Sidestory: The Thailand Temple Trip ~ Dinner Cruise

 18-Oct-2026

Today, we're taking it a little bit more easy to let Chella rest and recover a bit after yesterday's stray. But we still have plans for later: In the evening, we're going on a Dinner Cruise on the Chao Phraya river.

The day starts with some leftovers of yesterday's dinner.

After that, it's time for one last visit to the Bangkok Hospital to get the third dose of my rabies vaccine. And Chella insists on coming with me despite her pain.

 

That's three of five vaccination doses now, and the last one that I can get here in Bangkok. The rest I need to get back in Germany.

On the way back, I notice some delivery boxes for food. They also have those at our Airbnb, but only for water.

Also, I take note that in the market, there are tons of goods just lying around without anyone attending them today. I suppose that means that this here is a really safe neighbourhood.

And by the way, here's how our Airbnb apartment looks from the outside.

Once we're back home, Chella gets to lie down and relax once again. It's still in the morning, so we have plenty of time before we need to go out again.

For lunch, we finally use up the last of the emergency meals that I bought on my first day here. Also, Chella makes some rice to go with it. She really likes rice.

Afterwards, we order a Bolt to take us to the Asiatique, which is a riverfront amusement area on the far side of the city.

Along the ride we pass a Sukiya! Yay! More Japanism!

 

And then there's this junction where I'm not sure what I should be more worried about... that the countdown timer has three digits, or that it doesn't even bother to display a number. Suffice it to say we're stuck at that junction for a loooooooooong time. Thank Dragon that the Bolt fare is calculated by distance, and not by duration.

Eventually, we arrive at the Asiatique.

This is a riverside recreation area that used to be a collection of warehouses. But today, they feature shops, restaurants, as well as other things.

 

 

 

 

Other things include the Thainosaur Museum...

...that includes the Skyfliers, which I'll refer to as the Death Tower from here on out.

 The first point on our list here is to secure tickets for the dinner cruise.

• (+) we find the ticket counters with relative ease
• (-) there's no one here yet

So we ask at the information tower, and they tell us that sales start from 16:00. That means we now have two hours to kill here at the Asiatique, which is incredibly amazing for reasons that are yet to become apparent.

 

Straying around the place, we find that part of it is decorated with spooky Halloween vibes.

Wanna get fish-shaped ice cream? You can totally do that here!

There's also a little arcade... 

 

...as well as a 100 Baht Store.

 Also, this:

Finally, they have a stall selling Omega Death Fruits. How is that even legal?

The friendly face is clearly misleading advertising. It should be angry-looking and shouting out curses!

And now for the unexpected surprise highlight of today. And yes, it's not the dinner cruise, but rather this little building near the front entrance of the Asiatique.

  

I don't know what to expect. It's got foxes on the outside, but surely they can't actually have them inside, or can they? Anyway, I can't pass up that chance, especially not when we still have time to spare, and sitting inside and drinking something sounds nice too. So in we go.

 

First, there's an outside area where they have goats, capybaras, ducks and super fluffy chickens living in a big open enclosure, and you can literally walk among them. I've never been this close to a capybara before. 

Also, some small lizards in terraria.

The room in front of the stairs features a woolly alpaca, as well as a little deer kid. And it looks like the alpaca has taken up the role of the kid's mom.

 

 Next up, there's a room that features a raccoon among other critters...

 

...and then comes the amazing room, which does not only have cats...

...but also a pair of fennecs! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At first they zoom around a bit, but once they settle down, I can even pet them! I'm so happy!!!

 

 

 

I could just stay here forever, but then again, I'm also curious about what's upstairs. So eventually, we say goodbye to the cute little fennecs and head upstairs, where the first animals we encounter are some bat-eared hedgehogs.

Also, there's this kind of rodent that I'm honestly not familiar with. Looks a bit like a guinea pig, but not quite.

Next, we have the doggie room, which makes Chella super happy.

And right next to that, there's the second room that makes me go EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

This is so amazing! When we went out today, I expected maybe a leisurely stray along the riverfront, maybe sitting in a cafe for a bit with Chella, and then having the Dinner Cruise. But here I am, spending time with real life foxes, petting them, and maybe most importantly, sharing this amazing experience with Chella, who not only gets to see foxes for the first time in her life, but also pet them!

