This was our third visit in Bangkok and we - German tourists - always loved to make the way in the temple area with the canal boats. They are fast, cheap and the ride is pretty impressive. So, we decided to use the public River Express Boat as well, to get from Grand Palace to the Oriental Hotel on the Chao Phraya.

When we first wanted to enter the Express Boat stop at pier no. 8, a "guard" stopped us and told us that the pier is closed and we should use the other one. He showed us the pier where the tourist longtail boat tours are leaving. We refused to use it, but we have been confused and looked for another entry to pier no. 8. Finally, we came back to the first entry and now it was open, i.e. the "guard" has disappeared and we saw several people walking to that pier.

This pier was not only an official stop for the Express Boat lines, but also a stop and start for some tourist longtail boat tours. So, we had time to wait for our Express River boat and we could observe two longtail boat owners scamming tourists who arrived at this pier. Quite a large number of small longtail boats arrived here, because it is the stop close to the Grand Palace. Whenever tourists arrived at the pier from the river side, the longtail boat owner with a block of tickets" stopped them and demanded a landing fee of 20 Baht per person. Many of the tourists
grumbled that they did already pay, but most of them paid anyway. After one of the "ticketmen" had collected enough money, he disappeared with his longtail boat. Now, another longtail boat owner continued the job to collect a landing fee of 20 Baht. When he saw the regular Express Boat approaching, he disappeared as well.

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