Holy catfish in the Chao Praya river near temples in Bangkok, Thailand.

Bangkok’s holy catfish. One of the excursions that are offered by travel companies in Bangkok is boat trips on the Chao Praya river. So what are the holy catfish that worth seeing? The Chao Praya river is full of catfish that is called holy is it is forbidden to catch it. Why? It is said that these fish gather together only near temples and that is why called holy. There is a but.

But. Usually people feed the fish near temples and those, who do not believe in miracles say, that if they feed this fish somewhere else on the river then it would gather there. But on the other hand the river itself is also called holy, holy the fish has the right to be holy too, isn’t it.

There is really a lot of fish, and they are jumping out of water to get some bread from the tourists. Usually tourists are given bread from the locals who work in the river markets. There are special baskets are are sent from the marteks to the boats so every tourist can enjoy feeding catfish.

As I have checked on internet eating catfish is normal is Thailand and you can find fried catfish in the restaurants. And I think those catfish in the holy river are pretty lucky to be protected by the locals. You can not catch or eat this fish though it is just jumping in to your hands to get the bread first. Like birds and other animals, very amazing!

How to see the catfish? If you do not want to take a tour and want to get to the river yourself you have to go to Chlongs, the region that is called also the venice of Bangkok. Chlongs has canals for moving by boats as well as Venice in Italy. Locals live in residential area on the west side of the river. About houses in the river and river market I will tell you more in my next article about Thailand. When visiting Bangkok it is a must to have a tour by those beautiful huge canoe boats.