An excursion for members of the Scandinavian Society Siam to visit the Ko Kret island in the Chao Phraya river took place on Saturday 30o June, despite a heavy downpour causing the dinner on the way back from the cruise boat to be relocated to a more dry corner in the restaurant Ruen Pen, whose boat had been hired for the afternoon and evening.
But after the dinner, a few die hard boat cruisers decided to use the boat to the full time limit and sailed down stream or an hour and back again, before finally calling it a day.
Sixteen participants were less than the minimum of 23 participants, which would have made the arrangement break even economically. But actually 20 had signed up, only three participants had to make a last minute cancellation and one member failed to show up.
“With 20 participants, it would have cost more to cancel the trip than the small loss it meant to go on with the plans,” Chairman Gregers Moller explained. To help offset the loss, the magazine ScandAsia had decided to sponsor the beer and the wine.
The participants met at the parking lot of restaurant Ruen Pen without much trouble finding the spot near the base of the Pra Nang Klao bridge. From there the boat went upstream to the main village on the northern tip of Ko Kret. Along the way, a local guide explained what could be seen left right and center.
On Ko Kret itself, the participants saw a pottery and then afterwards were allowed to shop a bit around. Any bags could be deposited on the boat before the members went to have a small, late afternoon barbecue on the temple grounds a bit further away. The mid-summer fire was lit and burned down while kids and others curiously watched the farangs surrounded by temple dogs asking for a bit of the delicacies.
As the rain approached, the party retreated to the boat, which then proceeded counter-clockwise around island. Half way, a stop was arranged at a small factory producing traditional Thai sweets – which we were told was in fact a traditional Portuguese delicacy imported to the Thai court a few hundred years ago.
Back on the boat, the rain which had bee threatening to come down in full force finally broke into a thunderstorm and the boat hurried back to its base outside the Ruen Pen, where the Thai dinner was then held instead of on the boat.
As the party was now back at the starting base, half of the participants decided to call it a day while the evening was still young, while other half insisted they wanted to continue for another beautiful one and a half hour trip down the river passed the many illuminated building and bridges along the way and back again.
Despite the low participation it was the general opinion, that initiatives like this was should be further pursued. It was decided, though, that next time February or March should probably be selected for such out door activities due to the more stable weather at that time of the year – and also due to more Scandinavians being in town and not on summer leave back home.
See a good selection of all the pictures taken during the day here!
