To my mind, they look like an amazing place to live. A decent sized barge decked out in teak.... for use as a home. Just imagine, buming around on the river all day with awesome views surrounded by cool teak.

Has anyone ever looked into it, price wise? Im thinking a fully decked out teak barge with all creature comforts must be the best part of 5 or 6 million baht?

Its my dream also, but I'm afraid it will always stay a dream

But hey, nothing wrong with a nice dream to escape from reality sometimes.

I dont know about Thai rice barges., but I know that the shape used in India makes for a pretty decent conversion - there are a couple of those in the Maldive islands used as liveaborad dive boats!

The trouble is, these barges are, how shall I put it... barges. Unless you go to the trouble of installing a large engine, or pay a latter day Christian Falk to tow you around, you won't be doing a lot of burning around on the river. I'd imagine a berthage with a sewarage, water and electricity connection in Bangkok would cost a fair bit too. Probably cheaper to buy or rent a condo with a river view and deck it out in teak.

They would also need very very good mosquito screens.

The trouble is, these barges are, how shall I put it... barges. Unless you go to the trouble of installing a large engine, or pay a latter day Christian Falk to tow you around, you won't be doing a lot of burning around on the river. I'd imagine a berthage with a sewarage, water and electricity connection in Bangkok would cost a fair bit too. Probably cheaper to buy or rent a condo with a river view and deck it out in teak.

As far as water goes you could stock up on the gallon containers.

For electricity a bank of 6 or so deep-cell batteries, some solar panels (for re-charging) and some sparky wiring it up. Wack an inverter in and your Mr Electric!

For seweage it wouldn't cost much to install a simple system.

I've worked off a barge in Scotland where the only toilet was a damned bucket! I was a case of do your business and hoy it overboard

If you 'park' up river from Bangkok you'd likely be able to berth for free. Just have a bike handy to mooch about the area in

Propulsion. 4 longtail engines with booms. 2 on the fore, 2 on the aft (you'll need a friend to help pilot it .

The only obstacle in life is you're own imagination, and some cash