Back downstairs, there's a room where you can chill with meerkats.

And then, there's the Hyrax room, where one of the staff members manages to coax one of the little critters up on our shoulders. So cute!

 

Eventually, it's break time for the animals, so we sit outside and have our drinks and cookies, which were included into the admission fee, which was about 600฿ per nose by the way. Totally worth it! =^,^=

We stay in the Little Zoo Cafe until it's time to purchase our tickets for the dinner cruise. There's about a dozen different options to choose from. In the end, I pick one which is soon to depart, and should hopefully give us a nice sunset experience on the river: The Luxury White. It's not totally expensive either, only 850฿ per person, which is actually a pretty good price for an experience like this.

Since the dinner cruise departs in the foreseeable future, we leisurely make our way toward the docks through one of the warehouses.

 

 

There, we learn a little bit about the history of the Asiatique...

 

 

...before getting in line for our cruise.

And here it comes! Our ship! The Luxury White 1!

And there it goes again, with us still standing in line at the docks!

Sorry, my mistake. Turns out that our ship is actually the Luxury White 2. Now even more luxurious!

Anyway, we get on board, and are happy to find we have been assigned a table on the top deck, where we get to have a lovely view in all directions.

There's also a plentiful buffet waiting for us in the middle of the deck.

Once boarding is complete, we start moving away from the Asiatique...

...and go right past the Wat Ratcha Singkhon (วัดราชสิงขร) next to it.

By the way, here's the complete route of the cruise. First we go north, then turn around and go south, before finally returning to the Asiatique again.

Looking back from where we came from, this is the view:

And here's a view of the first round of food that I somehow end up with. Chella is quite proactive when it comes to taking care of me. In return, I mix her some Spezi at the drinks bar, but sadly she doesn't like it.

As we eat, we go past many buildings, big and small, old and new.

Oh, and remember this place? It's the Chow Sue Kong Shrine where we ran into the surprise festival while looking for a Geocache three days ago! Looks like the festival is over by now.

There's also some people waving at us from the shore.

Eventually we reach our northernmost turning point just in time to witness an amazing sunset... or at least we would if the weather conditions were more favourable today. Well, at least the timing was spot-on.

Now looking towards the river's western bank, we see the colorful Gong Wu Shrine (ศาลเจ้ากวนอู).

 And looking in the direction of travel, we get a nice view of the Bangkok skyline.

 

Here's a riverside house with a little shrine for a change.

And here's the Wat Che Chin Koh that we saw from the other side of the river during our Chinatown Festival stray, now a little bit closer.

There's also a big-ass mall here.

And then we ride past the Asiatique, where the Death Tower is now illuminated in deceivingly nice colors.

Meanwhile, on the western side of the river, we come across a rather rare sight in these parts: A traditional church. This is the First Presbyterian Church, Samray (คริสตจักรที่ 1 สำเหร่).

After that comes the Krung Thep Bridge (สะพานกรุงเทพ), which is daringly low clearance, so the staff asks everyone to sit down as we pass beneath it.

 

Next, we pass the Wat Bukkhalo, which has a huge Buddha statue that at this time is only visible as a silhouette against the sky.

Then, there's a dance performance. I wouldn't exactly call it Thai, even though the dancers are certainly exotic, and get maybe a little bit too close for comfort.

 By now, night has fallen, and we continue our cruise under the light of the half moon.

Eventually, the boat turns around once again...

...and we pass beneath the low-clearance Krung Thep Bridge one more time.

 After that, we get to see the now-illuminated skyline of Bangkok.

And then, we're back at the Asiatique.

There, we get off by docking at the side of to the Luxury White 1, and then first walk through the interior of the Luxury White 1, and from there continue to the docks and back to the shore.

Enough has happened today, and we're both getting tired, so we walk through the Asiatique towards the road...

...where we book a Bolt to take us back to our Airbnb.

This time, the driver takes a route across the city Expressway, which costs an additional 50฿ for the toll.

And then, we're back at the Airbnb again. What an amazing and eventful day. This was clearly the climax of my stay here. Whatever tomorrow brings, it won't be able to top this. However, we still intend to do a little something tomorrow, so until then, stay tuned, and be of great cheer!