have a few cacti during the last few years. So I took some photos of their improvised garden. I guessed commuters rarely noticed their effort to green the surrounding. They looked at me strangely as most people wouldn’t take photos of simple pot plants.
I could feel their gentle humane nature and their effort to improve the atmosphere of their work place. I commented on the big cactus and was quite excited by their plants. They probably thought I was a weird tourist who never saw pot plants. Most people would think I was a Korean or Japanese tourist when I didn’t start talking in Thai. My body language was very untypical Thai which gave me a useful disguise.
The entrance of the small pier is opposite the parking area of the red local minibuses. Many tourists often mistook the small pier for the larger pier for boarding express boats and hier long boats. Recently the pier has undergone major reconstruction and renovations. So, new big signs and walkways have been added to the larger pier; the small old pier stayed the same without any modern improvements. That makes the old pier much more homely and cosy.
The modernised new pier is shiny with stainless steel benches and steel structures. This pier looks very modern and cold to me. All the old charms had disappeared. People are obsessed with shiny metal and metallic decorations. I still prefer the old style structure of traditional Thai style roof and structures to modern stylish or shiny decorations. Staff tend to be fast, rough, and efficiency driven when working in metallic or stainless steel structures. They become louder and less patient in metallic environment.
My observations could be wrong and very biased. But I could feel more relaxing vibes in the small pier waiting area. The staff there treat their working space like their home; they bring along plastic chairs and other cooking utensils for their own use. They had spent their own money to create a green garden to make the pier looking much nicer. The huge cement beams under the bridge couldn’t make that pier looking hard or dry. I was so glad to visit this old pier on a sunny day.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity
Stay strong and cheerful.
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