Great little adventure. Thanks for filming that. My Vietnamese wife grew up in a house on stilts where 17 doors were pieced together to make a roof. It was built in the Saigon Canal in District 1 Ho Chi Minh City. Yeah we all called it the ghetto. Her family shared a bathroom with 200 people in that area. As a result, every member of her family had Hep A and Hep B. They were really squatters and as you suggested in Thailand they have a law that gives limited squatters rights. In the US it's know as "adverse posession" and squatters can actally get title in some cases which I think is dumb. At least in Thailand they don't get title and can't sell the land. In Vietnam they also had some sort of rights and the new house I bought for the family in a different district we had an attorney do all the paperwork on. When the old neighborhood was bought by developers, they gave each squatter family about $10,00. When the new house neighborhood was bought out, they got $57,000 because it was the only house in the hood with a title. lol I would not want to fall in a canal where people lived next to it. For sure they are all using it for waste dumping. I swam as a kid in the Bronx New York CIty so I know all about swilling in water that was used for human and industrial waste. lol I might bring a pair of snips for another trip to cut some of the overhead brush. I worked outdoors a lot and carried snips in a leather holster on my belt at times.
Great story, thanks Mal; really interesting! I agree that I should carry 'snips'. I should also carry a dog stick for other areas. Falling in is absolutely not an option here, and there are loads of snakes about.... in hiding!! I do swim in a nearby lake regularly but, as it's a watersports lake, speed boats help oxygenate the water and keep it safe.
Yeah, falling in is NOT an option mate haha. A maximum of one stick of broccoli beforehand or it feels dodgy!! I figure that old locals do it so why not me. I've been riding up and down for donkey's years. Eventually, the 'sidewalk' will be open all the way into town but I hate riding through canal areas with lots of stray dogs
Loved this walk and ride along the canal JB. One of the highlights of our recent trip to Bangkok was taking the boat along the Khlong Saen Saep which we were able to do a number of times. Eventually I would love to head in the opposite direction and explore Minburi and Nong Chok.
