AS DAWN breaks over Bangkok each morning, thousands of residents begin to use the waterways on which their city depended long before traffic congestion became fashionable.
Ageing boatmen use long poles to paddle their long, narrow craft across canals, coated with purple lilies in a method of transportation that has changed little in centuries.
The ferry ride costs as little as one baht (about HK$0.32) each way, depending upon the route.
Other commuters roar up and down the extensive klongs, or canal network, in motorised water taxis.
Bangkok was founded on water and the dozens of canals snaking out from the Chao Phrya - the celebrated River of Kings - performed practical defensive functions as well as providing a cheap and efficient means of getting around.
The city was loosely modelled on Ayutthaya, its forerunner as capital upstream on the Chao Phrya, which was destroyed by the Burmese in 1767.