Bali or Thai style houseboat

I'm over in Thailand on holiday, and to look thru a few composite boatbuilding operations.

The thought has occurred to me after spending a delightful afternoon on a bamboo raft vessel for lunch and siesta, that it might be quite nice to have a seaside cottage in the style of a Bali or Thai style built on a floating platform for mobility along the coastline.

Has anyone ever seen such a vessel, raft, barge??

Lunch, Siesta, Massage in Thailand

Well I see no one had any comments on my 'houseboat' idea, so I thought I might post a couple of photos in reference to a fine lunch and siesta on a floating raft on a pretty lake in Thailand

Haven't had time to persue this Thai houseboat theme further yet, but I hope to do so. Meantime I was doing some computer changeover and ran across a few other photos.

This is a Buddhist temple in one small town (ALL towns have at least one), so it is not likely somthing you could replicate, but it does give that feeling of architecture that is Thai ...and Bali

This was a little roadside coffee shop set on the edge of a paved lot for a gas station. It had been built by the father of the girl operating the shop.

I found some more pics

Note the construction...lots of bamboo...even the flotation bundles

Bamboo

Bamboo construction

Floating 'House' in Amsterdam

Another memory just came back to me. Once when I was visiting Amsterdam I went on a canal tour. I recall the narrator bringing to our attention this UNUSUAL South Seas Island thatch-roofed cottage built in the middle of this big wide open barge tied to the sea wall on one of the canals. I believe he mentioned that some famous American owned that residence.

Don't know that I can ever find that photo, but if I do I'll surely post it.

Of course there are lots of floating residences in Amsterdam, but this one really stood out as different in its South Seas Island theme.

HOUSEBOATS IN KERALA, India

A Cruise along the palm fringed waterways of Kerala in a luxury houseboat or ketuvallom is the most enchanting holiday experience in India today. In this world of simple pleasures, you'll skim past ancient chinese fishing nets, water lillies, lush paddy fields, coir villages, rustic homes, temples and coconut groves.

Innumerable lagoons, lakes, canals, estuaries, and te deltas of forty-four rivers make up the 900 km backwater network of Kerala. The backwatrs mainly covers the four districts of the state - Kollam, Alleppey (alappuzha), Kottayam and Kochi ( Cochin ).

...ck out these unusual houseboats (photos)
http://euroworldtravels.com/houseboats-in-kerala.htm

Rafting and Living Aboard on a River in Thailand

Over in Thailand at the moment and looking thru a few forums I ran into this reference to a series of photos where a fellow 'rafted' some rivers of Thailand...

"Forget the Mekong…get whatever rig you want and stay on any of the many rivers in Thailand…I just sold a raft I lived on for four years on the Mae Klong River (think up and down from Kanchanaburi (Kwae Yai, Kwae Noi))…loved it, miss it…needed the dough or I'd still be there…many photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pramaprow/Raft#slideshow/5179203670784945714

...a few photos from that slide show above...for those that could not access it

....couple of more

I suspect that was a locked storage area as i'm sure there were times he was off the vessel.

I don't know that either, but I did see a reference on one of the Thai forums that the fellow eventually entered the process to become a Buddhist monk.

Mekong River Catamaran Using 5,000 Plastic Bottles

...not exactly my idea of a 'floating cottage' in Thai style , but I just found this discussion of an interesting project being carried out over on the Mekong river in Thailand. There are a number of dwgs, photos, and a couple of videos....enjoy, Brian

Next week, we will begin building a 9m Cat using a teak wood frame and about 5,000 plastic bottles which have been collected in and around the Mekong River in Thailand.

The goal of this charity project is to use the boat to help educate locals about protecting the Mekong River. Once the boat is built it will sail from northern Thailand, through Laos, and back here to Nong Khai, stopping at villages along the way and encouraging them not to throw trash in their river. If successful, the journey will continue down the Mekong until we reach Cambodia.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f48/mekong-river-catamaran-using-5-000-plastic-bottles-43675.html