Burma - Laos - Thailand
Pagoda in the background - a Bangkok boat woman rows seated - wearing a large round straw hat for protection from the tropical sun. In Thailand's Little Vencient The Bangkok Boat women Know Their Canals Like A Motorist Knows His Streets: The River Chao Pharaoh which runs practically right through the whole f Thailand from far north to its mouth, a few miles from Bangkok - where it empties into the Gulf of Thailand, provided a living for millions, also helping to flood fields for rice cultivatioon. A large propertion of tose who earn their living from the river itself are women and girls who man barges, sampans and ferrys boat. These they bnow eother standing like the Venetians - or sitting, to their choice, . They are experts at it. In the are boats and sampans the women male their home, ans here they earth, sleep and being up a family. They now every canal or klong as they are called here - like a City motorist knows his streets!. In the hundreds of waterways which crisis-cross the Thai Capital, they never get lost. From dawn to dusk, clad in gay sarongs and large round straw hats, they are a pretty sight a Verile Venice of the Far East
