Grand Palace News

Wise visitors to Bangkok will be sure to take a Chao Phraya river cruise past the spectacular Temple of the Dawn, Wat Arun, and the glories of the golden spired Grand Palace. The ultimate way to do this is on a dinner cruise with a buffet of the celebrated Thai food.This has become such a popular experience that the river at night becomes a spectacular parade of beautifully lit low-slung river cruise ships gliding under bridges and moving sedately amidst that city’s lights and sights.

Many visitors to Bangkok will experience a ride on the Chao Phraya Express boats. These long, sleek, wooden, commuter boats, with their dramatically raked bows, are a staple of the river’s traffic. They can also be very crowded and, with many stops, a bit of a challenge to the tourist. A popular alternative is the tourist boats. These vessels have a more limited route and series of stops, all of which are near important tourist destinations such as the Grand Palace and Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn.

Thailand has long been noted for exquisite food and gorgeous boats. In recent years these two have found luxurious expression in the growing fleet of big, low-slung dinner-cruise vessels. In 2005 we reported on a 53x11-meter vessel capable of feeding 400 people at a sit-down buffet. A pair of 640 HP Cummins KTA19 M3 engines powered this vessel. June 2014 will see the game moved up several notches when the dinner cruise vessel Wonderful Pearl makes her grand entry to the Chao Phraya River from her builders, the Mahachai Dockyard on the Ta Chin River just to the west of the Bangkok.